Craft village tourism needs a boost

Craft villages are often places of interest to both domestic and foreign visitors. Apart from travelling, many tourists want to learn more about the cultural life of people living in areas where they set foot in.

Hanoi and HCM City are two cities in the country boasting the highest numbers of craft villages which bear special traits of each region’s cultural tradition.

Of Hanoi’s 1,300 such villages, 200 have been recognized as traditional craft villages as they are closely associated with the thousand-year history of Thang Long-Hanoi and have great potential for tourism development.

Just for short-term gain

Although the industry, trade and tourism sectors launched many projects to tap tourism potential, most craft villages have remained at the initial stage of development.

Mai Tien Dung, deputy director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism says this is due to the lack of co-ordinated efforts by these sectors.

Let’s take into consideration the cases of Bat Trang ceramic village in Gia Lam district and Van Phuc silk village in Ha Dong district which are considered most attractive to both domestic and foreign visitors.

A huge amount of investment capital started flowing into these craft villages in 2003 and 2004 but the production of traditional products for tourist has not paid off well as expected.

One reason, cited in recent surveys is that many tourists do not understand the values of such products in Vietnamese society.

So, these craft villages need to improve their sales and marketing skills.

Artisan Le Van Phu from Dong Tac in Dong Da precinct also puts it down to poor marketing. “Only a few shops selling souvenirs or consumer products captivate visitors,” he says. So when a tourist wants to buy or order a special product, he or she does not know where, let alone trace its origin.

Environment

The craft village environment is one of the most important factors in attracting visitors. But there has been no proper solution to the management of craft villages so far.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ho Xuan Hung says that the management of craft villages requires a clarification of responsibilities for relevant agencies. Currently, the Ministry of Science and Technology replaces the MARD to be responsible for monitoring the working environmental at craft villages. In his opinon, no matter which ministry takes responsibility, the most important thing is to help craft villages solve the environmental issue in the first place before they are set up.

So, planning is very important to help craft villages grow and flourish in the long run to attract more and more tourists coming from far and wide. – VOV

Tags: Craft village tourism