That is the topic of a research project on a sustainable tourism development model, which may be widely applied for Vietnam’s sea resorts. The project summary reports: "It’s necessary to build a new perspective on using old resources such as sand, salt and garbage to create diversified products – a breakthrough for Vietnam’s sea tourism."
Reporter Thu Huyen interviewed Architect Nguyen Thu Hanh, Chairwoman of the Union of Science for Sustainable Tourism Development, concerning this issue.
What sparks the idea of creating tourism products involving the salt industry?
The sea is one of the competitive advantages of Vietnam tourism. However, in reality, sea exploitation in some areas is very limited and is not really effective. That is reflected in the sometimes unprofessional, unsystematic and short term strategy to operating sea resorts. Tourism products of sea resorts have not clearly demonstrated their unique characteristics to create competitive trademarks on international markets.
Vietnam has a geographical location stretching along the sea – including areas with the highest salinity in the world. With more than 3,200km of year-round heated tropical coastline, Vietnam has salt fields with high yields all along the coast from the north to the south. It is an endless resource that the sea dedicates to Vietnam.
For a long time, salt has been used as a food and raw material in some chemical and food industries. Yet, the salt industry has not been exploited and used as a tourism product, which could bring high economic and social efficiency.
Combining salt production with tourism is one solution to this situation and is a very necessary task. Building a Salt Park on salt fields can attract investment resources in renewing refined salt production technology, not only respecting nature but also maintaining traditional jobs and local culture. This can not only bring income from salt production, but also for tourism, contributing to economic restructuring and the structure of local labour to raise the material and spiritual life of local people; all springing from the creation of unique and attractive tourism sites.
Salt parks promise to be very attractive. Can you explain more about this idea?
The salt park is a specialized and completely unprecedented model for tourism. This will be a new approach to the exploitation of available coastal resources in Vietnam. In the park, salt fills the landscape, and its role in games, dishes, popular culture and throughout human history is explained. Through human hands and minds, salt plays many roles and becomes a symbol for spiritual values. In salt parks, visitors will be able to experience many spaces: play area (salt caves, salt slide, the maze of salt ...), food area, the salt square, the centre of salt art exhibition, museum of Vietnamese salt villages, resorts and spa with salt hotels, and natural salt fields.
Salt grains are small and simple, but valuable in many ways. The development of salt park projects will create new salt related jobs, and establish more unique tourism products under Central Vietnam’s sea tourism trademark.
Regarding tourism products from garbage, this is still relatively new in Vietnam. Can you tell us more about this idea?
Garbage is not actually difficult to exploit. Some parts of Vietnam have already exploited garbage, such as buying and selling old or new products or manufacturing recycled souvenirs, but the complete garbage park model including games and works from rubbish, does not yet exist in Vietnam. Vietnam can follow this model, successful in other places, because it only requires re-arranging old materials, not high technology, and it is highly feasible.
How do businesses and scientists cooperate in bringing the project into reality?
This is extremely important, because scientists can study independently from tourism companies. In addition to that, sometimes managers do not understand the purpose of the business so much that the expectations are not met, and the project does not have good results. However, the Science Union of Sustainable Tourism Development is expected to create a playing field through the activities of the Green Club – a place for exchange and linkage between all participants in the tourism sector – to share knowledge, research results and facts so that scientists through the enterprise may understand more about reality and vice versa the businesses also understand the scientists’ thoughts, ideas and proposals so as to be able to turn it into reality.
Does the project need private investment to be successful?
First, it is essential to meet enterprise resonating with this product. After gathering information, enterprises can meet directly with scientists and then there may be a technology transfer contract. Just this contract brings feasibility to the project, but currently it is still merely ideas.
There is still another problem: tourism businesses in Vietnam are mostly small and medium scale, and do not have the habit of using science and technology or buy foreign ready-made products. This is a difficulty and a loss for science and technology in Vietnam. I think the State should have supportive policies, maybe capital investment for initial facilities, because this is the most difficult phase that must be overcome. Besides the source of the current work, the tasks for scientific research is only assigned to state scientific research organisations, while non-state institutions are still mainly self-supported.
"Why does this project have the participation of many students?The project was implemented with the guidance of scientists, however, also with the participation of students, who are assessed to have strengths of creativity and more open minds than those who have already worked for many years with framed thoughts. Students can bring the passion and idealism of youth into scientific organisations to revitalize them in exploring new solutions.
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