Ninh Binh province taps potential to develop tourism

Ninh Binh province is endowed with unique and diverse tourism resources such as Cuc Phuong National Park, Van Long Nature Reserve, Kenh Ga hot spring, Van Trinh cave, Phat Diem Stone Cathedral and the Trang An Ecological Complex.

The province also has 1,499 relics, of which two relics have been nationally ranked: Hoa Lu ancient capital and Coc and Trang An Ecological Complex, a world heritage site (former Trang An - Tam Coc - Bich Dong natural beauty site). Ninh Binh has 260 traditional festivals, which are inherited and have been developed from the traditions and customs of rice cultivation,in Hoa Binh and Dong Son for thousands of years. Currently, the province has 69 traditional villages, notably Van Lam embroidery village, Ninh Van stone carvings village, Kim Son sedge fine art village and Phuc Loc carpentry village.

Besides the enormous advantages from having beautiful scenery, great Bai Dinh pagoda and a unique culture, Ninh Binh has a favorable geographical position. It is close to the capital of Hanoi, near the airport, ports, and in close proximity to other famous tourist attractions such as Ha Long Bay, Cat Ba Island.

Other strengths Ninh Binh can develop are the many attractive tourism products for domestic and foreign visitors such as cultural - historical tourism, spiritual - festival tourism, sports - climbing tourism, medical tourism and eco-tourism. In recent years, the number of tourists to Ninh Binh has grown. In the first six months of 2014 alone, Ninh Binh welcomed 3.3 million arrivals, including 268,800 international tourists.

Solution for sustainable tourism development

How can Ninh Binh develop its tourism sector commensurate with its potential? The most important thing is to promote more tourism to foreign travellers. To do this, Ninh Binh should focus on promoting the image, the beauty and attractiveness of Ninh Binh's landscapes, with attention to the distribution of tourist maps and travel guide books and develop professional websites in many different languages making it easier for international travelers to get to know Vietnam in general and Ninh Binh province in particular.

In fact, tourism in Ninh Binh has been really active since 2005 when its natural landscape and cultural potential are awakened. However, Ninh Binh's tourism industry still faces many difficulties. Many of these difficulties may appear trivial but they can cause,significant inconvenience to visitors and leave a very bad impression. Examples of some are; raising prices of food and rooms during the peak season, insisting tourists leave a tip for services and photographic service. The province has 932 certified photographers in tourism destinations that are managed by organizations, but they still gather in group and invite visitors without invitation. Some photographers try to take many photos and ask high prices causing an uncomfortable situation for visitors.

According to Ms. Duong Thi Thanh, Vice Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the local people's awareness is limited. They only think about their imminent benefits, but fail to think of the negative consequenses, affecting future, sustainable tourism development.

A tourism expert in Ninh Binh said that the biggest difficulty is the lack of manpower, particularly skilled manpower. Currently, the province has 11,000 employees involved in the tourism sector, of them 2,300 are direct employees and 8,700 are indirect labourers, but skilled labourers are often "job hopping".

Recently,the province has welcomed around 4.5 million tourists per year, but there are only 42 guides and 81 commentators with certificates to operate at tourism destinations.

Moreover, the number of tourists staying in Ninh Binh are few and their stay is very short. In Bai Dinh Pagoda area, the most attractive destination in Ninh Binh, visitors usually only stay for one day. The statistics in 2013 showed that each visitor spent an average of VND200,000/trip for evening social activities and spending on shopping is very little partly because Ninh Binh's souvenirs are of little interest.

Ms. Thanh said that in the future the tourism industry and the local governments would invite lecturers with experience in community tourism to guide farmers on how to manage tourism with a target of enhancing the ability to meet visitors' demand, create jobs and create a steady income for them.

At the same time, Ninh Binh would issue policies on allowing businesses to hire land at a cheap price to build hotels and provide nightlife services, create specific products, improve the quality of tours, expand link to neighboring regions as well as create new tours.

(Source: Dangcongsan.vn)