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Staff Qualifications of the Department of Information and Culture


nature tourism, historical tourism, requesting superiors to approve and at the same time to find sources of investment and tourism development.

+ Coordinate with agencies, units and localities to establish projects and plans for conservation tourism, cooperate with people to implement poverty reduction.

+ Process and provide tourism statistics for use in planning and reporting to competent authorities. Specifically, statistics on the number of tourists, hotels, restaurants, motels, tourist areas and attractions, tourism revenue, budget contributions, length of stay of tourists, etc.

+ Carry out tourism promotion and advertising work. Specifically, propaganda, large and small posters, photos, videos, building websites, tourism billboards. Promoting and encouraging the production of local souvenirs, etc.

+ Establish and strengthen local communication offices where there are famous tourist areas and spots.

+ Provide information to radio stations and newspapers to promote the tourism image of Bo Keo province to other provinces as well as friends around the world.

- Number of staff. Department of Information, Culture and Tourism has a total of 61 staff, including 24 women and 37 men. The tourism management system in the districts is managed by the Tourism Department and under the direction of the Department's Board of Directors.

* Educational level, age, gender of human resources of the Department of Information, Culture and Tourism

Table 3.3: Qualifications of staff of the Department of Information and Culture

and Bo Keo Province Tourism

Unit: Person


TT

By gender

University

College

Intermediate

Primary

1

Male

11

19

5

0

2

Female

9

9

5

1


Total

22

28

11

1

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Staff Qualifications of the Department of Information and Culture

Source: [60].

In table 3.3, it shows that the Department of Information, Culture and Tourism has 22 university degree holders, 28 college degree holders, 11 intermediate degree holders and elementary degree holders.


level 1 person. Thus, the qualifications of the staff are mainly college and intermediate. In Appendix 1, with the number of survey questionnaires of 37 people directly and indirectly related to state management of tourism, only 7 people were trained in tourism; state management majors were 3 people, the remaining 27 people in other majors showed the shortage of staff with tourism management qualifications.

Table 3.4: Age of staff of Department of Information and Culture

and Bo Keo Province Tourism

Unit: Person


TT

By gender

calculate

Under 25

From 25 -35

From 36- 45

From 46 -55

Over 55

1

Male

0

17

7

5

3

2

Female

1

16

10

2

0


Total

1

43

17

7

3

Source: [60].

Looking at Table 3.4, it can be seen that most of the staff of the Department of Information and Tourism are between 25 and 45 years old. This is an age group with many strengths such as: youth, dynamism, and receptiveness to new things in state management activities. However, the level of staff of the Department is generally weak in terms of expertise and professionalism.

3.2. CURRENT STATE OF STATE MANAGEMENT OF TOURISM IN BO KE PROVINCE

3.2.1. Current status of building strategies, planning and policies to support tourism development in Bo Keo province

* Develop tourism development strategies and plans

Pursuant to the Resolutions of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Congresses of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party; Pursuant to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Congresses of the Bo Keo Provincial Party Committee; The 7th and 8th Five-Year Socio-Economic Development Policy of Bo Keo Province and the development strategy of the General Department of Tourism, the 2013 amended Law on Tourism, the Bo Keo Provincial Department of Tourism has developed plans, strategies, and implemented tourism development policies such as: investment promotion policy; telecommunications service infrastructure development policy; policy on connecting transport services with the region;


Bo Keo province's tourism development policy linked with the ASEAN community; transit services and border trade economic development; agricultural development policy linked with agricultural product processing.

Requirement to develop tourism development strategy and plan: Develop natural tourism - green environment associated with preserving and developing culture, customs and practices of the nation. Consolidate and build tourism infrastructure to ensure necessary needs along with improving services to international standards. Develop high quality human resources in the tourism industry. Take the development of traditional information to widely promote tourism of the province. Organize tourism development activities associated with targeted promotion domestically and internationally.

Tourism development planning is carried out annually or every 5 years. Normally, the annual plan is built in September, after being built, it is submitted to the Provincial People's Committee for approval and implementation. On the basis of the tourism development plan, investors base on it to invest in tourism development.

On the other hand, the requirement in the construction of tourism planning of Bo Keo province is to connect with neighboring provinces and provinces of neighboring countries with borders, to make the province's tourism industry towards regional linkage and international integration. Such as connecting Mekong River tourism, craft village tourism and R3 road and Nam Tha river to become regional and international linkage tourism routes.

The province has a plan to develop districts (based on the potential of each district) and is regulated by state management documents, to promote the development of community ecotourism in the locality:

* Tourism development planning of Bo Keo province

During the period from 2007 to 2017, Bo Keo province planned a number of tourism development projects in the area as follows:

- Project to build and develop the Muong Cau Xu Van Na Khom Kham area into a cultural and historical tourist destination.


- The project to develop a hot spring area connected to Nam-nhong waterfall in Nam-Cang-cau village/Ton-phang district becomes a tourist service point associated with the culture and customs of the Tay ethnic group.

- Project to develop Don Pung in Huoi-sai district into a resort and tourism service destination.

- The project to restore and preserve the old French military barracks into a research center and information center on Northern Laos tourism associated with historical tourism.

- Project to develop Pung-lo hot spring/ Mang district to become a hot spring bathing spot, a natural tourist destination associated with the culture of the nation.

- Project to develop Phu-xi-pha area of ​​Pac-Tha district to become a natural and cultural tourist destination of the ethnic group to connect tourism across the border between Laos - Thailand, Chieng-tong village/ Pac-Tha district.

- Project to develop the area of ​​Nui-Pha Hung connecting with Nam-Nhon waterfall for walking tourism with natural tourist attractions

In the recent period, many tourism development planning projects have been implemented in Bo Keo. Tourism planning projects must be consistent with the tourism development plans that the Province has built. The tourism development strategy program 2011 - 2020 of Bo Keo province was built in 2009-2010 and submitted to the Province and the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism for approval. The content of the tourism development strategy 2011 - 2020 of Bo Keo province is as follows: Focusing on the development program of nature tourism, discovery tourism is one of the new development directions of the current tourism industry and is also the strength of Bo Keo province. In the immediate future, the Province will focus on exploiting historical and cultural relic sites such as Nam Tha Cultural Site, Pac Tha District.

Program to restore and develop historical tourism in the US Army Camp in Huoi Sai District. Program to develop a nature conservation forest tourism site. Program to build a resting place for sightseeing and buying products of the people of Don Chay Village, Huoi Sai District.

Community ecotourism development program. This is a very important factor in contributing to local income generation. People have


Cooperation in tourism development stems from their sense of autonomy in planning, implementing plans, bringing benefits to local people. On the basis of natural resources, creating favorable opportunities for local people to create diverse tourism products. From there, the management of natural resources is sustainable and long-term.

Community ecotourism products of Bo Keo districts and province are encouraged to develop as follows:

- Walking tour to see natural forest, animals and plants.

- Learn about the daily life of ethnic people.

- Community tourism (enjoying culinary culture and community activities of indigenous people).

- Buy local agricultural souvenirs and handicrafts.

* Implement policies to encourage and support sustainable and integrated tourism development.

To implement the tourism development orientation and gradually turn tourism into a spearhead economic sector, in the period of 2007 - 2017, Bo Keo province has implemented tourism development policies in a number of areas as follows:

- Investment attraction policy of Bo Keo province.

Based on the current Investment Law 2016, the Province has a policy to encourage tourism development, emphasizing the improvement of tourism services such as hotels, motels, and restaurants that meet the standards to serve tourists, promoting tourism connections with neighboring countries Thailand, Myanmar, especially the Northern provinces of Laos. The Province encourages the development of ethnic cultures associated with rich resources, taking culture, festivals and customs as strengths to attract domestic and foreign tourists to Bo Keo. The Province emphasizes cultural, natural and historical tourism in a sustainable direction in tourism development here. The 5th Congress of Delegates of Bo Keo Province set a target that by 2020, the number of tourists to Bo Keo Province will be about 1,120,581 people [60].

Recently, Bo Keo province has organized scientific seminars to attract investment in tourism development. The content of 4 topics includes: First,


Investment promotion policy in Bo Keo province. Second, develop telecommunications service infrastructure and connect transport services with the region. Third, develop tourism in Bo Keo province to integrate into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Fourth, transit services and develop border trade economy. Fifth, develop agriculture associated with agricultural product processing.

Bo Keo Province has had a policy of encouraging domestic and foreign capital sources to improve and develop tourism further. In the recent period, the Province has received preferential capital from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop infrastructure.

In 2009 - 2013, ADB's total aid investment capital was $1,376,300, of which $446,300 was invested in Bo Keo province to build infrastructure such as Nam Nhon tourist area, information room, Nam Chang village restroom and $930,000 invested in the North - South economic line. In 2014, ADB's aid from the Asian Development Bank totaled $986,300 invested in the Bo Keo - Luang Nam Tha road. In 2015-2017, ADB continued to invest $700,000 in Bo Keo province to continue investing in transport infrastructure, electricity, and renovating the water system of Huoi Sai, Ton Pang and Mang districts [60; 57].

In 2009 - 2014, the Lao Government invested 4,845,000,000 kip in Bo Keo province with 6 programs such as: building an office for the Department of Information, Culture and Tourism; renovating and building new tourism offices in districts, supporting tourism communication; training people to participate in tourism business; renovating and restoring some tourist attractions such as; restoring the ancient city of Su Van Na Khom Kham; French military station; American military station; ancient pagoda... [54; 57].

In 2014-2016, the Lao Government continued to invest 1,000,000,000 kip to build Ho Lac Muong for socio-economic development, including tourism development such as: renovating pagodas, restoring ethnic festivals, and traditional crafts to provide tourism products [57].

In 2017, the Province invested 1,200,000,000 kip in information systems, electricity, sanitation improvement, and schools [60].

Overall investment capital from ADB and Government in development


The economy in general and tourism development in particular are still quite modest. Lack of investment capital is a bottleneck in tourism development here.

- Land policy in tourism development.

Pursuant to the 5th Congress of the Bo Keo Provincial Party Committee, the Land Law, the Tourism Law, the Province plans land for tourist destinations and tourist belts, especially at tourist destinations linked to ASEAN countries such as Nam Can tourist area, Ho Lac Muong tourist area, Su Van Na Khom Kham tourist area in Ton Pang District, Pung Lo Hot Water, Phu Nha Kha in Mang District.

Based on the revised Law on Tourism in 2013 and the tourism development policy, the Provincial Government has also had a land management plan, and made an annual land statistics list. To achieve the strategic goal of promoting and encouraging state investment, Bo Keo Province creates conditions for domestic and foreign private investors to participate in tourism business investment such as: Propagating the Law on Tourism, conditions and policies on tourism in the locality; bidding, transferring tourist spots for them to exploit, etc. For example, Don Sao tourist spot in Ton Pang district and Nam Can National Forest tourist area in Huoi Sai district are natural tourism, the Province has organized bidding for foreign private exploitation such as: bidding for the Golden Triangle area with a term of 99 years (Chinese investors won the bid).

- Tourism resource management policy.

Based on its location, characteristics and strengths, the Bo Keo provincial government has considered tourism as a priority in the province's economy today. In the recent period, the provincial government has established a management list of tourist attractions that are being exploited such as:

Historical tourism includes important wartime tourist attractions such as the French Army Station built in 1900 on the central mountain of the province, which opened in 2012;

Pha Pha tourist area (Buddha symbol) about 15 km from Bo Keo provincial town is a symbol of the princess, daughter of King A Nu Vong, who died during the war with the Kingdom of Thailand;

Tourist attraction: The Prison with 24 cells of the US army during the US invasion of Laos was built in 1963. This is also a stopover.


of tourists when coming to Bo Keo to learn about the history of Laos in general and Bo Keo province in particular.

The spiritual and cultural tourist destination is Ma Ni Lat Pagoda in the center of the province, built in 1880. Pha That Pha Kham Pagoda is about 3 kilometers from the center of the province, this is an ancient pagoda that is 990 years old.

The above mentioned tourist destinations are regularly invested in and upgraded by local authorities to create many new and attractive products, bearing the traditional cultural identity and ethnic culture of the Northwest of Laos. In addition to unique products, the tourist destinations also have a cool climate, fresh air, friendly and hospitable people, social security and order are guaranteed, and customer services are increasingly improved, in which cultural factors have been given more attention in the structure of tourism products.

Currently, the province has only exploited 13 tourist attractions and has not yet exploited 86 scenic spots, historical - cultural relics, lakes and waterfalls with tourism potential. Thus, the process of tourism development in Bo Keo is consistent with the socio-economic development orientation of the country and the province. However, this development is not commensurate with the potential and investment of the locality.

2.2.2. Investing in infrastructure to develop local tourism

* Facilities and infrastructure for tourism

Bo Keo province is a poor province, developing infrastructure to serve socio-economic development in general and tourism in particular faces many difficulties.

- About the transportation system

The main routes for socio-economic development and tourism invested by the Province are:

+ Road: Bo Keo province has national highway R3 and friendship bridge No. 4 (Huoi sai - Chiang khong), 630 meters long, connecting from road No. 1020 of Thailand and road R3 of Lao PDR. This is the road connecting the South of China with ASEAN countries, which is the Bangkok - Kunming road passing through the two provinces of Luang Nam Tha and Bo Keo. This traffic route creates potential for developing trade, tourism, telecommunications and improving the quality of life of people in the three countries of China, Laos and Thailand.

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