Provinces return to roots to foster tourism

Three northwestern provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Phu Tho will continue implementing a wide range of tourism activities in an attempt to attract 5.5 million visitors and generate VND1.2 trillion (US$57 million) in tourism revenue this year.

These activities, part of this year’s “Back to the Roots” programme, include the Thuoïng Temple Festival in Lao Cai Province; Festival in the Clouds in Sapa; the Bac Ha Horse Race, a contest for explorers wishing to conquer Fasipan; and a Yen Bai prvincial culture week.

“The programme begins next Thursday in Yen Bai Province’s Nghia Lo Town and will run until October,” said the provincial People’s Committee vice chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Hai.

The programme would focus on promoting the three provinces’ tourism potential to attract more investment, foster co-operation in improving the quality of current tourism products and develop new packages with a focus on religious, adventure and eco-friendly tourism, she added.

The programme had helped better showcase the unique cultural attributes of the three provinces in past years, said deputy head of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Hoang Thi Diep.

It had also contributed to improving the province’s growth in terms of tourist numbers and revenue, she said.

Two million tourists visited the three provinces last year, earning the tourism sector VND1 trillion ($47.6 million) in revenue.

In 2008, eight provinces in the region signed an agreement on developing a legal corridor for businesses to invest in the regional tourism sector.

However, the region’s tourist agencies still operate separately and the brands were just connected to individual businesses.

Vice chairwoman of Lao Cai People’s Committee Bui Thi Kim Dung suggested two, three or four provinces should co-ordinate to design common tourism products, and all eight northwestern provinces should create a regional framework to propose to the VNAT and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism so they could develop policies suitable for tourism in the region.

In the future, the VNAT also planned to assist in raising the quality of human resources, to facilitate the promotion of tourism trade names in the northwestern region.

Tags: Vietnam Tourism