Research on community tourism development in Don Duong district, Lam Dong province

Chapter 3 Summary

Based on the results of a field survey combined with investigations and interviews with four stakeholders in tourism activities in Don Duong district (local people, tourists, local authorities and the private sector), the content of chapter 3 thoroughly analyzes the actual conditions for developing community-based tourism in Don Duong, including attractiveness of tourism resources, access to destinations, community factors, tourist market conditions and support conditions. On the other hand, this chapter also analyzes the current situation and needs for community-based tourism development in Don Duong, emphasizing the current situation of local people's participation in tourism activities, their wishes and needs for community-based tourism development in the locality. From there, analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of Don Duong district in developing community-based tourism through the SWOT method, based on the combination of the SWOT matrix to propose practical solutions in the following chapter to develop community-based tourism in Don Duong district, Lam Dong province.

Product orientation

Community tourism associated with the culture of the Churu ethnic group: exploiting the value of the gong cultural space of the Churu people, traditional crafts including pottery, silver rings, weaving, and making rice wine in Lac Xuan, Tu Tra, and Próh communes; traditional cuisine and daily life of the local community.

Farmstay tourism is associated with typical agricultural products of local residents; visiting and experiencing the "a day as a farmer" tour at farms growing green vegetables, tomatoes, Cayenne pineapples or environmentally friendly dairy farms; enjoying local agricultural products combined with learning about intensive farming culture, experiencing the farming and labor process of farmers.

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Craft village tourism associated with Lac Lam rice paper products: visit and learn about the handmade rice paper production process of households migrating from Kinh Bac region to Don Duong for more than 30 years, forming the traditional rice paper production village of Lac Lam, especially enjoying grilled rice paper with shrimp paste created by villagers and has become a typical product of the craft village.

Sightseeing and sightseeing based on the wild beauty of natural landscapes such as Cha Tay waterfall, Thien Thai waterfall, Chau Son pine hill, Ma Danh lake, Da Ron lake, Da Nhim lake, wild flower hills; visiting and admiring the unique beauty of architectural works imbued with the culture of the Churu people such as Ka Don church, Churu ancient house.

Photo tourism is based on the mountain terrain with many beautiful landscapes, many spectacular mountain passes, many seasonal natural flowers and the simplicity in the daily life of the indigenous people.

Orientation of tourism development according to territorial space

For Don Duong district, it is necessary to plan tourism development according to tourist spots on the basis of exploiting attractive tourist spots:

- Community tourism spots: Diom A village - Lac Xuan commune, Pro commune, Tu Tra commune with a large concentration of Churu ethnic people and is a place that still preserves the traditional cultural values of Churu, people strongly support tourism development.

- Management Board: drafts tourism regulations in the village, inspects, reviews, and grasps the operational situation to issue appropriate regulations for each functional group, local people, and tourists; is responsible for managing the general operations of the model and is a bridge between the community tourism model and outside individuals and organizations. Management Board members include prestigious and influential people in the village, especially the Churu people and representatives of Lac Xuan commune government. The head of the Management Board must be a prestigious person in the village, always interested in all aspects of social life, always helping village members, and having a high sense of responsibility for the work.

- Operational Team: coordinate functional groups to cooperate in serving customers, assign tasks, and urge implementation to ensure that tourists' travel process is not delayed or interrupted; develop new business strategies as well as create many attractive tourism products for tourists. This team should be established from the beginning, including 4-5 members who are local people, living long-term in Diom A village, to organize tours, determine appropriate capacity as well as arrange sightseeing and experiences.

- Functional Group: undertakes different tasks during tourism activities. This group should mobilize human resources in the village and divide into different specialized groups based on exploiting the strengths of the member groups.

+ Gong performance group: gathers members of the Churu ethnic group in Diom A village, especially under the direction of gong performance artist Ma Bio.

+ Guide and explanation group (directions): take tourists to visit the village's unique tourism resources that have been selected in the model, combining explanations and interpretations of the ethnic origin, customs, religions, traditional cultural festivals, crafts and daily life of the Churu people.

+ Culinary group: build menus, prepare and serve traditional Churu dishes and drinks based on local ingredients and food sources.

+ Accommodation group: serving the overnight accommodation needs of tourists, this group is responsible for preparing accommodation and necessary items to ensure the essential needs of guests; it is necessary to pay attention to the original elements associated with the cultural values of the Churu community to give tourists the opportunity to experience the daily life of the Churu community in Diom A village, Lac Xuan commune.

+ Costume group: collect and preserve traditional costumes of the Churu people. During the process of serving tourists, all members wear traditional costumes. In addition, it is necessary to ensure that the costumes are always clean and tidy so that they can be rented to tourists for taking photos or participating in community cultural activities.

+ Medical team: ready to take care of tourists whenever they have health problems, first aid. This team needs to be fully prepared with necessary medical equipment as well as equipped with basic medical knowledge and skills to serve guests in emergencies.

+ Community cleaning group: responsible for cleaning and waste disposal in all places that tourists can pass through and visit. At the same time, propagate to everyone in the community to be responsible for protecting the environment, waste disposal to contribute to ensuring the landscape in the whole village and have the right to handle violators according to the regulations of the Management Board.

Based on the survey results of the conditions for developing community-based tourism and the investigation of opinions of relevant parties, the topic proposes tourism products for the specific model as follows:

+ Visit and learn about the indigenous cultural architecture at the Churu ancient stilt house: currently in the whole village there are about 4-5 houses with many traditional features preserved by the people. With a simple and modest architecture, the house is completely made of wood, in front of the house is always a large yard, visitors can visit here.

+ Visit and experience the agricultural production activities of the Churu people here in the vegetable gardens.

+ Enjoy local cuisine prepared by Churu people from available ingredients.

+ Learn about the traditional wine making process of the Churu people introduced by artisan Ma Bio and enjoy the delicious taste of wine here.

+ Admire and learn about Churu cultural values through the Churu gong set preserved by artisan Ma Bio through many generations of family.

+ Enjoy the Central Highlands gong culture performed by the Churu ethnic community by the flickering fire at the Churu ancient house.

+ Stay at a local's house: sleep overnight and chat with the locals to have a deep experience of Churu culture.

On the other hand, the topic analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of Don Duong district in developing community tourism through the SWOT tool. The research results show that: In terms of strengths, Don Duong has a favorable location and is a neighboring district of Da Lat tourism cluster, so it has the opportunity to welcome visitors. On the other hand, Don Duong is also the place with the largest concentration of Churu ethnic people in the whole province, where the traditional values of indigenous people are preserved and has beautiful, wild and simple natural landscapes. In particular, local people support and are willing to participate in developing community tourism in Don Duong. In terms of weaknesses, local tourism planning and promotion are limited, attractive tourist resources are scattered, local people do not have the skills to welcome and serve tourists, and the connection between local authorities and the private sector is limited. In terms of opportunities, community tourism is becoming a trend that is encouraged to develop in rural areas as well as in developing countries. Tourists are increasingly aware of their responsibility towards the environment and society, and they tend to seek new experiences. However, localities also face many challenges in developing community tourism, which is that the success and popularity of some community tourism models in the country will lead to a comparison mentality in tourists' decision to choose a new destination. Meanwhile, tourists increasingly have higher demands on the quality of tourism products as well as the quality of destinations.

From the combined strategies of the SWOT matrix, from the perspective of local authorities, the topic proposes 06 groups of solutions for developing community tourism in Don Duong district, including solutions on mechanisms and policies; tourism planning; investment, upgrading infrastructure, technical facilities for tourism; technical information support for local people; proposing a model of community tourism spots in Diom A village, Lac Xuan commune and solutions for promotion and association with the private sector. Through recommendations to local authorities at all levels, the topic hopes to contribute to the development of community tourism in Don Duong to help local people preserve and promote indigenous cultural values, emphasizing the culture of the Churu ethnic group, improving income through tourism activities, creating opportunities for exchange and contact with tourists, aiming at the goal of sustainable socio-economic development and building the image of Don Duong destination.

Vietnamese Documents

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