Natural Conditions, Socio-Economics and Resources for Tourism Development of Hai Phong

Create tourism human resources with international qualifications, increasingly better meet the requirements of the domestic market and keep up with international tourism standards.

Fourth , integration increases opportunities for domestic enterprises to access international markets, credit sources for tourism and expand international partners. Thereby increasing the ability to mobilize capital for tourism activities through foreign markets and enterprises.

Fifth , integration creates opportunities for individual tourists to enjoy diverse products and services in terms of types, designs and quality at competitive prices; to access and interact more with the outside world, thereby having opportunities to develop and find jobs both domestically and abroad.

Sixth, integration helps to supplement the values and progress of world culture and civilization , enrich national culture and promote tourism activities and social progress.

Maybe you are interested!

Negative impact

International integration creates new opportunities for the tourism industry but at the same time also poses many new disadvantages and challenges.

Firstly , integration increases fierce competition, causing many businesses and the tourism industry to face difficulties . For Vietnam in general and Hai Phong in particular, integration will create great pressure on tourism businesses in competition. Most of our country's tourism businesses are small, with limited tourism quality and low management capacity, so it is not easy to survive in a common playing field. The tourism workforce still has shortcomings and weaknesses such as lack of knowledge, low professionalism, poor foreign language communication, limited understanding of international law, etc., so it is difficult to keep up with the requirements of integration.

Especially after Vietnam has joined the WTO and fully implemented its integration commitments in the coming time, it will create new challenges such as fierce competition from potential foreign tourism businesses.

Strong finances, professional management skills, and deep understanding of international tourist consumption behavior are superior to those of Vietnamese service providers, putting Vietnamese businesses in great difficulty right at home.

Second , in the integration process, developing countries face the risk of unfavorable natural economic restructuring , due to the tendency to focus on industries that use a lot of resources. Therefore, they can easily become industrial and low-tech waste dumps, depleting natural resources and destroying the environment. International integration in recent years has caused the number of tourists to Vietnam to increase rapidly. Therefore, if tourism activities are not well managed, they will have many negative impacts on the environment, causing the risk of destroying the environment and tourist landscape. Because tourism activities have a close relationship with the natural environment as well as the human and social environment, in the development process, the quality of the environment in an area declines, which means that tourism activities will decline.

Third , integration may create some challenges to state power and complicate some issues related to maintaining security and stability and social order in places where tourism is developing.

First of all, the policy mechanism and many legal documents related to tourism activities are slow to come into life. The economic and trade policy system is not complete, there are no specific policies for promoting and mobilizing internal resources for tourism development. Policies and research issues related to tourism development have not really received attention. Therefore, there is a lack of consensus on specialized terminology, causing many difficulties in implementing commitments.

In addition, State management is not on par with the industry's position, Vietnam's tourism development planning is ineffective, and tourism resources are in a state of decline. The State has not really paid much attention to preserving

and preserve the natural environment. This greatly affects the attraction of tourists to Vietnam.

In addition, new challenges have emerged at a higher, more multi-dimensional and sophisticated level, such as “peaceful evolution” through tourism, difficulties in ensuring national security and defense, social stability and order, preserving and promoting national identity, and protecting the ecological environment for sustainable tourism development.

Fourth, integration can increase the risk of national identity and traditional culture being eroded by the “invasion” of foreign culture. This is reflected in the commercialization of local characteristics and values. In the process of integration, tourism can transform local cultural features into commodities, and religious rituals and festivals are changed to meet the needs of tourists. Sacred places and objects are no longer respected when they are viewed as commodities for sale, causing fundamental changes in human values. On the other hand, tourists always want souvenirs, fine arts, handicrafts and cultural performances, and at tourist destinations, local artisans can meet the increasing needs of tourists. However, they also have to change their product designs to make them more diverse, suitable to the tastes and needs of tourists. This is a two-sided problem, both helping to preserve cultural traditions, but also causing cultural erosion in the process of commercializing these products. In some cases, it can gradually lead to the loss of national cultural identity because of the superiority of foreign cultural characteristics brought by tourists compared to the local culture. The movement of tourists from many countries, many different regions with different social relationships can easily cause disagreements about culture, religion, ethnicity, ethical values, lifestyles and levels of development... The result is exceeding the carrying capacity of society and the cultural capacity of local communities. In addition, damage to cultural resources can be caused by increased vandalism, theft and illegal movement of cultural heritage.

Thus, integration simultaneously brings both benefits and disadvantages to the tourism industry in the development process. However, integration does not necessarily mean enjoying all the benefits and bearing all the disadvantages as mentioned above. The benefits and disadvantages are generally in the form of potential and are different for each country and each tourism region, due to differences in conditions, circumstances, development levels, etc. How to exploit the benefits and limit the disadvantages and challenges depends on many factors, of which the most important is the capacity of each country and each region, reflected in the integration strategy, measures and implementation.

In summary, in chapter 1, the author focused on clarifying theoretical issues on tourism development in the context of current international integration in the city. This chapter has 2 basic contents that the author focuses on, which are:

- Tourism and tourism development: Tourism is a multi-industry economic sector and has existed for a long time in many countries around the world; but in reality, the concepts and definitions of tourism are still different. Based on the research of concepts and definitions of tourism from the past to the present and the practice of tourism in Vietnam; the author believes that in the current context, tourism development is an inevitable trend of a country, a territory (locality) or a tourism business but must ensure its development requirements and conditions; in which the top issue is the benefits and efficiency that tourism brings to a country or a locality, territory.

- The author has clarified the interaction between international integration and tourism development. Tourism development has significantly contributed to promoting deeper and deeper integration between countries in many aspects: economic, political, cultural and social. On the contrary, international integration has created positive impacts and new opportunities for the tourism industry, while also posing many disadvantages and new challenges.

Chapter 2

CURRENT STATUS OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN HAI PHONG IN THE CURRENT CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL INTEGRATION

2.1. Natural conditions, socio-economic conditions and resources for tourism development in Hai Phong

2.1.1. Hai Phong's position in relation to the country and the key economic region of the North

2.1.1.1. For the whole country

Hai Phong is a national grade 1 urban city with an important and convenient transportation system, playing a very important role in the tourism development strategy of the region and the whole country.

In the system of national tourist routes and destinations, key tourist routes have been formed as the driving force for tourism development in the regions and the whole country, namely Hanoi - Do Son - Cat Ba - Ha Long; Da Nang - Hue - Lao Bao; Nha Trang - Ninh Chu - Da Lat; Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho - Phu Quoc. Three tourism development corridors connecting major cities with coastal areas are Hanoi - Hai Phong; Hanoi - Ha Long; Ho Chi Minh City - Vung Tau. In the system of tourist routes and destinations above, Hai Phong always holds an important position, an attractive pole and also a transit point on the national tourist route and connecting with international ones. Hai Phong's tourism development conditions by road, sea and air are all very favorable, contributing to the overall development of the system of tourist routes and destinations in Vietnam, contributing to the implementation of the industry's goals and the socio-economic development of the country.

2.1.1.2. For the Northern key economic region

Hai Phong is one of the three growth poles of the Northern key economic region. Because it is determined to have such an important function, along with its strong location and development conditions, Hai Phong is also

identified as the second largest international service, trade and transaction center in the North after Hanoi, the largest import and export goods distribution hub of the whole region...

Regarding tourism, for the Northern tourism region, Hai Phong is also identified as one of the three cores to focus on developing as a driving force to promote tourism development in the whole region. According to the overall development plan of the entire Northern tourism region, Hai Phong has an important position on one of the two important coastal tourism routes by road, namely Ninh Binh - Nam Dinh - Thai Binh - Hai Phong - Ha Long, connecting Ha Long Bay (Ninh Binh) by coastal road to Ha Long Bay - a natural heritage of the world. This route, together with Highway 5 connecting Hanoi - Hai Phong, are important road axes connecting Hai Phong with tourist markets in the whole region. Regarding the sea route, Hai Phong is a locality with outstanding advantages to develop the coastal tourism route of the Northern region. Through Hai Phong, the Northern region not only accesses tourist markets from other regions in the country but also connects internationally. By air, Hai Phong has Cat Bi airport, the second largest airport in the Northern region, capable of transporting passengers by large passenger planes. By rail, Hai Phong is connected to Hanoi by rail at a short distance (105 km) and thus connected to tourist markets via rail transport.

Thus, Hai Phong has all the conditions to promote tourism development in particular and socio-economic development in general in the coming years. On the other hand, in the context that Vietnam and China have signed the Joint Agreement on the development of the Kunming - Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong economic corridor and the development of the maritime economy of the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea, especially since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), there are even more favorable opportunities for rapid development and international integration.

2.1.2. Natural tourism conditions and resources

2.1.2.1. Land resources

Hai Phong is a young land, formed only a few thousand years ago, but a part of the territory is made up of ancient layers of rock and soil, accumulated and raised into a continent millions of years ago. The geological structure of Hai Phong is very complex, affecting the topography in a complex way. The natural development history of Hai Phong is closely linked to the development process of the Northeast coastal region. In terms of geology, this is the contact zone between the Vietnam-China folding region and the Hanoi depression, with complex tectonic characteristics, geological structure, development history and lava composition. In terms of geography, Hai Phong is located in a position that disputes the dominance of equatorial and polar air masses, in the transition zone between mountains and plains, between the continent and the sea.

Hai Phong territory is located in the Vietnam - China fold region and belongs to two smaller structural units, the Quang Ninh anticlinal complex and the Hanoi graben in the southwest. The boundary between these two structures is the Kien An deep fault, which is almost coincident with the Van Uc river axis, extending in the Northwest - Southeast direction towards the sea, circling close to the outside of the Long Chau archipelago.

During the geological development process, some modern geodynamic phenomena in Hai Phong dominate the formation and transformation of the land here, including:

- Kasterization phenomenon: is the result of dissolving Trang Kenh and Cat Ba limestone under the cyclical impact of groundwater and surface water. On Cat Ba limestone island, this process occurs strongly, developing self-exposed kaster forms on the surface such as cat-ear cliffs, steep island slopes, trough-shaped, funnel-shaped, closed valleys, blocked crevices... At the bottom of the sea, there are also underground cavities of the buried kaster type filled with mud and clay. Typical of kaster forms is the presence of caves. Due to the gradual, drip-like deposition of calcium bicarbonate from the roof to the cave floor, stalactites are created, adding to the interesting appearance of these "stalactites". There are also underground caves connected by narrow underground channels.

along with underground mineral streams in Cat Ba and possibly in the limestone layer located about 700m deep under Tien Lang land.

Caves are one of the tourism resources and serve the defense potential of Hai Phong that has not been properly exploited. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research, classify and put into use soon, especially in Cat Ba tourist area such as Da Hoa cave, Hung Son cave (Quan Y), Trung Trang cave...

- Erosion phenomenon: is a characteristic of a newly formed coastal area where there is still interaction between the sea and the continent. This phenomenon is happening strongly on the coast of Cat Hai, Tien Lang and the Southeast tip of Dinh Vu island, affecting the socio-economic development in general and tourism activities in particular.

- Sediment accumulation phenomenon: every year, rivers in the Thai Binh river system such as Chanh River, Bach Dang River, Cam River, Lach Tray, Van Uc... transfer nearly 4 million tons of materials in the form of suspended mud, sand and dissolved substances to Hai Phong sea. Together with hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of materials due to coastal erosion, this amount of alluvium becomes the basic source of materials participating in the accumulation process in Hai Phong water basin. This phenomenon is the main cause affecting the conditions of waterway transportation to Hai Phong port as well as the turbid waters of Do Son coast affecting swimming on this island.

The mainland and island terrain of Hai Phong is quite complex. In which, the low, strongly dissected mountainous area accounts for 10% of the city's area, distributed in the Cat Ba archipelago, Long Chau and some other islands in Lan Ha Bay. The strongly dissected hill area accounts for about 5% of the city's area. The hill ranges are mainly concentrated in the north of Thuy Nguyen district, within the Ha Long morphological structure, coinciding with the distribution area of the Ha Long anticlinal complex on the tectonic structure zoning diagram. The flat plain area accounts for 85% of the city's area, spread out in the districts of Vinh Bao, Tien Lang, An Lao, Do Son, Anh Duong, the south of Thuy Nguyen district and the inner city of Hai Phong. On the surface of the plain, there are some remaining hills and mountains.

Comment