Assessing Community Participation in Tourism Activities

In general, visitors to Van Long are satisfied with the facilities, service quality and organization of tourism activities. However, to create an impression and attract more visitors to Van Long, it is necessary to further improve the service quality and organization of tourism activities here.

4.3.8. Assessment of community participation in tourism activities

To assess the thoughts, aspirations and wishes of people living in Van Long Wetland Reserve in participating in ecotourism activities to improve their lives. The author distributed 51 survey forms and the results are shown in Table 4.7 as follows:

Table 4.7: Some household information

Interview content	Answer	Number of respondents	Proportion %
1	Local or from out of town?	Local	49	96.08
1	Local or from out of town?	Elsewhere	2	3.92
2	Family work before tourism developed	Agriculture	50	98.04
		Quarrying	2	3.92
		Exploitation of timber, animals, plants	2	3.92
		Other	1	1.96
3	Does tourism development bring economic benefits to families?	Have	42	82.35
3		Are not	9	17.65
4	Main business activity that generates household income	Accommodation	2	3.92
		Souvenir sales	7	13.73
		Restaurant, food service

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Interview content	Answer	Number of respondents	Proportion %
		Tourist Guide	10	19.61
		Transportation services	8	15.69
		Other	25	49.02
5	Does tourism improve your family's life compared to before?	Have	42	82.35
5	Does tourism improve your family's life compared to before?	Are not	9	17.65
6	Is the income from that activity stable?	Have	37	72.55
6	Is the income from that activity stable?	Are not	14	27.45
7	Desire to develop family economy as well as maintain the values that the reserve brings.	Develop more tourist routes	25	49.02
		Training people in tourism profession	16	31.37
		Create conditions for people to participate in activities in the KBT	27	52.94
8	How tourism here affects the environment	Negative impact, causing environmental pollution	1	1.96
		Help make the environment greener, cleaner and more beautiful	17	33.33
		Two-way impact	33	64.71
9	If asked to volunteer, would you be willing to contribute to a fund for nature conservation and environmental protection?	Have	44	86.27
9		Are not	7	13.73

(Source: According to household survey data)

In general, before tourism development, households living in the area mainly relied on agricultural production. Since tourism activities have developed here, it has brought benefits and improved the lives of some groups of households compared to before. However, due to the uneven development of tourism activities in the nature reserve in different areas, the number of visitors to Van Long is not much, and the length of stay is not long.

Therefore, the income of households participating in tourism activities is unstable. Tourism activities are currently concentrated mainly in Gia Van commune, the remaining communes are only scattered in a number of small tourist spots. The tourism business activities of households are still limited, because the income from this activity is unstable. The desire of households here is to develop more tourism routes, provide professional training and create conditions for them to participate in activities in the nature reserve, strengthen propaganda and call for investment in the nature reserve. According to the assessment of the majority of households participating in the interview, the development of ecotourism will have a two-way impact, creating more jobs, increasing income, improving people's lives, however, if such development is not well managed, it will lead to environmental destruction and pollution, which will greatly affect the sustainable development of ecotourism in Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve.

4.3.9. Evaluation of business agency participation.

The results of the survey of 10 agencies and enterprises are shown in table 4.8:

Table 4.8: Some information of tourism businesses

Interview content	Answer	Number answer sheet	Proportion
1	Number of years of operation of the unit	1- 2 years	2	20%
		2-5 years	4	40%
		5-10 years	3	30%
		Over 10 years	2	20%

Interview content	Answer	Number answer sheet	Proportion
2	Main activities of the unit	Management and conservation TNMT, DDSH	2	20%
		Resource exploitation
		Tourism service business calendar	4	40%
		Other	4	40%
3	Does tourism development bring benefits to local communities? here	Have	10	100%
3		Are not
4	Unit has community support to benefit from activities tourist activity?	Have	7	70%
4		Are not	3	30%
5	Units that organize (participate) in conservation and environmental education programs to develop tourism Are not?	Have	4	40%
5		Are not	6	60%
6	How is environmental education implemented?	Very good	1	10%
		Good	9	90%
		Medium
		Are not
7	Level of response from the community and tourists when implementing conservation and environmental education activities	Very good
		Good	9	90%
		Medium	1	10%
		Are not

Interview content	Answer	Number answer sheet	Proportion
8	Initiatives to maintain the values that the reserve brings	Develop more tourist routes	8
		Training people in tourism and conserve	9
		Create conditions for people to participate in activities in KBT	8
		Building products KBT tourism products	9
9	Management of specialized agencies on tourism and conservation activities	Very good	1	10%
		Good	6	60%
		Medium	2	20%
		Not good	1	10%

(Source: According to survey data from business agencies)

General assessment: In general, businesses in the area are newly established and put into operation. The field of operation of tourism businesses is not high (accounting for 40%). The interviewed units all believe that tourism brings benefits to the local community. However, only 70% of the interviewed enterprises support the community to benefit from tourism activities, 40% of enterprises participate in conservation and environmental education programs. The units believe that conservation and environmental education activities are well implemented, and people and tourists respond well. Enterprises propose to develop more tourist routes

tourism, training people in tourism and conservation, creating conditions for people to participate in activities in the reserve, building tourism products of the reserve.

4.4. Successes and shortcomings in developing ecotourism in Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve.

4.4.1. Success

- The number of tourists to Van Long has increased over the years from 2015 to 2019, each year is higher than the previous year, domestic and international tourists have known Van Long and consider it a very attractive tourist destination.

In terms of structure: Tourists coming to Van Long are mainly foreign tourists, while domestic tourists are not many and the domestic tourism market is growing strongly. In 2018, the number of domestic tourists increased dramatically, in 2016 there were only 2,500 people, but by 2019 it increased to 9,680 people.

- The development speed and structure of the local tourism and service industry are gradually shifting in line with the direction of the Party and the State. The image of Van Long tourism has been known to many tourists and businesses through the forms of promoting products and images of the tourist area to the outside.

- Many businesses have come to survey and invest in building infrastructure to serve tourism development in Van Long, typically: Ngoi Sao Private Enterprise, Thao Son Limited Company, etc. Currently, 4 businesses have come into operation and attracted many tourists, enriching tourism products in Van Long. Several other businesses are also in the process of urgently investing in building infrastructure to be able to serve the needs of tourists in the shortest time.

- The awareness of people in and near the KBT has developed, thereby creating a foundation for developing tourism products based on people, creating tourism civilization in the tourist area: The tourist area has created many jobs.

Jobs create income for local people, make people trust and serve the tourism development here better.

- Regarding environmental protection:

+ Hoa Lu - Van Long Special Use Forest Management Board, the management unit of the NR, has drafted and signed 02 agreements on forest protection coordination with local departments (Management Board - District Police - District Military Command) and neighboring communes and districts (Management Board - Nho Quan Forest Protection Department - Lac Thuy District Forest Protection Department, Hoa Binh Province - Thanh Liem Forest Protection Department, Ha Nam Province). The participating units have regularly exchanged information on forest protection work in the management area and organized quarterly and annual summaries to draw lessons and directions for forest protection in the coming period. In addition, the Management Board also directly advises local authorities at all levels to develop annual forest protection and forest fire prevention and fighting plans. Guides villages to develop village covenants and regulations on forest protection, protection of the ecological environment, etc.

- Regarding the direction of tourism activities: Due to its recent establishment and operation, experience in managing and organizing tourism activities in the area is still limited and the effectiveness of operations is not high, but it has contributed significantly to the development of tourism in Van Long such as: Advising the Commune People's Committee on developing regulations for the tourist area, developing regulations for ferry services, regulations for souvenir sellers in the tourist area and supervising tourism activities here.

These initial successes, although still limited, have contributed to encouraging the sense of responsibility of all levels, sectors and local people, promoting tourism activities here to develop in the future. Besides, there are still many problems that need to be solved so that tourism activities here can develop in a sustainable direction.

4.4.2. Existing problems

Along with the successes achieved, there are still many shortcomings that need to be promptly resolved, such as:

- Quality of tourism products: Some tourists when coming here are not really satisfied with the service style of the tourist staff here, they are not only inexperienced, weak in capacity and lack of expertise, especially in their attitude towards foreign tourists. Some tourists coming to Van Long when they return do not want to return, they do not have a good impression of the tourist area. Thereby, the image of the tourist area will be affected and will get worse if there are no appropriate measures.

- The number of visitors reached and exceeded the target of the Tourist Station, but compared to the potential, it is still very limited.

- Tourism products serving tourists are very poor and lacking, however, the quality of tourism products is not high: The entire tourist area is large but only the ferry service is developed, other services are only suitable for foreign tourists such as: Buffalo and Ox cart services for transporting passengers, bicycles or services in tourist service areas are too expensive and not suitable for domestic consumers.

Van Long's typical tourism products are not many other than ferry services, so in the future, it is necessary to develop more typical services and strengths to attract and retain customers longer in Van Long, making the tourists' trips more attractive and interesting. However, it is also necessary to consider and rearrange the organization of ferry services in the tourist area to be reasonable and not cause many negative effects.

- Van Long is just a stopover for tourists on the tour of Cuc Phuong National Park, Van Trinh Cave, Trang An Ecotourism Area, Bai Dinh Pagoda Spiritual Tourism Area, etc. Therefore, Van Long still does not have an important position on the tourism map of Vietnam and Ninh Binh province. This is a problem for those who work to promote the image of Van Long to the outside world.

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