Perspectives on Economic Tourism Development in Lao Cai Province

+ Planning and planning management: The construction and adjustment of tourism development planning have contributed positively to the management, protection and exploitation of tourism resources in the right direction and more proactively. Tourism development planning has also promoted positive effects in orienting the development of tourism infrastructure in accordance with the set goals. However, compared to the actual development of Lao Cai tourism and the method of tourism planning, the planning work has not met the requirements, the strategies and orientations are very correct but too general, so when implemented they cannot be implemented. At the same time, the plans are mainly for management, but in reality, management is weak while Lao Cai tourism has not created many products and services to meet the needs of tourists. This has proven that tourism planning from the perspective of managers is far from reality and difficult to implement, has not created effective management solutions, helping to create many products and services to meet customer needs.

+ Investment incentive and attraction policies: In recent years, Lao Cai province has encouraged and created conditions for foreign and domestic investors to implement investment projects in Lao Cai to enjoy maximum incentives according to the Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam, the Law on Domestic Investment Encouragement, and incentives for border economic zones in Lao Cai province. Investing in Lao Cai, investors are given favorable conditions in terms of business locations, assistance with site clearance, exemption from land rent, support for labor training, tax exemptions, and at the same time are guaranteed rights to property ownership, residence, travel, entry and exit, etc. Therefore, in recent years, foreign investment projects in Lao Cai are generally quite diverse in both fields and forms of operation. Domestic investment has also grown strongly with construction, agriculture - services - trade - tourism projects in Lao Cai province. However, large tourism projects are still very few. With the goal of building a quality and sustainable tourism industry, Lao Cai tourism needs to attract experienced and capable investors to research and invest.

+ Management of tourism activities and other services: State management in the field of tourist accommodation is first implemented through the classification and ranking of tourist accommodation establishments. Currently, tourist accommodation establishments in the whole province have been classified.

Maybe you are interested!

ranking, however, this does not reflect the reality of tourist accommodation establishments, due to shortcomings in management (the tourism industry only manages and classifies tourist accommodation establishments that meet minimum standards, while the type of motel is not regulated by Decree 39 on tourist accommodation establishments). The ranking of hotels and motels is an effective state management tool for high-quality tourist accommodation establishments to ensure service quality in accordance with international standards. However, in reality, there has been a fairly common situation where some types of tourism and some budget tourists have the need to stay at small-scale, low-quality accommodation establishments, but there have been no management measures for these establishments. One reason that does not originate from the tourism industry is that the tax regime is not reasonable among accommodation service establishments, leading to no registration and no honest reporting of the number of guests; There is a lack of close coordination between the tourism sector and the police in managing tourism business activities. On the other hand, policies on the development of tourist accommodation establishments are still lacking and not consistent; the issuance of long-term development policies for tourist accommodation business activities is not specific; regulations on taxes, loans, import and export, wages, prices, etc. are still unreasonable, not creating conditions and incentives for accommodation business activities. Currently, most of Lao Cai tourist accommodation establishments have not met international standards in terms of professional qualifications and foreign languages of staff, hygiene levels in kitchen and table departments; architecture in the overall landscape. It can be said that tourism belongs to the field of service sectors whose products have their own characteristics compared to ordinary goods. In Lao Cai province, due to the weakness in management and business of tourism services, there is unhealthy competition among companies (such as price competition, reducing the quality of services in the tourism program). The reason is partly due to the current regulations on tourism business being loose, many points are not close to reality. For other services such as management of entertainment areas, management of tourist transport vehicles, environmental management at tourist routes and destinations, there are still many shortcomings, leading to situations such as price gouging, forcing customers during peak days, lack of culture in commercial behavior with tourists, following customers to sell goods, begging... still happening and not being resolutely handled.

+ Promotional activities: Have been paid attention to, have created a great change in awareness, correctly identified the role and position of Lao Cai tourism, have been and are being paid attention to by all levels, sectors, domestic and foreign investors. Direct tourism services, which are also tourism products such as accommodation, tourist transportation, entertainment, food and beverage, souvenir sales, travel... in recent years have contributed to promoting the image of Lao Cai tourism. However, the development of these services is still small-scale, spontaneous, not according to planning, causing overlap, leading to unhealthy competition, affecting the quality assurance of tourism services provided to tourists. In short, the promotional activities are only in a small scope, have not reached out to large markets, have not built a separate promotional brand for Lao Cai tourism, so business efficiency is still low.

2.2.2. Existing problems and limitations

- The planning of strategies has not yet met practical development requirements, lacks specificity, leading to difficulty in implementation.

- The province's incentive and investment attraction policies have been in place but have not been widely promoted, and have not attracted investors with large and quality tourism projects. Investment capital from the budget is still low, large projects are mostly concentrated in Sa Pa district and Lao Cai city, many investment projects have been registered but are slow to implement.

- The management of room quality and services in tourist accommodation establishments is still loose, leading to existing establishments being degraded, while newly built establishments have difficulty meeting quality standards due to their small scale and high seasonality. Some accommodation establishments have not really complied with current tourism laws such as sending employees to solicit guests; not registering temporary residence for guests; declaring taxes and registering the number of rooms to receive guests is less than the actual number.

- The quality of human resources in tourism activities is still low and unprofessional, which significantly affects the quality of tourism services;

Tourism activities and related services are still weak and lacking, and unhealthy competition occurs in the field of travel and passenger transportation.

- Promotional propaganda work is not extensive, small-scale, spontaneous, the guiding role of state management agencies on tourism is still limited: there is no strategy, no focus on promoting foreign markets and distant markets; promotional publications are not attractive, the amount of information is low, so the effectiveness is limited; (For example, it has not been able to participate in organizing fairs abroad through promotion programs from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Lao Cai's promotional publications are still lacking, not enough to meet the promotion needs).

- The stalking of souvenir sellers. Vietnamese and international visitors have raised a pressing issue regarding ethnic groups in Sa Pa becoming "attackers" and annoying when they try to sell their handicrafts on the streets or in restaurants. Some complained that they were stalked by vendors throughout their journeys to visit the villages. These actions are destroying the attractiveness of the tourist area and the ethnic villages because tourists feel uncomfortable when being lured. Many tourist spots have been abandoned, with no visitors due to the aggressive commercialism of the locals. This bad phenomenon appears partly due to the tactless behavior of visitors, creating a bad precedent in the way ethnic people solicit to buy goods when meeting tourists. Therefore, solving the stalking of people and informing tourists on how to behave properly with locals is an urgent requirement for the Lao Cai tourism industry.

- Toll stations, through research and surveys, the system of collecting fees to visit some villages such as Cat Cat, Ta Phin, Lao Chai is unacceptable to the majority of domestic and international visitors. Vietnamese visitors believe that the right to visit must be included in the organized tour price, they agree to contribute to the development of the local economy but in a different form. The majority of international visitors (96%) have a negative view of this system, they have no information about the place they are going to prepare money for and do not understand what they will receive in return, even at places with very low fees (5000 VND/ticket) but they feel like they are being cheated. Worse, 15% of visitors refuse to go to these villages when they hear that the money they are

must be returned not for the villages they visit. In fact, many people are willing to pay more on the condition that the money goes to the people in those places.

- The overloaded state of the railway industry, especially during holidays and weekends, has made it difficult for tourists to book train tickets on the Lao Cai - Hanoi route and vice versa.

- In Sa Pa District, the souvenir selling area at the Silver Waterfall tourist site has not been specifically planned, so encroachment on the corridor for sales still occurs, and there is still a situation of tourists littering, negatively affecting the landscape of the tourist site.

- Some community tourism routes have gradually lost their natural landscape due to the speed of urbanization; or the implementation of projects; (For example, the construction of hydropower plants in Coc Ly risks losing the Song Chay tourist route, or the construction of hydropower plants in Ta Trung Ho Sa Pa risks losing the Ban Ho tourist area due to the destruction of the mountains and forests...).

- The quality of tourism products is still low. Although in recent years, Lao Cai tourism industry has created new tourism products. However, up to now, tourism products are still monotonous, product quality is still low, outstanding tourism products have not been created, the landscape, environment and unique cultural values of the nation are still wasted, there is no synchronous and effective investment strategy.

Reason:

- Tourism management officials and agencies in districts and cities are not really professional, still confused in implementing professional tasks. There has not been a breakthrough development to affirm that tourism is truly a spearhead economic sector;

understand

development is not commensurate with the potential and advantages of the province , development

but still

contains many unstable factors .

- There are many competitors. Vietnam tourism in general, including Lao Cai tourism, opened at a time when world tourism developed at a high level in many aspects. Many tourists are used to going to countries with highly developed tourism industries. Therefore, currently, many demands of international tourists in the tourism industry

Vietnam's tourism economy in general and Lao Cai tourism in particular have not yet met the requirements such as: standard swimming pools, entertainment and exploration places, unique tourism products, beautiful souvenirs, fast means of transportation... This is one of the reasons why Vietnam's tourism economy in general and Lao Cai tourism in particular are not attractive enough to attract international visitors.

- Location of unconcentrated resources: Being a province rich in tourism resources, both natural and human tourism resources, this is a favorable condition for Lao Cai to develop the tourism industry. However, a difficulty for such development is that tourism resources are not concentrated but scattered, which causes great obstacles in planning, investing in tourism development and at the same time causes difficulties in the travel of tourists.

- Social infrastructure is still poor. Social infrastructure is the material means not built by tourism organizations but by the whole society. That is the system of roads, airports, ports, stations, railways, parks of the whole people, commercial networks of the people, water supply and drainage systems, telecommunications systems, electricity networks, museums, theaters, etc. Lao Cai's social infrastructure has now developed but is not synchronous between regions. Due to limited capital, investment in new construction, maintenance, repair and renovation of some roads is still slow, the domestic waste treatment system is still lacking and does not ensure quality.

- The conditions of tourism infrastructure and techniques are still underdeveloped. Accommodation facilities are small, equipment is not uniform, means of transport are both lacking and of poor quality, the system of restaurants does not meet standards. The quality of hotels and motels is low and monotonous: the number of hotels from three stars and above is still modest compared to the scale of tourism development in the province. There is a lack of large-scale entertainment complexes, large-scale tourist areas associated with famous landscapes... This is a cause that hinders the development of Lao Cai's tourism industry.

- Human resources for Lao Cai tourism industry are still lacking in quantity and weak in quality. Foreign language proficiency of Lao Cai tourism workforce is still at a low level.

low level, most of them have not been trained in tourism, even have low cultural level. The management and coordination of this labor force is still loose, leading to chaos and lack of civilization in tourism.

From the above shortcomings, it is necessary to outline specific directions and solutions to build a high-quality, sustainable tourism industry.

In short, Lao Cai is a province with rich and diverse tourism resources, in addition to the attention of the Central Government and the Province, which are favorable conditions to promote the development of the tourism industry.

In recent years, under the leadership of the Provincial Party Committee, Lao Cai tourism industry has achieved encouraging results such as revenue and profit from tourism activities continuously increasing, contributing more and more to the provincial budget income, creating thousands of jobs for workers every year, contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of local people. However, besides the achievements, Lao Cai tourism industry cannot avoid limitations such as: low quality of tourism products, slow development speed of the industry, poor integration ability, infrastructure system as well as labor force, not meeting requirements... Therefore, finding feasible solutions for development is an urgent issue.

Chapter 3

PERSPECTIVES AND SOLUTIONS TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN LAO CAI PROVINCE

3.1. Perspectives on tourism economic development in Lao Cai province

3.1.1. Development of tourism economy must be consistent with the socio-economic development planning of the province and must be placed in close connection with inter-regional tourism development of the whole country.

The “inter-regional” characteristic of the tourism economy is one of the inherent characteristics that each region and each country needs to pay attention to in the development process. In particular, the current trend of regionalization and internationalization poses new opportunities, opportunities as well as challenges for countries, so the “inter-regional” characteristic is even more important. Although the tourism industry of Lao Cai always aims for its own unique appeal, its development cannot be separated from the trend of the times, and even more so from the common development in the region, the country and the world. The cooperation and connection between regions and countries in the world will help the tourism industry of Lao Cai take advantage of scientific and technological achievements to shorten the development gap, at the same time, expand the market, promote comparative advantages to exploit resources to the maximum in the development process. Therefore, it is necessary to put it in the overall planning according to the common characteristics of the region and the orientation of the country. If there is a connection between routes and points in the country, it will create favorable conditions to promote the development of Lao Cai's tourism industry.

3.1.2. Sustainable tourism economic development must be associated with the protection of the ecological and social environment. Development must satisfy current needs without harming the development of future generations.

In the current context, an issue that cannot be overlooked is that tourism activities can cause damage to the environment and ecological resources in many areas, distort cultural and historical works, and even lead to a number of social evils that negatively impact the quality of life of local people. The situation of littering and traffic congestion at tourist destinations is also a phenomenon of concern. Analysis

Comment