The Role and Relationship Between Tourism and Local Communities

tourism facilities. However, this contribution is still modest. However, from the perspective of the managers of the National Park, the main goal of tourism activities is to make visitors understand the value of the National Park and raise their conservation awareness.

Tourism contributes to creating exchanges between the National Park and domestic and international organizations, creating opportunities to attract research projects, investment, and conservation support. Many animal conservation organizations, zoos of many countries, along with conservation support projects of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) have supported the park management board such as: Germany, England, France...

Environmental education activities through exchanges between tourists and staff at the National Park on environment and conservation. Environmental education through green clubs established in schools in the buffer zone. Documents compiled and provided to teachers for teaching in classrooms.

Negative side

- The increasing number of visitors, concentrated in time and space, causes overload to the tourism environment.

Most tourists are students traveling in groups of several dozen to several hundred people. Especially during festivals and weekends, the number of visitors is too large, often causing overload for the National Park in all aspects: services, accommodation, parking, especially guest management and environmental protection.

Most tourists visiting the National Park are conscious of preserving and protecting the environmental resources in the park area. However, some tourists still have unconscious actions that negatively impact nature. On the trails in the forest, many tourists still litter, especially non-biodegradable waste such as nylon bags, plastic bottles, glass bottles, and cans, even though they are not properly disposed of.

Although there are many public trash cans on the road and in the central area of the garden, the phenomenon of tourists cutting down trees, breaking branches, picking leaves, and picking flowers is still quite common, causing great harm to the development of forest trees. Many groups of tourists entering the garden make noise, scaring birds and animals. In the hot, dry summer, some tourists even bring fire into the forest or smoke in the forest, causing extremely dangerous forest fires.

- Tourism activities are concentrated in the central area at the top of the garden near where ecosystems need to be protected.

Along with the concentration of visitors at certain times, tourism activities are concentrated in some areas and points, sightseeing routes such as: Kim Giao forest route, Ao Ech, Trung Trang cave. These areas are located close to the Intact Protection Zone, where ecosystems need to be protected and human impact is limited. Thus, the concentration of tourism activities here will affect the living environment of flora and fauna in the National Park.

During peak tourist seasons, at major tourist attractions and routes, the number of visitors exceeds the allowable capacity, putting pressure on the environment.

In general, the expansion of tourism activities often leads to the inevitable improvement and enhancement of infrastructure and facilities for tourism. This is a contradiction that arises between tourism needs and the requirement to preserve the natural environment (which in ecotourism) needs to be limited).

Due to the demand for tourism activities, the main road in the National Park has been upgraded to asphalt. As a result, the convenience has led to an increase in the number of visitors and motor vehicles entering the center of the park.

The presence of the road has affected a wide range of animal species, and relationships between some individuals may be severed. In addition,

increases erosion, creating obstructions to the flow. Human and vehicle traffic on this road is one of the pressures on the environment of the National Park.

3.2.4 The role and relationship between tourism and local communities

The role of tourism with the community

- Tourism has contributed to improving the socio-economic situation of the buffer zone residents.

It can be said that the process of developing tourism in the National Park of the Central Highlands is partly linked to the process of improving the appearance of the National Park of the Central Highlands as well as some residential areas. In particular, in September this year, Viet Hai commune will enjoy the national power grid system.

The Management Board of the National Park in general and the Ecotourism Center in particular have helped local communities develop the buffer zone economy through the following programs:

Forest planting and care: This is a national program to support capital as well as forestry land for local households to reforest bare land and hills. To do this well, the technical staff of the Park has guided people from nursery to planting, caring and protecting forests. Gradually, people are associated with the work of planting, caring and protecting forests.

Forest protection contracts: To coordinate between the Park and departments, organizations and local people in forest protection, hundreds of Parks have signed contracts to assign forest protection to units, households or specific communities for each lot, with guiding maps and monitoring and supervision by Park staff.

Take advantage of some funding sources from non-governmental organizations to organize training courses to improve community capacity through the transfer of some models, techniques, etc., as well as provide initial support to partially solve capital difficulties to increase production, improve the lives and income of the community.

Developing eco-tourism with people's participation

Although the ecotourism activities of the Park have just been established, they have solved a part of the local labor force in creating tourist routes, road maintenance, food and beverage services, resorts, waste collection, etc. This shows that if this activity develops, it will contribute significantly to solving economic difficulties and people's awareness of their own resources.

- The number of people participating in tourism activities is small and limited.

Local people's participation in tourism activities is still limited, only implemented in Viet Hai village, within the garden boundary.

However, the participation of local people in tourism activities in the buffer zone of the National Park is not significant. People have almost no role in organizing and directly managing their service activities.

The relationship between tourism and local residents

- The level of impact of tourism through the opinions of local residents The relationship between tourism and local communities is expressed through attitudes

People's attitudes towards tourism. This is an aspect that needs to be researched and evaluated to help planners develop the right strategy in tourism development, support local communities and pay attention to people's needs.

The majority of local residents are native locals who have lived in the area for many years and all believe that the National Park is an attractive place for tourists (about 85%), only a small percentage answered no (3%) and did not know (12%).

Currently, tourism does not affect the lives of people here much, both positively and negatively. However, the assessment is more inclined towards positive aspects such as transportation and electricity.

- The level of relationship between tourism and local people

When asked about their relationships with tourists, the majority of respondents said they had almost no relationships with tourists, the rest were acquaintances or met tourists on the road. The number of people who let tourists stay in their homes or had relationships through their own businesses accounted for an insignificant proportion.

Tourism has little relationship with local people, and it can be said that “local communities are still on the outside” of tourism activities in the National Park. They have not participated in or enjoyed the benefits of tourism.

Table 3-5: Relationship between local people and tourists

Tourist Relations

Rate (%)
Almost no relation	61.2
Get to know some people	31.6
Let guests stay in the house	5.1
Customer relations at work	0
Income from tourists through private business	3.1
Other relationships	0

Maybe you are interested!

Commenting on the attitude of tourists, over 70% of respondents said they were not interested, the rest commented that tourists were friendly and easy to approach, no responses expressed discomfort about the attitude of tourists.

From the above facts, we can draw preliminary conclusions about the relationship between tourism in the National Park and the local community as follows:

Tourism is still quite isolated from the local community, and has not had any significant impacts (both positive and negative) on the local economy, culture and society.

People's attitudes towards tourism are still vague, but somewhat positive and sympathetic towards tourists.

Most people want tourism to expand, to welcome visitors and have the opportunity to participate in tourism activities.

Living standards, economic conditions and needs of the community

The limited participation of local communities in benefiting from the products of the National Park due to conservation requirements is a difficult reality in the Central National Park area. Meanwhile, the benefits gained from tourism activities based on the values of the National Park being exploited are not yet a source of economic support for the people.

The local community living in the buffer zone of the National Park is still on the sidelines, almost unrelated to tourism activities here. Although they want and deserve to participate, as well as benefit from these activities. This is one of the practical bases affirming the necessity of orienting tourism in the National Park towards a type of tourism that can meet the legitimate needs of local people, which is ecotourism.

Summary

From the current status of tourism activities and assessment of the current status of tourism at the National Park of Bac Giang from the perspective of ecotourism, the topic has some comments as follows:

The number of tourists visiting the National Park is mainly domestic, foreign visitors only account for a small proportion. The source of domestic visitors is mainly from the Northern provinces of Vietnam, foreign visitors are mostly British and French. The composition of visitors is diverse, mainly students and civil servants. The purpose of their visit is sightseeing and recreation. The seasonality is very clear, depending on the climatic conditions and tourists are mainly day visitors.

Tourist activities of visitors focus on some main tourist spots and routes in the National Park such as Kim Giao forest, Ao Ech, Trung Trang cave. Most visitors do not have information about the tourist routes, tourism products of each route as well as the rich natural resources of the park. Therefore, participation in tourist activities is still limited, awareness of environmental protection and biological values is not high, affecting visitors' evaluation and comments about the National Park.

Currently, the National Park only meets the needs of accommodation and transportation, while other needs of tourists such as food services, souvenirs and tourism activities are still poor and unmet.

The majority of staff serving tourists have not undergone formal tourism training courses, so their guiding skills, foreign language skills, and knowledge of the environment and biodiversity are limited.

Environmental education and explanation activities for tourists are not effective. Most tourists know about the National Park through word of mouth. The Center for Ecotourism and Environmental Education has not yet fully promoted the role of the National Park as well as environmental education activities. The rate of tourists who are guided when visiting the National Park is not high, tourists mainly observe and learn by themselves.

Tourism and conservation activities in the National Park are moving in a symbiotic direction. That is, tourism activities in the National Park have brought some specific benefits in the conservation of the Park such as financial support, raising awareness of visitors about the environment and ecological values, creating opportunities to attract investment. However, the impacts on the National Park due to tourism activities are also more evident when the number of visitors is increasing, concentrating in time and space, causing overload for the ecotourism environment in some tourist routes such as Kim Giao, May Bau, Khe Sau forests. Tourism activities are concentrated in

central area at the top of the garden, adjacent to the intact protection zone where ecosystems need to be protected.

For the local community, tourism is still quite isolated, without significant impacts (both positive and negative) on the local economy, culture and society. The attitude of the people towards tourism is still vague, but somewhat positive, sympathetic to tourists. The majority of people want tourism to expand, to welcome visitors and have the opportunity to participate in tourism activities.

The above practical bases show that tourism activities in the National Park are moving towards ecotourism with the goal of environmental education, supporting conservation and contributing to community development. Therefore, orientations and solutions for ecotourism in the National Park in the coming years are extremely necessary to limit the shortcomings in tourism activities taking place here.

3.4 Tourism development solutions

Developing tourism in the National Park in particular and Cat Ba tourism in general is part of the city's development plan to become a national tourism center of regional and international stature, with an important position in the key economic region of Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh.

Cat Ba National Park is one of the attractive tourist destinations for domestic and foreign tourists. Coming to Cat Ba without visiting and researching the National Park cannot be said to have been there. Therefore, visitors to Cat Ba must at least spend some time here. This place has a large area of primeval natural forest, with many rich, diverse and rare species of flora and fauna that are valuable for scientific research, an ideal tourist destination. Ecological activities here help people to immerse themselves in nature and enjoy the beautiful scenery while raising awareness and understanding of the natural environment. Visitors can see with their own eyes rare and endemic animals walking, eating and living in normal natural conditions. With