2.3.2.2 Visitor days and seasonality in ecotourism in the Central Highlands region
a/ Guest day:
Data on tourism in the Central Highlands region shows that there is an uneven distribution in the two areas of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan in terms of enjoyment and stay time. The number of days of stay of tourists in Ninh Thuan area is very low, the highest number of days of stay of international visitors was only 2.48 days (in 2010), the lowest was 1.83 days. With the highest number of domestic visitors reaching 1.83 days, the lowest reaching 1.45 days, this shows that tourists coming to Ninh Thuan are mostly transit tourists, with no real purpose of choosing the main destination. here. Meanwhile, in Binh Thuan area, the stay is longer, reaching 3.1 days/international visitor and 1.92 days/domestic visitor. From 2008 up to now, the average number of days visited by tourists in the Central Highlands region has increased significantly. Tourists coming for relaxation, combined with sightseeing and exploring, and participating in marine sports games have registered to stay longer, most Russian guests traveling in groups, with many groups staying over 15 days. Ecotourism visitors to National Parks and Nature Reserves in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan mainly explore, camp, climb mountains, walk,... with a stay lasting 2-3 days/trip. The number of visitors to ecotourism sites is not high, showing that the exploitation and development of ecotourism in the DHCNTB region is still at the initial level and has not yet become a system. Therefore, it is necessary to research and develop forms of ecotourism products associated with tours and ecotourism sites to attract more tourists and prolong their stay, especially for domestic tourists.
b/ Seasonality of ecotourism activities : due to the weather all year round being always warm and sunny, close to the fresh ocean climate, the seasonality of visitors is distributed quite evenly throughout the year, especially for international tourists. Depending on international holidays, seasonality also shows that there are low and high seasons that occur every year. The peak season for ecotourism visitors to the DHCNTB region is from January to May, September, November, December. Especially during holidays, Tet, summer vacation... Domestic ecotourism visitors focus on the season. During the summer, there is a large decrease in August, October, and November. International tourism visitors are concentrated in the last two months of the year and January, February, and March of the following year.
Table 2.9 Ecotourism seasonality coefficient in the Central Highlands region
Month
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
Coefficient Ecotourism season(*) | 1.32 | 2.0 | 1.85 | 1.04 | 1.15 | 0.99 | 0.93 | 0.86 | 1.16 | 0.97 | 1.25 | 1.03 |
Coefficient General tourism season | 1.02 | 1.75 | 1.97 | 0.86 | 1.44 | 1.18 | 0.95 | 1.05 | 1.01 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 1.26 |
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(Source: Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, Institute for Tourism Development Research and author's calculations)
(*) Seasonal coefficient of month i = average number of visitors in month i over the years/ average number of visitors in a month
Figure 2. 2: Seasonal coefficient in ecotourism activities in the DHCNTB region
2.3.2.3 Assess the situation of ecotourism development activities in the DHCNTB region:
Along with its increasingly strong position, tourism affirms the trend of becoming a key economic sector of the Provinces alongside other strong sectors such as fisheries, agriculture and forestry, etc. Tourism in the Central Highlands region is growing rapidly. There is steady progress as shown by the general revenue level as follows:
In general, revenue from tourism activities in the region has a very high average annual growth rate, the highest year reaching over 51%, the lowest year reaching 15.7%, the average growth rate of tourism revenue of DHCNTB region in the past 10 years is 30.91%/year.
Revenue from ecotourism alone, according to local tourism management experts and the author's calculations, accounts for about 25-28% of total revenue from general tourism activities.
- For the Ninh Thuan area, according to statistics in 2010, revenue from tourism activities here is relatively diverse, the largest proportion is revenue from goods shopping services of tourists (accounting for 39,000,000). 44% of the total), food expenses account for 36.40%, accommodation costs account for 10.16%. Overall, revenue from tourism over the past 10 years has increased 6.08 times and reached an average annual growth rate during this period of 22.21%.
- For the Binh Thuan area, tourism revenue over the years has achieved a fairly high and stable growth rate. The average spending of international tourists in 2010 was 945,000 VND/person, of domestic tourists was 370,000 VND/person. However, of the total, revenue from domestic visitors accounts for 57.50% due to dynamic volume. In 2010, revenue reached 2,538 billion VND, 4.15 times higher than in 2005. Thus, over the past 10 years, from 2001 to present, Binh Thuan's tourism revenue has increased 20.65 times. . The recent average growth rate from 2000 to 2010 is 35.36%/year.
Compared to the general situation of exploitation and development of ecotourism in the entire South Central Coast region, the number of ecotourism visitors to the Central Highlands region is quite high, in both quantity and growth rate. In 2010, the number of ecotourism visitors to the Central Highlands region reached over 835,190 people (accounting for 26% of the total number of visitors), the average growth rate in 5 years was 31.89%/year, only international ecotourism visitors increased. an average of 33.10% and domestic tourism visitors increased by 31.79%. Types of ecotourism chosen by tourists include: Table 2.10: Main types of ecotourism chosen by tourists when coming to the DHCNTB region
Tourist target
Visit and explore TN | Walk | Climbing | Marine sports (water skiing, parachuting glide…) | Visit the village clan | Scuba diving to explore | Rowing | Explore mountains and forests HST | Camp | Visit gardens and ecosystems shallow |
career | ||||||||||
National ecotourism visitors international | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | |||
Guest Domestic ecotourism | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * |
(Source: Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan and author's investigation documents)
The seasonality of ecotourism activities is quite reasonable, peak and low seasons are not too different, compared to other regions of the country, the distribution of visitors is relatively even. However, because the investment in service and transportation infrastructure is not synchronized, and vehicles to reach remote areas are still difficult, ecotourism visitors currently focus mainly on tourist destinations along the coast and in regional areas. In the mountains and midlands, ecotourism tours are very sporadic, with few visitors. The exploitation in general is still fragmented, the whole region lacks coordination to organize and perfect tours, lacks planning to exploit ecotourism sites in a methodical and synchronous way, only paying attention to organizing and managing according to administrative boundaries. provincial government, leading to unreasonable division in exploitation, reducing the efficiency of exploiting ecotourism activities at the regional level. The shortcomings are that it can be seen that marine tourism tours and natural exploration ecotourism tours are locally fragmented, and the sea exploration resort tours organized by Ninh Thuan only take visitors to the area bordering Ca Na. At the end of the tour, the tour still had a poor destination but plenty of time to operate. Meanwhile, nearby, Vinh Hao area and Cu Lao Cau marine NR are very valuable ecotourism spots that have been overlooked. Similarly, in the Binh Thuan area, tourism companies also operate tours to Vinh Hao, but Ca Na, Phuoc Dinh, Nam Cuong sand dunes, especially Nui Chua National Park, a unique ecotourism site of the region, do not. connected to the route for customers to access. This separation has made resort and tourism tours poor in content, short in duration and less attractive to tourists.
The organization of cultural tourism tours is also similarly limited, instead of maintaining the flow of cultural and historical festivals associated with Champa indigenous relics from Binh Thuan to Ninh Thuan as is the cultural and historical tradition. its inherent. Operators
Ecotourism is also organized along provincial administrative boundaries, typically the Cham Kate festival. Before 1975, the Kate festival was held periodically and throughout from Phan Thiet to Phan Rang, attracting a large number of Cham people everywhere. attend. But now the Kate festival is no longer held inter-regionally like before, each province organizes it independently, without organizational cohesion, leading to the division of the flow of cultural activities according to administrative boundaries. province, "rupturing" the cultural circuit of the Champa festival, an invaluable intangible cultural heritage that has made a difference in the value of human resources of the DHCNTB region compared to other regions in the country.
2..3.2.4 Status of investment in tourism development: a/ Status of investment in general tourism development:
Throughout the DHCNTB region, as of December 31, 2010, there were 449 projects approved for investment with a total registered investment capital of 70,813.1 billion VND, with an area of 9,683.9 hectares, specifically including:
Table 2.11 Overview of tourism investment projects in the Central Highlands region as of December 31, 2010
Category
The entire DHCNTB region | Ninh Thuan province area | Binh Thuan province area | ||
Quantity | Proportion | |||
Total project + Project completed + Ongoing project Area scale (ha) Capital scale ( billion VND) | 449 154 295 9,683.9 70,813.1 | 100 34,30 65,70 | 73 28 45 1,294 7,225 | 376 126 250 8,389.9 63,588.1 |
(Source: Department of Planning and Investment, Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces)
b/ Investment situation in developing ecotourism resources: mainly from budget capital through the Agriculture and Rural Development sector to national parks and nature reserves, with a little funding from international organizations.
i/ Regarding the investment situation in 2 National Parks and other habitat areas in Ninh Thuan:
Although Ninh Thuan has two large-scale national parks (ranked 9th out of 30 national parks in the country) and have high biodiversity values that can be exploited for ecotourism activities, the advantage is the location of the two national parks. The national park is near major transportation routes that are easy to exploit
tourists, but the investment situation for the two National Parks in recent years is not adequate, on average each year, each National Park is only invested at a low level, not corresponding to the management area. If we calculate the state's investment capital for 30 national parks in the country from 2000 to 2007, Nui Chua National Park's investment capital only accounts for 1.5% of the total investment capital, the investment capital for 1 hectare only reaches 385,000 VND/ in 7 years and Phuoc Binh National Park only accounts for 0.61% of the total invested capital, the investment per hectare in 7 years is 227,110 VND (according to Decision No. 2370 QD/BNN-KL dated August 5, 2008 ).
Table 2.12: Current status of investment in national parks in Ninh Thuan province in the period 2001-2010
Investment point
2001 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2009 | 2010 | |
Nui Chua National Park | 1,280.6 | 1,472.77 | 1,468.63 | 2,024.88 | 2,011.1 | 2,087.5 | 2,571 |
Phuoc Binh National Park | 0 | 1,003 | 1,989 | 1,990 | 2,899 | 2,180 | 2,639 |
TOTAL | 1,280.6 | 2,475.77 | 3,457.63 | 4,014.88 | 4,910.1 | 4.267.5 | 5,210 |
(Source: Management Board of Nui Chua National Park, Phuoc Binh National Park, Ninh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Forest Protection Department - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development)
According to statistical data of Nui Chua National Park and Phuoc Binh National Park, the average annual budget investment rate in the past 9 years: Nui Chua National Park is 8.05%, Phuoc Binh National Park is 14.82%, Overall, for both national parks in Ninh Thuan, the annual investment growth rate is 16.87%. Of which, investment capital for biodiversity conservation programs is one of the programs with content associated with the development and protection of ecotourism resources, only accounting for a very small proportion of 14-20%. , some years there was no investment. (see details in the appendix)
In the investment plan for resource development in national parks in Ninh Thuan, it is expected that from 2009-2012, investment levels will be raised by about 2-3 times (see details in the appendix).
The expected sources of investment in National Parks in the coming years in the table above show that capital is mainly spent on forestry activities, investment items are aimed at developing and conserving resources as well as developing biodiversity. learning is very limited.
ii/ Regarding the investment situation in ecotourism development in Binh Thuan:
In the province, there are currently two national nature reserves: Nui Ong Nature Reserve (Tanh Linh) and Ta Kou Mountain Nature Reserve (Ham Thuan Nam) along with two Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which are Cau Islet Nature Reserve and MPA. Phu Quy island. However, only two Nature Reserves on the mainland have been officially approved by the Government and invested in with annual budget capital, while the MPAs have not yet had any significant investment. The investment situation for development at ecotourism sites in recent years is as follows:
Table 2.13: Investment situation for nature reserves in Binh Thuan
period 2001-2009
Unit of calculation: million VND
No
Investment point | 2001 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2009 | 2010 | |
1 | Nui Ong Nature Reserve | 572.61 | 804.22 | 1,076 | 1,399 | 3,493 | 3,252.2 | 3,076.5 |
2 | Ta Kou Mountain Nature Reserve | 441.5 | 1,119.48 | 500.48 | 775 | 2294,761 | 2,118.8 | 1,958.0 |
TOTAL | 1,014.11 | 1,923.70 | 1,576.48 | 2,174.00 | 5,787.76 | 5,371.0 | 5.034.5 |
(Source: Binh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ong Mountain Nature Reserve Management Board, Ta Kou Mountain Nature Reserve Management Board)
In general, investment capital for nature reserves in Binh Thuan is still low. During the period from 2001 to 2009, Binh Thuan province invested a total capital of 20,523 billion VND for two nature reserves in the province, but the This expenditure mainly focuses on operational expenses of forest protection units, capital sources for biodiversity conservation programs, scientific research programs and development of ecotourism resources. is still very limited, only accounting for 18.84% of the total capital spent over the years (see details in the appendix).
Through the above data on investment programs in MPA in the coming years, it shows that in Binh Thuan, investment content will pay more attention to conservation and development of ecological resources, notably paying attention to the activities of conservation and development of ecological resources. Focus on investing in social content combined with economic and community development.
2.4 Results of a survey of tourists and ecotourism on contents related to ecotourism activities in the Central Highlands region
a/ General introduction : Although in the Central Highlands region (Ninh Thuan-Binh Thuan provinces), there are 2005 survey documents from the General Statistics Office and the Department of Statistics.
Binh Thuan in 2007, but this is only a survey mainly on spending and destination choice of tourists according to the activities of mass tourism and the surveys only took place in Binh Thuan. Thuan, so it cannot be used for in-depth assessment of the type of ecotourism for both provinces. The purpose of the survey conducted by the thesis author is to collect more in-depth information about ecotourism, to have the opportunity to access and understand more deeply the feelings and assessments of tourists about the Binh Thuan area - Ninh Thuan, especially in the field of ecotourism, serves as a basis to help the author analyze and evaluate the current status of tourism and ecotourism in localities in a realistic way, while at the same time better understanding the "demand" factor of tourists. and have a basis for proposing more reasonable solutions related to the "supply" factor.
b / Survey method and approach:
- Participate in the survey : the author is in charge with a group of collaborators who are local tourism managers, students of the Department of Business Administration and foreign languages at Ninh Thuan Pedagogical College, Binh Thuan Community College. Thuan conducted a survey of domestic and foreign tourists in the two provinces of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan from 2008-2009, lasting 6 weeks divided into two periods (Phan Rang: 1.5 weeks, Phan Thiet: 4.5 weeks), distributed according to peak and off-peak seasons.
- Description of survey content :
For domestic tourists: the survey consists of 25 questions by topic divided into 74 small questions according to a scale of various evaluation levels (see details in the appendix) divided into 3 main parts:
Part 1: from questions 1-6, questions mention the trip overview, organization, number of participants, number of visits, initial plans and desires before leaving.
Part 2: from questions 7 to 13, the questions focus on the purpose of the trip, the visitor's understanding of ecotourism, including information to know the tourist destination, means of arrival and choice of accommodation facility. , important factors determining the choice of destination in the Central Highlands region