The point is that the distribution is uneven across the days of the week, or what can be called the “weekend effect”. The number of visitors to Yen Tu on weekends is about 1.7 times higher than on weekdays, meaning that on average, for every 3 tourists coming on weekdays, there will be 5 tourists coming on weekends.
The reason why Yen Tu has the "Weekend Effect" is because in addition to being deeply influenced by the time the festival takes place, Yen Tu is also greatly influenced by the typical type of tourism (religious tourism) and the geographical location of the area.
The typical type of tourism of Yen Tu tourist area is religious-spiritual tourism. Therefore, the time for the trip does not necessarily have to be long (usually only about 1 day), moreover, Yen Tu has a quite favorable location when it is close to large tourist sources such as: Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hai Duong ... so it is more convenient for tourists to make short trips to the land of Buddha. For that reason, these trips usually only last from 1-2 days, mainly 2 days on weekends and this has caused overload on weekends in Yen Tu.
According to the above figures and calculations, the average number of visitors on weekdays (during the festival season) has exceeded the allowable threshold (allowable capacity) of the relic site (3,124 visitors/day) by 1.5 times, not to mention weekends (2.6 times) or special days (6.5 times). This clearly has a negative impact on the landscape and environment at Yen Tu tourist site.
In addition, the reception of a large number of tourists only focused on the 3-month festival makes the tourist facilities unable to maintain the best service for tourists coming here to visit. For example: during the spring festival, the toilet system in Yen Tu area cannot meet the needs of tourists, or tourists have to wait for hours (according to the opinions of tourists).
Although we know that Yen Tu tourism is festival tourism and there will be no more festival tourism if the number of visitors here is not evenly distributed throughout the year. Moreover, most tourists come here for spiritual purposes, so the crowded environment will attract them greatly. However, let's imagine that with tourist routes about 6000m long, the average width of the route is 2.5m, the area of the tourist route is 15,000m2, plus the empty spaces of the point.
The tour has an area of about 7000m2 for movement and activities. And with such conditions, it is not certain that the above attraction will prevail over the discomfort that tourists encounter during the tour.
In addition, we also know that for each impact, the ecosystem needs a certain amount of time to recover. Therefore, a large number of tourists visiting at the same time and continuously for a relatively long time will make the regeneration capacity of the local ecosystem unable to recover. And this can easily lead to the degradation of the natural environment.
Along with the benefits brought to local people when welcoming a large number of tourists, this also creates obstacles that directly impact the natural environment (land, water, etc.) and thereby negatively impact people's lives.
Thus, it can be seen that welcoming tourists without having reasonable measures to regulate the number of visitors is the main cause leading to negative impacts on the natural environment of the area. And if considered specifically from a certain aspect, it can be said that this is an action whose results lead to the destruction of the natural environment.
2.5.2 Tourism revenue
Welcoming a large number of tourists every year has brought Uong Bi City and Quang Ninh province a significant economic benefit.
Table 2.3 Tourism revenue of Yen Tu area in the last 5 years
Unit: VND
Year
Actual revenue | |
2007 | 40,347,000,000 |
2008 | 90,000,000,000 |
2009 | 277,612,000,000 |
2010 | 323.165.711.900 |
4/2011 | 299,669,000,000 |
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(Source: "Business performance report 2000-2010 of Yen Tu Management Board")
According to statistics, in the last 4 years from 2007-2010, tourism revenue in Yen Tu increased rapidly. In 2007, it reached 40,347,000,000 VND, in 2008 it reached 90,000,000,000 VND, an increase of 123%. In 2009, it reached 277,612,000,000 VND.
VND. In 2010, it reached VND323,165,711,900, an increase of 16.4% compared to the previous year. In particular, by the end of April 2011, tourism revenue reached nearly VND300 billion, an increase of 107% compared to the same period last year.
Among the tourism revenue sources, revenue from sightseeing tickets, cable car fees and donations are the main sources of revenue. In 2010 alone, revenue from these sources accounted for 82% of total tourism revenue.
Table 2.5: Revenue and number of passengers from cable cars over the years
Year
Number of visitors (people) | Cable car passengers | Cable car revenue (VND) | |
2006 | 489,500 | 330,450 | 16,216,000,000 |
2007 | 977,000 | 426,900 | 30,900,000,000 |
2008 | 1,148,000 | 637,450 | 55,560,000,000 |
2009 | 1,699,512 | 462,900 | 69,490,000,000 |
2010 | 2,122,000 | 6,848,000 | 67,525,000,000 |
(Source: "Business performance report 2000-2010 of Yen Tu Management Board")
However, besides this benefit, Yen Tu tourist area has to face problems in preserving relics and protecting the environment. Due to the large number of tourists coming here, and only focusing on the festival period, it is easy to lead to overload, causing damage and rapid degradation of relics that are quite old. According to statistics, during the festival, the peak tourist area can welcome more than 20,000 visitors/day. This will create significant pressure on the natural environment as well as the human environment in the tourist area. In addition, not all tourists are highly aware of environmental issues, so causing environmental pollution right in the tourist area is predictable.
Thus, it is clear that welcoming a large number of tourists, while focusing on
At a time that does not harm a large number of tourists, and at a time that does not harm tourism resources and does not cause negative impacts on the surrounding environment is not simple. Moreover, welcoming tourists so that not only the host but also the tourists feel comfortable and satisfied after the trip is also a matter of great concern for tourism managers and operators.
2.3 Comments on the tourism development situation in Yen Tu area according to the criteria for sustainable tourism development
2.3.1 According to economic criteria
Through analyzing and evaluating the current status of tourism development in Yen Tu_Quang Ninh based on the criteria for sustainable economic tourism development, specifically as follows:
- Regarding the number of visitors: The number of visitors to Yen Tu increased quite rapidly each year from 1999 to March 2011. According to statistics, the number of tourists to Yen Tu during the period from 2003 to 2010 had an average growth rate of 10-20%.
- Regarding tourism income: In the 5 years from 2006-2010, tourism income continuously grew.
- Regarding tourism GDP: The tourism GDP of Yen Tu relic site has increased rapidly over the years, accounting for a significant portion of the total GDP of Quang Ninh Province. Previously it was only 1% but now it has increased to 4% of the total GDP of Quang Ninh Province.
- Regarding technical facilities for tourism: In recent years, technical facilities for tourism in Yen Tu have increased significantly with an average growth rate of 15%. The quality of the hotel system has been constantly improved. The food and beverage service establishments have grown continuously in terms of quantity and quality. The system of passenger transport vehicles has also increased rapidly in both quantity and quality.
- Regarding human resource expenditure: Increasingly attracting a large number of highly skilled and technical workers, and at the same time attracting a large number of
Local people are increasingly participating in tourism activities.
- Regarding the sense of responsibility in tourism propaganda and promotion activities: The Management Board has coordinated with the City People's Committee to request relevant functional departments and localities to develop a thoughtful implementation plan, with the spirit of thrift, solemnity, joy, health, safety for people and property for tourists; ensure security and order, environmental sanitation, food safety, rescue, fire prevention and fighting and do a good job of forest protection and environmental landscape protection. Cultural activities, religious beliefs, cultural services, tourism services must comply with State regulations, in order to promote the image of Yen Tu to a large number of domestic and foreign tourists, contributing to honoring and promoting the values of Yen Tu Monuments and Landscapes.
2.3.2 Based on criteria on resources and environment
- Regarding planning: Most areas in Yen Tu are planned in general, some tourist areas in the spot are planned in detail. This is the legal basis for reasonable and sustainable management, effective management of resources, strict protection of areas that need to be preserved and developed. Although the current quality of planning and implementation is not high, the general assessment is that it meets the sustainable standards.
- Regarding resources: In recent years, the process of socio-economic development in general and tourism development in Yen Tu in particular has had many negative impacts on tourism resources (both natural and human tourism resources). Most tourism resources have been thoroughly mobilized, causing a significant portion of resources to be degraded, exhausted and overloaded. The intensity of tourism activities at some tourist destinations such as cable car stations to tourist attractions is always overloaded during festivals, creating too much pressure on resources and causing a serious imbalance between supply and demand. Or during festivals, it always causes environmental pollution due to the large amount of waste that destroys the ecological landscape, pollutes water sources, etc. From that, it can be seen that the exploitation here is still not sustainable.
- Regarding the natural environment: Due to the impact of tourism development,
The natural environment in Yen Tu is seriously degraded. Most environmental indicators are polluted and exceed the allowable level. Pollution occurs in the water environment (including surface water, groundwater), soil, air, and ecology.
+ Impact on air environment: In this year's spring festival (2010), along with Yen Tu tourism welcoming a large number of tourists, the parking lot system also receives a large number of vehicles, mainly cars and motorbikes. According to statistics in 2010, the number of vehicles that Yen Tu tourist area received during the 3 months of the spring festival was up to 94,314 vehicles. Of which, the number of motorbikes was up to nearly 90,000, accounting for more than 90% of all types of vehicles. Thus, according to these figures, during the festival, on average, Yen Tu tourist area had to receive more than 1,400 tourist vehicles per day, causing noise pollution, air pollution due to dust and exhaust from vehicles.
Table 2.4: Statistics of air environment factors in Yen Tu
(2009)
Element
Suspended dust (mg/m 3 ) | Humidity (dB) | SO2 | NO2 | CO | ||||||
Max | Min | TB | LAEQ | Max | Min | TB | ||||
Pagoda Unicorn | 0.158 | 0.042 | 0.07 | 62.8 | 79.2 | 50.9 | 98.5 | 0.13 | 0.101 | 3.8 |
3-way intersection Red Slope | 0.226 | 0.054 | 0.116 | 67.8 | 86.1 | 50.5 | 99.6 | 0.48 | 0.41 | 5.5 |
Standard (*) | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 40 | |||||
(*): Standard 3733/2002/QD-BHY
(Source: Environmental report of Yen Tu Management Board in 2009)
According to the above data, the average suspended dust index in the air at the measurement location (Chu Lan) is 0.07mg/m3 , this index is actually much lower (up to more than 4 times) than the standard allowable index (0.3mg/m3 ) . Furthermore, the concentration indexes of toxic gases SO2 (0.13), NO2 (0.101), CO (3.8) in the air of the area
The area is also much lower than the allowable standard. If we look at the measured parameters at Doc Do intersection, where the traffic volume is quite large, the suspended dust index (0.116) is much higher than the index at Lan pagoda. However, this index is still generally lower than the standard index. Even the toxic concentration indexes SO2 (0.48), CO (5.5) are almost within the allowable standard, only the NO2 concentration index (0.41) is slightly above the standard index. These are clearly encouraging and convincing indexes of the air environment of Yen Tu tourist area.
However, the noise index measured here does not meet the requirements. According to the above data, the noise index in the two measured areas, Lan Pagoda and Doc Do intersection, is 62.8 dB and 67.8 dB respectively, while the allowable index is 60 dB, which means it exceeds the allowable number. Although it exceeds the allowable noise index, it is clear that the excess index is not large and if there are reasonable measures to reduce noise in the area, it is thought that this problem will be solved.
+ Impact on water environment: With relatively abundant water and groundwater resources, the water environment for daily life and other purposes of the tourist area is provided from these two water sources. The system of service facilities here is arranged almost along the entire route, along with the fact that the technical facilities serving tourism are not guaranteed, causing the environment in the area to receive a large amount of wastewater from these tents every day. In addition, the issue of hygiene for tourists has not been paid much attention by the Management Board (the number of toilets along the route is not guaranteed in terms of quantity and quality), causing discomfort for tourists and affecting the ecological environment, causing the water environment to be somewhat affected.
Table 2.5: Tourists' comments on the infrastructure system
Item
Not guaranteed | Normal | Quite secure | Total | |
Quantity | 14 | 16 | 36 | 66 |
Proportion (%) | 21.2 | 24.2 | 54.6 | 100 |
(Source: Summary of KDL survey form of Yen Tu Management Board)
+ Impact on biological resources: because local people here have rushed to exploit forest products for tourism purposes without being aware of their impacts (or they may be aware but due to their livelihood conditions), it can lead to a decline in biodiversity, affecting the regional ecosystem.
According to the investigation, the local people here exploit an average of 7kg of products per day. The exploited products are usually bamboo shoots, Morinda officinalis, Long Lao, Lac Tien extract, Dang Sam, and animals such as geckos, pheasants, pheasants, weasels, turtles, civets, etc. These are all valuable resources of Yen Tu. However, if an average of 50 people exploit each day, the amount of forest resources lost is 0.35 tons. A festival season will take a huge amount of resources from Yen Tu forest, up to tens of thousands of tons, while the forest's recovery capacity is limited.
+ Impact from solid waste sources: Environmental waste is always one of the urgent problems that no tourist area does not encounter and Yen Tu is no exception.
Table 2.6: Statistics of waste volume at collection locations
STT
Location Name | Amount of waste per day (m 3) | Average | |
1 | Giai Oan Bus Station Area | 10 - 12 | 11 |
2 | Guest house area | 1 - 2 | 1.5 |
3 | Giai Oan Pagoda | 1.5 - 2.5 | 2 |
4 | Ancestral Tower | 1 | 1 |
5 | Hoa Yen Pagoda | 7 - 9 | 8 |
6 | Dong Hoa Yen Service | 2 - 3 | 2.5 |
7 | Bai Sai Pagoda | 1.5 - 2 | 1.7 |
8 | Van Tieu Pagoda | 0.5 - 1 | 0.7 |
9 | An Ky Sinh | 1.2 - 2 | 1.5 |
10 | Bronze Temple | 2 - 3 | 2.5 |
11 | Cable car station area | 15 – 17 | 16 |
Total | 48.4m3 |
(Source: Environmental report of Yen Tu Management Board in 2009)