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Assessment of the Development Situation of Tourism in the Dhcntb Region:


2.3.2.2 Visitor days and seasonality in ecotourism in the Central Highlands


a/ Guest date:

Through tourism data in the Central Highlands, it shows that there is an uneven distribution in the two regions of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan in terms of time of enjoyment and stay. The number of days of stay of tourists in Ninh Thuan is very low, the highest length of stay of international visitors is only 2.48 days (2010), the lowest is 1.83 days. For domestic visitors, the highest is 1.83 days, the lowest is 1.45 days, this shows that visitors to Ninh Thuan are mostly transit visitors, transient visitors, without a real purpose of choosing the main destination here. Meanwhile, in Binh Thuan, the length of stay is longer, reaching 3.1 days/international visitor and 1.92 days/domestic visitor. From 2008 to now, the average number of days of visitors to the Central Highlands has increased significantly. Tourists coming to relax, explore and participate in sea sports have registered for longer stays, especially Russian tourists traveling in groups, 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, etc. with a stay of 2-3 days/trip. The low number of visitors to ecotourism destinations shows that the exploitation and development of ecotourism in the Central Highlands is still at the initial stage, not yet systematic. Therefore, it is necessary to research and develop ecotourism products associated with tours and ecotourism destinations to attract more visitors and extend their stay, especially for domestic visitors.

b/ Seasonality of ecotourism activities : due to the nature of the year-round warm and sunny weather, close to the fresh ocean climate, the season of visitors is distributed quite evenly throughout the year. For international visitors, depending on international holidays, the season also shows that there are low and high seasons every year. The peak season for ecotourism visitors to the Central Highlands is from January to May, September, November, December. Especially during holidays, Tet, summer vacations... Domestic ecotourism visitors concentrate in the summer, decreasing significantly in August, October, November. International ecotourism visitors concentrate in the last 2 months of the year and January, February and March of the following year.

Table 2.9 Seasonality coefficient of ecotourism in the Central Highlands region


Month

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Coefficient

DLST 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 travel 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 of Tourism Development Research and author's calculations)


(*) Seasonality coefficient of month i = average number of visitors in month i over the years/ average number of visitors in a month

Chart 2.2: Seasonal coefficient in tourism activities in the Central Highlands region


2.3.2.3 Assessment of tourism development activities in the Central Highlands region:

With its increasingly strong development position, tourism affirms its trend of becoming a key economic sector of the Provinces alongside other strong sectors such as aquaculture, agriculture and forestry, etc. Tourism in the Central Highlands is making steady progress, as shown by the following general revenue:

In general, the revenue from tourism activities of 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 the Central Highlands 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.

- According to statistics in 2010, revenue from tourism activities in Ninh Thuan is relatively diverse, the largest proportion is revenue from tourists' shopping services (accounting for 39.44% of the total), food and beverage expenses account for 36.40%, accommodation rental expenses account for 10.16%. In general, revenue from tourism in the past 10 years has increased 6.08 times and reached an average annual growth rate of 22.21% during this period.

- For 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, in the total, revenue from domestic tourists accounted for 57.50% due to the number of visitors. 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, tourism revenue of Binh Thuan has increased 20.65 times. The average growth rate in the past 10 years from 2000 to 2010 was 35.36%/year.

Compared to the general situation of ecotourism development in the entire South Central Coast region, the number of ecotourism visitors to the Central Coast region is quite high, both in quantity and growth rate. In 2010, the number of ecotourism visitors to the Central Coast 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, with international ecotourism visitors increasing by an average of 33.10% and domestic ecotourism visitors increasing by 31.79%. The types of ecotourism chosen by ecotourism visitors include: Table 2.10: The main types of ecotourism chosen by visitors when coming to the Central Coast region

Target audience

Sightseeing and discovery

TN

Walk

Climbing

Marine sports (water skiing, parasailing)

glide…)

Visit the village

race

Diving discovery

Rowing

Explore the mountains and forests

HST

Camp

Visit the garden, HST

agriculture












career

International Tourist

economy


*


*



*



*


*


*



*

Guest

Domestic tourism

*

*

*

*

*

*

*


*

*

(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, the peak and low seasons are not too different, compared to other regions of the country, the distribution of visitors is relatively even. However, due to the lack of synchronous investment in service infrastructure and transportation, the means of transportation to remote areas are still difficult, so currently ecotourism visitors are mainly concentrated in tourist destinations along the coast, in mountainous and midland areas ecotourism tours are very scattered, with few visitors. The exploitation is generally fragmented, the whole region lacks the connection to organize and complete tours, lacks systematic and synchronous planning to exploit ecotourism spots, only paying attention to organizing and managing according to provincial administrative boundaries, leading to unreasonable division in exploitation, reducing the efficiency of exploiting ecotourism activities at the regional level. The shortcomings can be seen in the fact that the sea ecotourism tours and nature discovery ecotourism tours are locally fragmented, the sea resort and discovery tours organized by Ninh Thuan only take visitors to the border area of ​​Ca Na and end, the tour is still poor in destinations but has plenty of time to operate. Meanwhile, the neighboring area, Vinh Hao and Cu Lao Cau marine protected area are very valuable ecotourism destinations that are overlooked. Similarly, in the Binh Thuan area, tourism companies also exploit tours to Vinh Hao and stop, the Ca Na, Phuoc Dinh, Nam Cuong sand dunes, especially Nui Chua National Park, a unique ecotourism destination of the region, are not connected for visitors to access. This fragmentation has made the sea resort and ecotourism tours poor in content, short in duration and less attractive to visitors.

Organizing cultural ecotourism tours is also similarly limited, instead of maintaining the flow of historical and cultural festivals associated with indigenous Cham Pa relics from Binh Thuan to Ninh Thuan as its inherent historical and cultural tradition. Operators


DLST is also organized according to provincial administrative boundaries, typically the Cham Kate festival. Before 1975, the Kate festival was held periodically and continuously from Phan Thiet to Phan Rang, attracting a large number of Cham people from all over the country to attend. But now the Kate festival is no longer organized inter-regionally as before, each province organizes it independently, separately without any organizational cohesion, leading to a situation of dividing the flow of cultural activities according to provincial administrative boundaries, causing a "break" in the cultural flow of the Cham Pa festival, a priceless 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 Investment situation for tourism development: a/ General investment situation for tourism development:

In the entire DHCNTB region, as of December 31, 2010, there were 449 approved investment projects with a total registered investment capital of 70,813.1 billion VND, and 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

Whole DHCNTB region

Ninh Thuan province area

Binh Thuan province area

Quantity

Proportion

Total project

+ Project completed

+ Project under implementation 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 the two provinces of Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan)

b/ Investment situation in developing ecotourism resources: mainly from budget capital through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to national parks and nature reserves, a little from funding from international organizations.

i/ Regarding the investment situation in 2 National Parks and other habitats in Ninh Thuan:

Although Ninh Thuan has two large-scale national parks (ranked 9th out of 30 national parks nationwide) and has high biodiversity value that can be exploited for ecotourism activities, and the advantage is that the location of the two national parks is near major traffic routes that are easy to exploit to welcome tourists.


tourists, but the investment situation for the 2 National Parks in recent years has not been commensurate, on average each year, each National Park is only invested at a low level, not corresponding to the managed area. If calculating the state investment capital for 30 National Parks nationwide from 2000-2007, Nui Chua National Park has an investment capital of only 1.5% of the total investment capital, the investment capital for 1 hectare is only 385,000 VND/ in 7 years and Phuoc Binh National Park only accounts for 0.61% of the total investment capital, the investment capital for 1 hectare in 7 years is 227,110 VND (according to Decision No. 2370 QD/BNN-KL dated August 5, 2008).

Table 2.12: Investment status in national parks in Ninh Thuan province in the period 2001-2010

Investment Point


Year 2001


2004


2005


2006

2007

Year 2009

Year 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, Forestry Department - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development)

According to statistics of the two National Parks of Nui Chua and Phuoc Binh, the average annual investment rate from the state budget in the past 9 years: Nui Chua National Park is 8.05%, Phuoc Binh National Park is 14.82%. In general, for both National Parks in Ninh Thuan, the annual investment growth rate is 16.87%. In which, investment capital for biodiversity conservation programs is one of the programs with content related to the development and protection of ecotourism resources, accounting for only a very small proportion of 14-20%, and some years there is no investment. (see details in the appendix)

In the investment plan for resource development in the 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 investment sources in the national parks in the coming years in the table above show that capital is mainly spent on forestry activities, investment items for resource development and conservation as well as biodiversity development are still very limited.

ii/ Regarding the investment situation in developing eco-tourism in Binh Thuan:


In the province, there are currently two national nature reserves, namely Ong Mountain Nature Reserve (Tanh Linh) and Ta Kou Mountain Nature Reserve (Ham Thuan Nam), along with two marine protected areas (MPAs), Cau Island MPAs and Phu Quy Island MPAs. However, only two MPAs on the mainland have been officially approved by the Government and invested in with annual budget funds, while the MPAs have not yet received 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: million VND



STT


Investment Point

Year 2001

2004

2005

2006

2007

Year 2009

Year 2010


1

Ong Mountain 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: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Thuan, Ong Mountain Nature Reserve Management Board, Ta Kou Mountain Nature Reserve Management Board)


In general, the investment capital for nature reserves in Binh Thuan is still low. During the period from 2001 to 2009, Binh Thuan province invested a total of 20,523 billion VND for two nature reserves in the province, but these expenditures mainly focused on the operational expenditures of forest protection units. The capital for biodiversity conservation programs, scientific research programs and development of ecotourism resources is still very limited, accounting for only 18.84% of the total capital spent over the years (see details in the appendix).

Through the above data on investment programs in the MPAs in the coming years, it shows that in Binh Thuan, investment content focuses more on activities to conserve and develop ecological resources, notably paying attention to investing in social content combined with economic and community development.

2.4 Survey results of tourists and ecotourism on contents related to ecotourism activities in the Central Highlands region

a/ General introduction : Although in the Central Highlands region (two provinces of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan), there are 2005 survey documents of the General Statistics Office and the General Statistics Office.


Binh Thuan in 2007, but this was only a survey mainly on tourists' spending and destination choices according to the content of mass tourism activities and the surveys only took place in Binh Thuan, so it could not be used for an in-depth assessment of ecotourism for both provinces. The purpose of the survey conducted by the author of the thesis is to collect more in-depth information on ecotourism, to have the opportunity to access and understand more deeply the feelings and assessments of tourists towards the Binh Thuan-Ninh Thuan area, especially in the field of ecotourism, as a basis for the author to analyze and evaluate the current status of ecotourism in localities in a realistic way, at the same time, to better understand the "demand" factor as the target tourists and to have a basis for proposing more reasonable solutions for the "supply" factor.

b / Survey method and approach:


- Survey participation : The author, together with a group of collaborators who are local tourism managers, students of the Faculty of Business Administration and Foreign Languages ​​at Ninh Thuan Pedagogical College and Binh Thuan Community College, 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 low seasons.

- Survey content description :

For domestic tourists: the survey includes 25 thematic questions divided into 74 sub-questions according to the scale of evaluation levels (see details in the appendix) divided into 3 main parts:

Part 1: from questions 1-6, the questions cover the overview of the trip, the form of organization, the number of participants, the number of visits, the initial plans and wishes before going.

Part 2: from questions 7-13, the questions focus on the purpose of the trip, the understanding of eco-tourism of visitors, including information to know the tourist destination, means of transportation and choice of accommodation, important factors deciding the choice of destination in the Central Highlands region.

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