Orientation and Solutions for Ecotourism Development at Xuan Thuy National Park, Nam Dinh

The countryside in the district is invested in a large scale and has many rich exhibits to help visitors have the opportunity to learn everything about Xuan Thuy National Park.

Xuan Thuy National Park has recently been promoted on VTV1 channel at 20:05 pm in the program "S Vietnam - hidden beauty" with a duration of 4'41" and posted online through popular news sites such as Tin Tuc 24h ( www.24h.com.vn ) or zing.vn (news.zing.vn).

2.4.2. Difficulties - limitations:

Tourism activities in Xuan Thuy National Park are still at the potential level, so tourism activities here have not developed. Investment in building tourism infrastructure in Giao Thuy is still difficult, the development of tourism in the district is still slow, small scale, not promoting the potential and advantages to create a commensurate development. The conditions of tourism infrastructure in Xuan Thuy National Park and the buffer zone communes are still simple, there is no detailed planning of functional areas such as wharves, boats, waterways, accommodation service facilities, means of transport ... to meet the needs of tourists for sightseeing, accommodation. In the district as well as the core communes of the national park, there is still a lack of entertainment areas, souvenir shops to serve tourists. Transportation to the park is still difficult, so it takes a lot of tourists' time. The products and services for tourists are not diverse, leading to low revenue of service businesses in tourist areas and spots. The restaurant system has been built a lot but the scale and quality of service have not met the demand, especially for tourists with high income. There is still a shortage of high-class hotels and resorts. Most of them are small-scale accommodation facilities, the number and quality of rooms are not up to standard. It is very difficult to arrange a place to rest that can meet the needs of tourists when they come here. These limitations have affected the attraction of tourists to visit as well as not prolonging the length of their stay. Because the accommodation facilities are low-class hotels, motels or private homes, additional services such as swimming pools, saunas, massages, etc. are limited or almost non-existent. The hygiene issue at the accommodation facilities is in great need of attention. Homestays are still few because the number of people participating in this type is not much, the service equipment and scale of the homestay types here are still poor, not convenient enough to meet the diverse needs of tourists.

The tourism workforce here is still unprofessional and has not met international tourism service standards. The rate of trained tourism workers is still low. The number of tour guides from the Management Board as well as from the local community participating in community ecotourism services is still small.

Maybe you are interested!

Tourism products are still limited and have not been invested much to meet the entertainment and shopping needs of tourists, leading to low revenue for tourism activities in the area.

Promotion, advertising, search and exploitation of tourist markets have not received much investment and are not synchronized.

The number of domestic and international tourists coming to the Park has increased year by year but is still very modest. The tourism products and goods here are still poor and not attractive enough to attract tourists, so they do not spend much, making the revenue from tourism activities not high.

Domestic waste from tourist attractions has increased. In tourist areas, solid waste, garbage, and wastewater have not been collected and treated thoroughly, so the risk of local pollution and re-pollution after treatment still occurs. Many tourist groups after visiting leave behind a lot of waste such as waste paper, candy wrappers, plastic bags, littering Lu Islet, floating on the Red River. In addition, public toilets at tourist attractions are still lacking, many places are degraded, and service equipment does not ensure safety for tourists. Tourism development also increases traffic congestion, air, water, and noise pollution, changes the natural landscape, and negatively affects the living environment of living creatures.

Climate change and rising sea levels can negatively affect the management objectives of the park. Rising sea levels and storm intensity will change the composition of sediments, salinity and water pollution levels, degrading and threatening the survival of mangrove forests and the species in them. Rising sea levels can cause saltwater to penetrate deep into the mainland, killing many freshwater animals and plants, negatively affecting freshwater sources for cultivation and daily life in buffer zone communes. Rising temperatures cause aquatic and seafood resources to disperse. Tropical fish species (low economic value - except tuna) increase, subtropical fish species (high economic value) decrease. Climate change with its consequences such as floods, droughts, forest fires, erosion and landslides will promote faster and more severe biodiversity degradation, increasing the risk of extinction of animals and plants, and causing the disappearance of rare and valuable genetic resources.

Chapter 2 Summary

In part 2, we have seen the potential for developing ecotourism in Xuan Thuy National Park, specifically the conditions of infrastructure, technical facilities, ecotourism resources including the rich diversity of natural tourism resources and the uniqueness of indigenous culture, human resources serving local tourism and conservation policies, promotion and investment in developing ecotourism in the National Park. We also know about the current status of ecotourism development in the Park in recent years, thereby having an important premise to propose reasonable orientations and solutions to develop ecotourism in Xuan Thuy National Park to match its potential in the future.

CHAPTER 3: ORIENTATION AND SOLUTIONS FOR ECO-TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN XUAN THUY NATIONAL PARK, NAM DINH

3.1. Orientation for ecotourism development in Xuan Thuy National Park

The orientation is to initially improve the quality of ecotourism products and diversify types of ecotourism to better meet the diverse desires of tourists, attracting them with many different ecotourism activities organized in the Park area with quality tourism products that meet standards. Once the tourism activities here are developed in a rich way from scale to ranking, the Management Board needs to have a policy to attract investment capital to quickly promote the construction and completion of technical facilities and infrastructure to meet the essential needs of tourists when visiting Xuan Thuy National Park. In order to meet the essential needs of tourists such as food, accommodation, roads, means of transportation for tourists, tourism must diversify service facilities, entertainment areas for visitors, creating conditions for visitors to stay for a long time and help increase revenue for the tourist area. Tourism exploitation and development activities must ensure sustainability, preserve and protect natural tourism resources, ecological environment and human tourism resource values, without destroying the landscape of the eco-tourism area. Investment in development and exploitation must be closely linked to restoration and conservation activities. Increase investment so that the Xuan Thuy National Park eco-tourism area can develop strongly to become a key tourism area of Nam Dinh province, thereby creating jobs for local people, improving their material and spiritual life, having appropriate policies and sharing the benefits of tourism with the local community, promoting the spirit and sense of ownership of local people, helping people to be aware of the benefits of tourism and do things that are useful for the development of tourism. Strengthening promotional activities, promoting the image of Xuan Thuy National Park to domestic and international tourist markets who know and want to visit through mass media, local people, tourists and tour guides. Building routes, tours outside the province and within the province connecting with Xuan Thuy National Park to diversify the attractions for tours, increase the number of visitors to Xuan Thuy National Park from other sightseeing tours taking place more from different tourist market segments. Tourism activities at Xuan Thuy National Park eco-tourism area will create conditions for economic development for other sectors.

3.2. Solutions for developing ecotourism in Xuan Thuy National Park, Nam Dinh

3.2.1. Improve the quality of ecotourism products and diversify ecotourism activities.

To attract tourists to Xuan Thuy National Park, the Management Board needs to create unique ecotourism products. With the characteristics of Xuan Thuy National Park, the following ecotourism activities can be developed:

Hunting, fishing, crab fishing: The management board can organize this type of tourism based on specific planning in fishing areas reserved for tourists. Fishing, crab fishing while enjoying the fresh air of nature in the National Park, enjoying the cool breeze from the sea, admiring the majestic beauty of the National Park as well as enjoying the joy of successfully catching fish and crabs that are difficult to catch promises to be an unforgettable and attractive experience for tourists.

Craft village tourism: Currently, the Management Board only organizes tours to Sa Chau fish sauce craft village but has not organized tours to newly emerging craft villages such as beekeeping and oyster mushroom farms. These are two unique new products that bear the local mark and have brought in large incomes to help improve people's lives. Visitors can visit the large-scale beekeeping and mushroom growing models of the locals, hear about the production process from the locals and buy the products directly as souvenirs for themselves or for relatives and friends. In addition, you can organize a tour to visit Bach Long salt village in Bach Long commune in Giao Thuy district - this is a very famous salt field for photographers when they often come here in the afternoon to capture images of salt farmers harvesting salt in the sunset, at the same time, Bach Long is also the largest monoculture salt producing commune in Giao Thuy district with an estimated total annual salt output of tens of thousands of tons - coming here, visitors will have the opportunity to admire the vastness of the salt field and watch the salt making process with their own eyes, from leading seawater into the creek, watering the sand yard, drying the sand, collecting sand into the filter tank to make the water, and then from the water to make salt grains. Combined with participating in some other routes will create diverse attractions for visitors.

Resort and entertainment tourism: Xuan Thuy National Park has a diverse flora and fauna under the vast forest and the unique culture of the local residents, which will be a suitable place to develop resort and entertainment tourism. This type of tourism can attract international and domestic officials and businessmen to relax after stressful working days.

Festival tourism: The buffer zone communes of Xuan Thuy National Park have a unique culture of the coastal residents of the Red River Delta. It is necessary to focus on exploiting the festivals of the indigenous residents such as: wrestling, walking on stilts, participating in religious pilgrimages, rowing... Tourists are allowed to participate in this type of tourism so that they can feel that they are members of the community so that they can leave and remember Xuan Thuy National Park forever.

Souvenir tree planting: Travel agencies and local communities will organize for tourists to participate in souvenir tree planting, specifically planting mangrove forests in coastal estuaries to both preserve forest resources here and to create an impression for tourists about the tourist destination and raise tourists' sense of responsibility for the eco-tourism destination.

Business tourism: This is a type of tourism combined with a business trip. In the coming time, the authorities at all levels in Giao Thuy district as well as the Xuan Thuy National Park Management Board need to invest heavily to promote socio-economic development here. When tourists come to travel, economic activities will increase accordingly, this is a source of tourists that helps increase local budget revenue significantly.

In addition to diversifying ecotourism products, it is also necessary to improve product quality. Xuan Thuy National Park has a rich flora and fauna ecosystem, so every project built here needs to be considered not to adversely affect the regional ecosystem. Tourist accommodation facilities here must ensure cleanliness, comfort and a beautiful space. The workforce in the tourism sector needs to be enthusiastic, polite and welcoming to create a good impression on visitors, making them want to come back more often. Tourism services need to be strictly managed and regularly inspected to ensure the best quality of service for visitors. The dishes prepared in restaurants need to be diverse and rich, from popular local dishes such as seafood or other dishes according to each guest's individual requests to the unique features of local specialties such as Giao Thuy spring rolls with Sa Chau fish sauce to meet the culinary needs of visitors. Food quality must be hygienic to ensure the health of tourists. Boats serving tourists in the National Park must be inspected regularly to ensure the safety of passengers on board. Boats must be clean, have enough life jackets for tourists and carry just enough passengers to avoid sinking, endangering the whole group. The number of bicycles and motorbikes used for countryside tours rented by the Management Board for tourists must be checked for wear and tear in order to repair them promptly. If necessary, the number of vehicles for large groups of tourists during peak tourist seasons can be increased to avoid a shortage of vehicles when there are too many tourists. Souvenirs in tourist areas need to have a strong local character, produced by local people, the products need to be diverse to meet the shopping needs of the majority of tourists to create an unforgettable impression for tourists who have traveled here and they will also use those products to let their friends and relatives know about Xuan Thuy National Park and the number of tourists coming here can increase. The prices of souvenirs must also be reasonable with the design, shape and quality of the product, avoiding the situation of soliciting and ripping off tourists.

3.2.2.Improving tourism infrastructure and technical facilities

To develop infrastructure and technical facilities for tourism in the future, the Xuan Thuy National Park Management Board needs to have an open investment policy, create and complete a number of stable legal and economic bases to attract businesses and people to invest in building infrastructure, developing accommodation facilities, and entertainment areas in a synchronous manner to improve the quality of ecotourism products, meet the increasing needs of tourists, and contribute to the development of the provincial tourism industry. It is necessary to encourage foreign investment and domestic investment (both public and private sectors) to participate in investing in tourism development according to the plan and have specific investment projects. Localities plan each tourism project in detail. Organize tourism business bidding for all economic sectors to participate and develop a general plan. It is necessary to accelerate the equitization process and form public joint stock companies in tourism activities to attract large investment capital from the community to exploit the available tourism potential. Equitization with high social character and concern for community interests are two basic characteristics of sustainable development principles. It is necessary to invest in upgrading hotel and restaurant systems, entertainment facilities to attract more tourists to Xuan Thuy National Park. Hotels need to be upgraded with additional amenities such as spas, swimming pools, etc. to meet the diverse needs of tourists. In addition, accommodation establishments need to upgrade their facilities to meet business standards in tourism activities. Strengthen understanding of tourists' needs and tastes to have appropriate business strategies. It is necessary to invest in building facilities and technical infrastructure such as parking lots, guest houses, signs, public telephone stations, and increase investment capital for tourism development such as building and developing a system of restaurants, eateries, cafes, karaoke services, entertainment areas, bars, and shopping centers to attract more visitors. These projects need to be built in an architectural style that is in harmony with the natural landscape of the area and carefully planned so as not to damage the landscape of the area and not cause negative impacts on the surrounding environment (noise, waste, etc.). The system of dishes in the restaurant systems needs to be diverse and rich, from popular dishes to local specialties to meet the diverse culinary needs of tourists. In tourist facilities, traditional local handicrafts can be used to create a friendly, comfortable, and impressive feeling for guests with local culture, creating uniqueness compared to other regions. Invest in building more road systems to increase convenience and shorten the distance to the Park, rebuild degraded roads, and minimize the concreting of roads in the eco-tourism area.Attention should be paid to the construction of a sanitary system and a clean water supply system to meet the needs of visitors. With the scale of Giao Thuy district, it is possible to build an international-class resort to serve tourists.

Accommodation services for tourists with a close accommodation system, in harmony with nature, enjoy more services and have the opportunity to exchange local culture, attend cultural festivals with local people held in the resort...

In the tourist area, all services for tourists such as souvenir stalls, candy and drink shops, small restaurants serving near the tourist area must be planned into a separate sales area, divided into booths like small restaurants, avoiding the situation of scattered sales at single points causing loss of aesthetics and thus creating a feeling of unprofessionalism when serving tourists. When constructing technical facilities and infrastructure, it is also necessary to ensure scientificity, with a certain appropriate distance so as not to destroy the natural landscape of the tourist area and not to adversely affect the ecological environment.

The area providing entertainment services for visitors needs to be invested in because without this item, the tourist area cannot develop. It is possible to organize boating areas for visitors, local boat docks to serve boating activities to take visitors on sightseeing trips, plan areas for visitors to fish, crab fishing, boat rental areas for visitors to row themselves, build a local cultural village to organize local cultural activities such as singing and performing arts, folk games... to help visitors have the opportunity to interact and understand more about the life and culture of the indigenous people...

In the future, if more infrastructure is built to serve tourism in the area, one or two more power stations should be built near the tourist area when the peak tourist season comes to avoid the situation of overloading electricity causing alternating power outages, affecting the tourism activities of tourists and the service activities of local people. It is necessary to install one or two backup generators with large capacity or devices using natural energy to help save electricity. Thus, if the tourist area is built on a larger scale, it will always operate normally, without interruption, meeting all the needs of tourists.

Expand the tourist service department at Xuan Thuy National Park headquarters to meet the needs of tourists. Build a tourist boat dock to welcome tourists traveling by sea from Quat Lam, develop a fleet of standard passenger boats to visit the mangrove ecosystem; build a system of stilt houses, observation huts, and tourist campsites as a stopover for visitors in Con Lu.

It is necessary to continue to maintain and expand community tourism and the Countryside Museum to create conditions for tourists to access local communities and the unique traditional cultural and religious activities of the rice civilization of the Delta.

The Red River Delta combined with hundreds of religious buildings with unique architecture are interesting attractions for tourists. It is necessary to invest in building facilities to serve tourists, activities for community activities, singing and dancing, etc.; planning specific routes and points for community ecotourism; supporting the community in coordinating visitors, dividing accommodation areas, eating and drinking, selling goods, etc. It is necessary to attract more households to participate in homestay tourism services that meet international standards with large investment capital from the state and authorities at all levels to build "family hotels" to serve tourists from different markets, increase unique tourism experiences for tourists and help enhance cultural exchange between tourists and local culture. Encourage and support farming households to invest in developing traditional craft villages so that tourists can experience the work of local people.

When tourism activities develop, it is necessary to pay attention to environmental protection. Build public toilets, install public trash cans to avoid tourists littering while visiting. After each day, there must be environmental staff to collect trash and transfer it to another place for processing to ensure the eco-tourism environment is always clean. The water supply system must be treated cleanly using biological technology (avoid using chemicals). Wastewater sources must be treated before being discharged into the surrounding environment.

3.2.3. Engaging local communities in tourism activities

Local authorities at all levels need to direct relevant agencies to conduct investigations and surveys on human resource needs in the tourism sector. From there, prioritize training and development of high-quality human resources; local human resources (indigenous people) serving community tourism, contributing to job creation in rural areas, hunger eradication and poverty reduction.

Local authorities need to have support policies to encourage people to participate in ecotourism activities. Local people are the ones who live in the ecotourism area, so they are the ones who understand the natural environment and local culture best. Without the participation of this community, the organization and development of ecotourism activities will not be effective.

First, create opportunities and favorable conditions for people to participate in tourism development.

One of the fundamental reasons hindering the participation of local communities in tourism development activities is that they do not have the opportunity or conditions to participate. Therefore, it is necessary to publicize and make transparent information about tourism development planning, plans and policies so that local communities in the area can proactively participate.

Authorities at all levels, especially at the grassroots level, need to organize forums for people to participate in contributing ideas on tourism development plans and projects in the area. It is necessary to maintain regular communication channels and information exchange to help community members.

Comment