Building the Northwest Tourism Brand

The northwest region includes Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Yen Bai and Lao Cai provinces, with a total area of nearly 51,000 sq. km. It plays an important role in the Vietnamese tourism development strategy and is one of three tourism sub-regions in the north of Vietnam. The Northwest has many historical relics and the traditional cultures of the hill-tribes – an invaluable treasure for tourism development. According to instructions from central authorities, tourism development must be attached to poverty reduction for residents in eight northwest provinces and this principle has been given more care and investment. However, so far, local advantages have not been brought into full play to serve the purpose.

 

 

Mr Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said: Northwest provinces share many common characteristics like cultural similarities, beautiful natural heritage and fresh climate to create attractive tourist products and there is much room for cooperation in tourism. Tourism cooperation plans have been put forth by Northwest provinces in recent years. At a recent seminar, many specialists recommended Northwest provinces to join hands in planning tourism development to create joint tourism products, build tourism infrastructure, boost the popularity of regional tourism, and train human resources for tourism industry. 

 

To create unique tourism products featuring the identity of the Northwest, provinces need to join forces to call for support and finances from domestic and international units and develop human resource training. This is the orientation of developing tourism in the Northwest, focusing on strengthening collective cooperation, improving service quality, creating attractive tourism products, and applying new initiatives to promote the tourism sector. Creating unique, unparalleled tourism products is a tourist product development strategy of the Northwest.

 

The Northwest has a majestic natural landscape with many ancient forests like Hoang Lien National Park, Muong Nhe Nature Reserve, Muong Phang Forest, and many mountain ranges like Hoang Lien Son Range, with the 3,143-metre Fansipan dubbed the "roof of Indochina." The region has many high mountains of over 1,000 metres and with a cool climate throughout the year, i.e. Sapa (Lao Cai), Sin Ho (Lai Chau) and Moc Chau (Son La). It also has a lot of caverns and hot springs. The regional population is constituted by many ethnic groups with different cultures, arts and handicrafts.

 

 

Indeed, the development of northwest tourism has not met local potential due to weak infrastructure and underdeveloped hotel systems. Low intellectual level and poor life of local people restrain their participation in the tourism value chain. Travel companies derive benefit from unique values in the Northwest mountainous villages while most local people are not benefiting from the hospitality industry. Therefore, in order to develop community-based tourism sustainably, it is necessary to make all stakeholders benefit from tourism.

 

Northwest provinces have united to develop sustainable tourism, which is associated with nature conservation, community development, poverty reduction, national security and defence, and social order and safety. As a leading province in community-based tourist development, Lao Cai has promoted cooperation in various aspects of tourism, created foundations for tourism development cooperation with other regional provinces, carried out cooperative programmes with Vietnamese and international organisations, and opened legal corridors for domestic and foreign companies to invest in tourism and service development.

 

The joint tourism products of the region have formed gradually. Yen Bai, Lao Cai and Phu Tho provinces shared efforts to carry out the "Travel to the source” programme. During the past four years, Yen Bai, Lao Cai and Phu Tho welcomed and served over 10 million tourists, attained revenues of over VND1,000 billion and attracted over VND2,000 billion to invest in tourism.

 

Locally characterised tourism products have gradually given a facelift to Northwest tourism. Mr Tran Van Long, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lao Cai province, said: Northwest provinces must attach importance to developing infrastructure, including tourism facilities like hotels, restaurants or places of interest, etc to create complete tourism products.