Orientation and Solutions for Developing Champasak Tourism Industry Until 2015

CHAPTER 3: ORIENTATION AND SOLUTIONS TO DEVELOP CHAMPASAK TOURISM INDUSTRY TO 2015

3.1 Orientation for Champasak tourism development to 2015

From the current status of tourism activities in Champasak in recent times, it can be seen that Champasak tourism has a continuous annual growth rate, but the increase in tourists has not been commensurate with the potential of tourism resources of the province. Thus, to increase the prospect of attracting tourists in the future and develop effectively, the government, the industry and related businesses should have a common orientation for sustainable development of the tourism industry as well as related industries, especially need to determine the orientation, goals and solutions to develop the tourism industry until 2015.

3.1.1 Viewpoint on Champasak tourism development

The viewpoint of tourism development in Champasak province must follow the general development direction of the Party and the State. According to the resolution of the 8th Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in 2006, it was specified: Orientation of tourism development towards sustainable development and participation of local people.

The development of Lao tourism in general and Champasak province in particular in the direction of sustainable tourism must be based on the following viewpoints:

- Tourism development must be sustainable, with contributions from local people to reduce poverty for local people.

- Tourism development must ensure the rational and effective use of resources. At the same time, it is necessary to limit the overuse of resources and minimize waste;

- Development must be associated with the conservation of natural, cultural and social diversity. This is a particularly important factor in creating the attractiveness of tourism.

Tourism satisfies the diverse needs of tourists, enhancing the richness of tourism products.

- Development must be consistent with the overall socio-economic planning, because tourism is an economic sector with high inter-sectoral and inter-regional relationships. This will contribute to ensuring the sustainable development of tourism in relation to other economic sectors as well as the effective use of resources and environmental protection.

- Development must focus on training to raise awareness of environmental resources. For any development activity, people always play a decisive role. Putting awareness of environmental management into the tourism industry's training program will ensure the implementation of environmental policies and laws at tourism establishments.

- Development must increase responsible marketing and advertising and regularly conduct research.

- Tourism development must ensure security and social order and safety.

3.1.2 Basis for building orientation

In order to achieve high efficiency in developing the tourism industry with diverse and rich tourism resource potential, in the context of regional economic integration, expanding domestic and international relations with policies to encourage attracting foreign investment. The important issue is to have the right orientation and implement a feasible strategy to achieve sustainable tourism development, without causing negative effects on natural resources, culture, and socio-economy.

 Results of tourism activities in the past time: In the period of 2001 - 2009, Champasak tourism industry has achieved positive results, the most outstanding results were achieved in 2009. These results are the basis for tourism development orientation until 2015 and are shown in table 2.3.

 Forecasting trends of tourism development indicators in Champasak province: The bases for forecasting are based on the socio-economic development plan of Champasak province until 2015 and based on the demand trends of tourist groups for the tourism potential of the province.

- Forecast of tourists: Due to the development of the global economy, the increase in people's income, the easy and fast means of transportation, more free time, so the demand for travel will increase at a high speed. According to the WTO, in 2010, the number of visitors will reach 1 billion, by 2020 it will reach 1.6 billion and can bring in nearly 2,000 billion USD in revenue for the world tourism industry, in which Southeast Asia can reach 11 million visitors and 19 million visitors in 2020. Due to the development trend of world and regional tourism, the tourism industry of Champasak province can forecast the number of tourists in the coming years to increase by 10% each year compared to the same period last year, so we can see the following:

Table 3.1: Forecast of tourists to Champasak province from 2010 - 2015

Unit: person

Year/Spending

Total number of guests	International guests	Domestic guests
2010	1,100,000	670,000	430,000
2015	1,770,000	1,150,000	620,000
2020	2,100,000	1,300,000	800,000

Maybe you are interested!

Source: Champasak Provincial Planning Department, Development Research Institute 2009

Domestic visitors mainly come from the capital Vientiane and the central and southern provinces. International visitors mainly come from countries in the region, Asia, and Europe.

3.1.3 General development orientation

Strongly develop tourism types. Organize tourism exploitation for international and domestic visitors in the form of cultural tourism, natural tourism and visiting and studying historical and cultural relics. Develop towards sustainable tourism with the participation of local people.

Invest and develop both the quality and quantity of infrastructure and technical facilities for the tourism industry. Especially entertainment facilities; historical and cultural relics and develop traditional festivals.

Promote the development of the international tourist market. Develop tourism promotion activities, advertise information on modern media such as television and the Internet to introduce the potential for tourism development as well as specific types of tourism of the province to attract tourists and call for investment in tourism development.

3.1.4 Champasak tourism development goals

Currently, the world is moving towards a knowledge-based economy and sustainable development. The tourism industry in Laos in general and Champasak in particular must face new challenges and need specific goals to strive for in the process of bringing the tourism industry to sustainable development.

 Economic objective: create a favorable economic environment for the tourism industry to develop in order to optimize the industry's contribution to the province's overall income, contributing to promoting the province's economic restructuring. By 2015, tourism will become an important economic sector, relative to the local potential.

 Cultural and social goals: tourism development planning must be closely linked to preserving and promoting the unique cultural traditions of the locality. Exploiting valuable cultural heritages and historical heritages to serve the

Tourism development must preserve and promote cultural values, maintain good social order as well as a stable political environment and must contribute to improving and enhancing the spiritual and material life of the people of Champasak.

 Environmental objectives: tourism development planning must be based on sustainable development. There must be appropriate planning and management, rational and effective use of tourism resources, especially ecological zones and historical and cultural relics.

If the above goals are properly implemented, it will create conditions for Champasak to develop its tourism industry rapidly and sustainably.

3.2 Solutions for developing Champasak tourism industry until 2015

Through the current issues analyzed in chapter 2, the opportunities, challenges as well as the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of the Champasak tourism industry. To achieve the goal of sustainable economic development, we would like to propose some solutions to develop the Champasak tourism industry in the near future as follows:

3.2.1 Planning solutions

The practice of planning for tourism development in Champasak province in the past time is also closely linked to the current development status and future development trends, but the results achieved are not commensurate and ineffective. Thus, in the coming time, the following specific contents must be done:

- It is necessary to check and re-evaluate whether the implemented projects are as effective as expected and suitable to the current situation, and whether they should be continued or stopped.

- The objectives in the socio-economic development plan must be clearly defined in order of priority and necessity to overcome the situation of scattered and ineffective investment right from the investment policy.

- It is necessary to immediately implement the plans approved by the provincial people's committee. When implementing, it must be done step by step, in order and not implemented massively because doing it in general can easily lead to ineffectiveness.

- Close coordination between relevant levels and sectors is required in the process of planning and implementation. Special attention must be paid to the issue of community participation in the planning and implementation process, and planning must be shifted from input-based planning to output-based planning.

3.2.2 Solutions to improve quality and diversify tourism products

In recent times, tourism products in the province have been monotonous and mainly developed on the basis of exploiting existing resources to build tourist attractions, resorts, etc. without investment in protection, restoration and upgrading. Therefore, there have been signs of degradation in some tourist attractions. This is a significant limitation for the development of tourism in Champasak province. To overcome the above limitations, it is necessary to have measures to diversify tourism products and improve the quality of those tourism products.

For existing products, it is necessary to consolidate and improve to meet the increasing needs of tourists. Carry out the evaluation, classification and ranking of hotels and tourism systems according to current regulations. On that basis, propose specific regulations on amenities and service quality in the hotel and restaurant system so that tourism businesses can improve their services accordingly.

It is necessary to allocate funds to focus on investing in research and creating new tourism products with local characteristics. Specifically, it is necessary to improve the quality of exploited tourist areas, creating attractiveness for tourists to prolong their visit time and make them intend to return to visit again. In addition to developing natural resource tourism products, Champasak tourism also needs to focus on developing resource-based tourism.

The province's culture. It is necessary to focus on restoring and embellishing relics and valuable ancient architectural works such as Oumong Temple, Vatphou Temple, Nanging Tower... Maintaining, restoring and renovating festivals with local cultural characteristics such as Lao New Year Festival, Vatphou Festival, Elephant Wrist Tying Festival, Boat Racing Festival and Lucky Boat Festival... to enrich tourism in the province. In addition, companies need to set up tours to bring tourists to temples with strange and sacred things so that visitors can pray for luck in life or in work, business and trade. These include products such as landscapes, praying for fortune, visiting graves...

The purchase of souvenirs, especially handicrafts and local specialties, is a great demand of tourists, especially international visitors. To meet this demand and create new products, it is necessary to invest in restoring some handicraft production sites in the province in Saphai village, Champasak district... In this condition, it is also possible to plan in the direction of building comprehensive tourism such as: ecological cultural art village.

3.2.3 Human resource training solutions

Tourism is an economic sector that requires extensive and direct communication with tourists. The quality of the tourism industry depends largely on the style, attitude of communication and professional level of the staff. Thus, the requirement to improve the quality of human resources in the tourism industry is extremely urgent. Currently, the tourism industry of Champasak province is facing a pressure on the demand for high-quality human resources, both direct workers and managers. Thus, to meet the requirements for tourism development in Champasak province by 2015, the following contents must be implemented:

- Conduct investigation to classify the professional qualifications of the entire workforce in the industry.

- Develop a human resource training program for the tourism industry. The training program should focus on basic, modern, scientific and highly specialized content.

- Must train service staff, tour guides who are good and love their jobs, prioritize training in professional skills and foreign languages for this team to ensure good service for foreign tourists. In particular, tour guides need to be aware that they are an important factor that directly affects tourists and the community participating in environmental protection.

- Create conditions for tourism management staff to participate in domestic and international conferences and seminars to exchange experiences, learn professional skills, and absorb scientific and technological achievements in sustainable tourism management and development.

3.2.4 Tourism promotion solutions

Champasak tourism promotion activities in the past have been weak, without a specific program or a unified action plan. To be effective in tourism development as well as in tourism promotion, the Champasak tourism industry needs to focus on the following points:

- To win the competition, Champasak tourism needs to build for itself a unique and distinct tourist destination image to create a difference to attract tourists. This must be a trustworthy and demonstrable slogan. And show tourists a truly impressive and beautiful image of the province.

- Organize tourism promotion programs of the province on media, especially advertising on Central television stations because of its ability to spread throughout the country and broadcast abroad.

- Cooperate with relevant units such as: Department of Sports and Physical Training, Department of Commerce, Department of Culture... to bid for organizing major sports tournaments, conferences,

Comment