Floating markets and exploiting floating markets for tourism purposes in the Mekong Delta

Raising people's awareness of tourism (budgetary and socialized capital) (Nga Nam floating market) [78].

The above solutions require the leading role of the People's Committee of the district/town/city under the province in coordination with the Department of Finance - Planning and the Department of Culture and Information.

Currently, the local authorities managing Cai Be and Cai Rang floating markets have proposed policy solutions, which can be applied to Long Xuyen and Nga Nam floating markets. Accordingly, these localities need to develop and promulgate policies to promote the development of floating market tourism in the management area, for example, creating conditions for local traders and residents to trade agricultural products, souvenirs, food and drinks to serve tourists; creating conditions for social organizations to participate in cultural and educational activities in the floating market area; supporting preferential loans for households doing business in food, fruit and souvenirs, households repairing boats, serving entertainment and accommodation activities; creating favorable conditions for tourism companies to exploit floating market tourism and develop services; encouraging the participation of local people in tourism and protecting the floating market environment; incentives for investors in land lease, water surface lease, tax, loans, marketing, administrative procedures; encouraging socialization of investment in tourism development;... These solutions cannot be implemented without the leadership of the People's Committee of the district/town/city under the province in coordination with the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs.

3.4. RECOMMENDATIONS

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To preserve and exploit floating markets effectively for tourism, some recommendations for many stakeholders are as follows:

- The General Department of Tourism needs to: (i) Increase promotion of floating market destination images on the agency's website, guidebooks, and magazines, especially for Long Xuyen and Nga Nam floating markets; (ii) Continue to support localities (Tien Giang, Can Tho, An Giang, Soc Trang) in training staff to serve floating market tourism.

- The People's Committee of the province/city needs to: (i) Direct not to collect wharf fees (Tra On, Phong Dien, Long Xuyen, Chau Doc, Nga Nam, Ca Mau, Vinh Thuan floating markets) and loading and unloading fees (Ca Mau floating market); (ii) Direct localities to consider

Be careful when deciding to relocate floating markets (if any), it is best to consult with people who buy and sell on floating markets and scientists; (iii) Provide funding for the construction of infrastructure to serve tourism exploitation activities (Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen and Nga Nam floating markets), (iv) Support budget capital to serve conservation activities (Cai Be, Tra On, Cai Rang, Phong Dien, Long Xuyen, Chau Doc, Ba Ngan, Nga Nam, Vinh Thuan, Ca Mau, Cai Nuoc floating markets) and exploit floating market tourism (Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen and Nga Nam); (v) Have preferential credit and tax policies for economic sectors participating in investing in developing floating market tourism; (vi) Call for domestic and foreign investment in projects to preserve and exploit floating market tourism; (vii) Direct local credit institutions to lend capital at preferential interest rates to those who buy and sell on floating markets; (viii) Call on donors to contribute financially to support people buying and selling on floating markets; (ix) Raise people's awareness of the importance of floating markets and encourage people to buy agricultural products on floating markets; (x) Direct localities to ensure order and safety in trading and tourism activities on floating markets; (xi) Direct localities to grasp the thoughts and aspirations of people buying and selling on floating markets to have timely support measures; (xii) Direct localities to ensure safety and convenience in mooring boats and trading of people when building embankments; (xiii) Direct localities to promptly resolve the situation of competition for trading places on Cai Nuoc floating market.

- The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism needs to: (i) Promote awareness of local people and traders about tourism (Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen, Nga Nam floating markets); (ii) Encourage people to actively participate in floating market tourism activities, have a friendly and hospitable attitude, protect the culture and landscape of floating markets (Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen, Nga Nam); (iii) Promote the promotion of the image of floating market destinations (Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen, Nga Nam) in various forms/means; (iv) Improve the quality of staff serving floating market tourism (Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen, Nga Nam) on the basis of linking with domestic and foreign tourism training schools; (v) Coordinate

with research institutes and universities in planning and guiding management of tourist destinations (Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen and Nga Nam).

- The Department of Transport needs to: (i) Check the status of the exchange of stakes on the river to have measures to handle (Cai Rang floating market); (ii) Check the provision of life jackets for tourists and handle violations; (iii) Guide merchant boats to anchor in the right place and ensure safety; (iv) Remind tourist boat drivers not to create disadvantages for people's trading activities.

- The Department of Industry and Trade needs to: (i) Request units and individuals providing floating market tourism services to adjust prices to match quality and post prices for important services.

- Travel companies need to: (i) Research and develop tourism programs associated with Long Xuyen and Nga Nam floating markets, offer them to customers, (ii) Share benefits with local traders; (iii) Use a lot of local labor.

Chapter 3 Summary

Floating markets and floating market tourism have their own strengths and limitations, and are also affected by external opportunities and challenges. On the basis of combining strengths - opportunities, strengths - challenges, weaknesses - opportunities, weaknesses - challenges, the strategies for floating markets and exploiting floating markets for tourism are as follows: exploiting floating markets in the direction of trade and tourism, preserving floating markets, combining floating market tourism with other types of tourism, improving infrastructure and technical facilities for tourism, improving the quality of service staff and tourism knowledge for local people, promoting investment in preserving and exploiting floating markets for tourism, protecting the environment and improving the landscape, building policies for preserving and exploiting floating markets for tourism, ensuring the rationality and consistency of tourism service prices, diversifying and ensuring the characteristics of tourism products, ensuring security and order and health for tourists, attracting the participation of local people in tourism and bringing benefits to them, enhancing the

Cooperation between stakeholders in the conservation and exploitation of floating markets for tourism, strengthening state management of floating market tourism.

Conservation work should be carried out for floating markets because each market has its own role and value. Particularly in the tourism sector, investment and exploitation should only be focused on Cai Be, Cai Rang, Long Xuyen and Nga Nam floating markets because these floating markets have strengths in many aspects. Solutions for conservation and exploitation of floating markets are planned based on the author's research results, recommendations/action plans of many stakeholders, some domestic and foreign studies, in accordance with laws/decrees/decisions/projects at the central and local levels.

From the 14 strategies, we divided them into 9 groups of solutions for conservation (maintaining and improving the purchasing power of local people; not charging fees to traders in floating markets; ensuring security, order, safety and fairness for traders; lending capital to traders at preferential interest rates; paying attention to the material and spiritual interests of traders; exploiting floating markets in the direction of trade and tourism; stabilizing the location and maintaining the identity of floating markets; attracting the participation of local people in buying and selling; increasing investment and building policies to preserve floating markets) and 9 groups of solutions for exploiting floating markets for tourism (attracting the participation of local people in tourism and bringing benefits to them; improving the quality of service staff and tourism knowledge for local people; protecting the environment and improving the landscape; ensuring the rationality and consistency of tourism service prices; improving infrastructure and technical facilities). techniques; ensuring security and order in tourism and the health of tourists; diversifying and ensuring the characteristics of tourism products; combining with other types of tourism; strengthening management, investment and policy development for exploiting floating markets for tourism). To effectively implement these solutions requires the joint efforts of many stakeholders.

CONCLUDE

Through the research process of the topic "Floating markets and exploiting floating markets for tourism purposes in the Mekong Delta", we have some conclusions as follows:

1. Research on floating markets and exploitation of floating markets for tourism purposes is really necessary because it is in line with the expectations of society, especially for the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. In the past, there have been a number of research projects on floating markets and floating market tourism in the world as well as in Vietnam, but the theoretical basis of floating markets and floating market tourism; the formation and development of floating markets in the Mekong Delta; the ability and current status of exploiting floating markets in the Mekong Delta for tourism purposes; solutions to preserve and exploit floating markets for tourism purposes in the Mekong Delta still have many gaps that need to be filled.

2. Floating markets are a form of commercial business on the river, containing unique intangible and tangible cultural values. Floating markets were formed a long time ago (18th-20th century) in the Mekong Delta due to the combined impact of natural factors (rivers) and socio-economic factors (people, agricultural products, boats, advantages of waterway transport). Floating markets play an important role in the economy, society, culture and are a typical mixed tourism resource (natural, cultural) of the Mekong Delta, and therefore, any locality that maintains, preserves and exploits floating markets effectively for tourism will bring benefits to the locality in many aspects.

3. The relocation of floating markets along with the development of the economy and society has been changing the nature and negatively affecting the future of floating markets, and therefore, the cultural appeal of floating markets has also decreased and this has negatively affected the exploitation of floating markets for tourism of localities that own floating markets. Recently, some localities in the region have correctly assessed the role of floating markets and realized the risk of their disappearance, so they have begun to pay attention to preserving and exploiting floating markets for tourism. In addition to some achievements (increased number of visitors and revenue, job creation, improved efficiency of infrastructure use, attracting investment, etc.), the preservation and exploitation of floating markets for tourism in the Mekong Delta still have many limitations (management, policies, coordination between

stakeholders, people's awareness, investment, environmental sanitation, benefit sharing,...) because the locality still lacks knowledge and experience in preserving and exploiting floating markets for tourism.

4. Each floating market has a certain cultural value and socio-economic importance, so all of them need to be preserved. In particular, the exploitation of floating markets for tourism should only focus on Cai Rang, Cai Be, Long Xuyen and Nga Nam floating markets to avoid wasting resources, limit self-competition and bring positive experiences to tourists.

5. Preserving and exploiting floating markets for tourism is not a simple task because it depends on the goodwill of the subjects creating the floating markets, the management and operation capacity of the state management agency for tourism, the level of participation of travel companies and local people in developing tourism products, the investment and mechanisms and policies of local authorities, etc. Therefore, to preserve and exploit floating markets for tourism effectively, it is necessary to have the consensus, joint efforts, contributions and perseverance of many related parties. Lack of attention, loose management, little investment, lack of policies, little benefit to local traders and residents, lack of cooperation between related parties, etc. will be barriers to the preservation and exploitation of floating markets for tourism in the Mekong Delta in the future.

6. By using various approaches, data collection and analysis, this study has built a scientific basis for floating markets and exploiting floating markets for tourism; analyzed the formation and development of floating markets in the Mekong Delta; assessed the potential and current status of exploiting floating markets for tourism in the Mekong Delta; proposed solutions for preserving and exploiting floating markets in the Mekong Delta for tourism. The research results not only reflect relatively fully the aspects of floating markets and exploiting floating markets for tourism from a geographical perspective but also provide important arguments for localities in implementing solutions to preserve and exploit floating markets for tourism more effectively.

LIST OF PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC WORKS

1. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2014), Beo tree - Cultural symbol in floating markets in the Mekong Delta , Cultural Heritage Magazine, 4(49), pp. 102-104.

2. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2015), Floating markets and floating market tourism , Vietnam Tourism Magazine, 11, pp. 10-12.

3. Nguyen Trong Nhan, Le Thong (2016), Theoretical basis of floating market tourism , Can Tho University Journal of Science, 43, pp. 60-68.

4. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2017), Floating markets in the Mekong Delta: History of formation, spatial changes, roles, limitations and challenges , Proceedings of the scientific conference "Preserving and promoting the cultural values of the Mekong Delta in the process of integration and development", Can Tho University Publishing House, pp. 208-218.

5. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2017), Attractive factors for tourists of floating markets in the Mekong Delta , Proceedings of the Scientific Conference "Preserving and promoting cultural values of the Mekong Delta's rivers in the process of integration and development", Can Tho University Publishing House, pp. 219-225.

6. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2018), Floating markets in the Mekong Delta from a geographical perspective, Journal of Science, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, 15(2), pp. 111-124.

7. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2018), Research on floating markets in the Mekong Delta , Proceedings of the 7th National Scientific Conference for Young Cadres of Pedagogical Universities, Pedagogical University Publishing House, pp. 214-220.

8. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2018), Floating markets and floating market tourism in the Mekong Delta - Key findings , Mekong University Science Journal, 10, pp. 21-27.

9. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2018), Floating markets in the Mekong Delta from a human ecology perspective , Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology, 60(11), pp. 34-37.

10. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2018), Factors affecting tourism exploitation in Cai Be and Cai Rang floating markets , Hanoi National University of Education Science Journal, 63(4), pp. 170-180.

11. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2018), Solutions to preserve floating markets in the Mekong Delta , Journal of Regional Sustainable Development, 8(4), pp. 90-97.

12. Nguyen Trong Nhan (2019), Solutions to exploit floating markets in the Mekong Delta to serve tourism , Proceedings of the 11th National Geographic Science Conference "Vietnamese Geographic Science serving sustainable development in the period of industrial revolution 4.0", Thanh Nien Publishing House, pp. 256-265.

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