Financial, Credit, and Price Policies for Tourism Development

The collection of value added tax and corporate income tax from businesses operating in the hotel and catering sector still has many losses, although there have been

Many solutions for tax management have not yet overcome the problem of tax evasion by businesses. Businesses operating in the fields of hotels, restaurants, and transportation services automatically raise prices during festivals and peak tourist seasons such as holidays and Tet... in recent years, although this has been greatly limited, this is an issue that authorities need to have effective solutions to better manage in order to make the tourism environment healthier.

2.2.2.4. Policy on management of tourism resources and quality

Tourist areas have been upgraded and renovated, so there have been positive changes in both quantity and quality. The whole province currently has 150 areas, scenic spots, historical - cultural relics, lakes and waterfalls with tourism potential to be invested and exploited. Up to now, the whole province has invested and put into operation 47 tourist areas and spots; of which Da Lat city alone has invested and put into operation 37 tourist areas and spots. The environmental quality at tourist areas today has been improved, social order and safety conditions are ensured, the quality of services for customers has been improved compared to previous years, in which cultural factors have been given more attention in the structure of tourism products.

Currently, Lam Dong province has 17 historical and cultural relics and scenic spots that have been ranked by the Ministry of Culture and Information, including: 01 archaeological relic, 02 architectural-artistic relics, 14 scenic relics. However, due to difficult economic conditions and limited investment capacity, some tourist destinations have been identified as having great potential and have been planned but have not yet been invested in and put into exploitation.

In the work of preserving, storing and researching to promote valuable cultural documents on the customs and practices of ethnic minorities, the cultural sector has organized to record documents to preserve festivals: celebrating new rice (offering to the rice warehouse of the K'ho and Sre ethnic groups and offering to the fields of the Ma ethnic group), the festival of leaving the code of the Churu ethnic group. Particularly important is that together with the Central Highlands provinces, the dossier was supplemented to request UNESCO to classify the Central Highlands gongs as a world heritage and at the end of 2005, UNESCO officially recognized the "Space of gong culture"

"Gong is a masterpiece of oral tradition and intangible cultural heritage of humanity". This event, the Central Highlands truly became "After Hue royal court music, the Central Highlands gong of Vietnam has contributed to the diversity of human culture".

The management and exploitation of scenic spots in Lam Dong in general and Da Lat in particular have been unified and coordinated between sectors and management entities. However, in most of the current tourist destinations in Lam Dong, there is still no unified management regulation under the direction and supervision of the Provincial People's Committee. The exploitation of tourism resources in some places is not linked to planning, lacking long-term development orientations, so the meaning and function of each area, cluster and tourist destination have not been properly promoted.

In addition, the exploitation of tourism resources in recent times has been unbalanced. In most tourist destinations, the opening of shops and businesses without planning and science has reduced the elegant beauty of Da Lat, affecting the tourism environment. While some tourist destinations are overexploited, in many places, resources are still in the form of potential, not yet invested in or exploited on a too small scale, which not only affects the ability to attract visitors but also causes the encroachment of resources and the environment.

The cultural resources in Lam Dong are also currently in a state of unbalanced exploitation. Many traditional forms of folk culture of ethnic minorities are gradually disappearing due to the penetration of modern cultural products, and due to lack of timely and proper planning for preservation and development.

Although the planning has had orientations for developing cultural tourism based on the rational exploitation of existing resources; however, similar to the general situation of the whole country, Da Lat has a system of unique French-style villas that need to be preserved, but most of Da Lat's architectural works are being degraded due to management and lack of investment capital for restoration and maintenance. In addition, the natural landscape is being encroached upon, and urbanization has caused many places to lose the harmonious beauty between architectural works and the natural environment.

Lam Dong, with its traditional handicrafts, sophisticated products with their own characteristics that have been famous in the market, such as: fire pen paintings, hand embroidery, brocade weaving, various types of jams, ... Every time tourists come to Da Lat - Lam Dong, they can visit some craft villages and buy products; especially some places that have attracted a lot of visitors such as XQ Su Quan (XQ embroidery paintings), Ka Long brocade village, Langbiang brocade weaving, knitting. These craft villages have attracted a lot of workers, maintained and developed traditional crafts, attracted tourists, ... However, Lam Dong's craft village tourism is still groping, not finding a development direction suitable to its inherent potential. In fact, craft villages in Lam Dong have not become "villages", they are just small, fragmented, spontaneous production clusters, unable to attract tourists like a craft village in the true sense. The planning and investment in craft villages in recent years have not really received attention from authorities at all levels; therefore, in fact, the existing craft village tourist spots are only production and product display and introduction spots, a very small part of the craft village; people spontaneously produce and serve tourists, not truly craft village tourism.

2.2.3. Organizing, directing, operating, inspecting and controlling tourism activities

According to Article 10 and Point 4, Article 11 of the 2005 Law on Tourism, the content of State management of tourism and the responsibility of State management of tourism of the Provincial People's Committee are stipulated. Based on the 9 contents of State management, the responsibility of State management of tourism of the Provincial People's Committee and the research contents in Chapter 1 of this thesis; the author focuses on analyzing 7 main contents: Management of tourism investment; Management of investment in construction of tourism infrastructure; Management of development of new products, improvement of quality of existing products; Management of promotion, market expansion, linkage in tourism development; Management of arrangement of State-owned enterprises and tourism business system; Management of training and development of human resources; Management and inspection and control methods.

2.2.3.1. Tourism investment management

To achieve the socio-economic development goals of the province, since 2004, Lam Dong province has identified and focused on directing the implementation of 8 key economic programs and 9 key projects and considered this as one of the solutions throughout the 2004-2010 period. The eight key economic programs are: High-tech agricultural development program; Socio-economic infrastructure development program;

Ecotourism, resort, conference and seminar development program; Industrial and handicraft development program; Poverty reduction program, associated with solving pressing problems in the ethnic minority region; Science and technology development and human resource training program; Urban development program; Comprehensive socio-economic cooperation program with Ho Chi Minh City and localities in the region. The nine key projects are: Dau Giay - Da Lat expressway project; Lien Khuong airport upgrade project into an international airport; Upgrading and opening DT 723 road from Da Lat to Nha Trang project; Tuyen Lam lake thematic tourist area construction project; Dan Kia - Suoi Vang integrated tourist area construction project; Loc Son industrial park project; Phu Hoi industrial cluster project; Bauxite mining project, alumina and aluminum hydroxide production project; Dong Nai 3 and Dong Nai 4 hydropower projects. In the 8 key economic programs and 9 key projects, most of them are directly or indirectly related to the tourism development sector. Since the identification of 8 key economic programs and 9 key projects, every year, along with the assignment of socio-economic development plan targets and the assessment of the implementation of the province's socio-economic plan, specific tasks, solutions, and resource balance have been determined to implement and assess the implementation of these programs and projects. At the same time, according to the monthly work program, the Provincial People's Committee has arranged time to work with relevant sectors, units, and localities or directly inspect the projects to direct the timely resolution of difficulties and obstacles to speed up the implementation progress.

One of the major difficulties of Lam Dong is that it cannot balance its own budget but still relies on support from the central budget, so the capital for investment in development is very limited. Therefore, in order to create capital for investment in development, in addition to mobilizing investment capital from economic sectors in projects and works for the purpose of direct investment in production and business of enterprises; every year the province advances idle budget sources and from 2003 to present, it has annually borrowed 100 billion VND from the State Treasury's idle sources to arrange investment in key projects. In 2006, the province developed a plan and the Provincial People's Council approved the plan to borrow 830 billion VND from commercial banks for investment,