“To address these fundamental problems drastically, it is essential to speed up propaganda, raise awareness for tourist operators, reject substandard products. Simultaneously, the sector will also apply the sanctions, disallowing ineligible partners from tourism business activities,” said Mr Doan Van Phu, Deputy Director of Thanh Hoa Province’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in an interview with Vietnam Business Forum on Thanh Hoa tourism problems namely tourist compelling and food safety. Giang Tu reports.
Could you please let us know how the province has developed its tourism services and products so as to attract the tourists during the past time?
With the available resources for tourism development, Thanh Hoa province has implemented a number of types of tourism including marine tourism, cultural tourism, nature tourism, community-based tourism in the north of the province. In general, these products have been increasingly promoted with the quality improved significantly. For Sam Son beach resort, we have seen many positive changes with upgraded infrastructures and more diverse and better quality services. However, it still fails to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of tourists. That's the concern of Thanh Hoa tourism which needs to be settled in the coming time.
Tourist compelling is still prevalent and has been a big concern of Thanh Hoa tourism. So what needs to be done to tackle this?
Compelling tourists still exists in a number of community-based tourism areas given unavoidable seasonal factors. This is beyond the control of state authorities, local authorities as well as business owners due to the overload of tourist in high season. Besides, as a result of supply-demand interaction, not only local businesses but also the ones from other areas come to the tourist site to provide services, which causes great difficulties to the management of the competent agencies. This has been considered a big concern of Thanh Hoa tourism, especially for Sam Son tourist site. Recently, the industry has promptly detected and treated several cases, conducted propaganda campaign to raise awareness of the community and those involved directly in tourism sector. Besides, it is essential to work out solutions to different types of mobile services like cabs, photo taking which are very likely to expose to arising problems.
On the management aspect, Thanh Hoa grants cards and certificates, set up a hotline and inform tourists for their feedback in case of any negative phenomenon. Besides, it is necessary to establish patrols 24/24 to strengthen the control of this type of service. In addition, there must be a close examination mechanism for different kinds of businesses. Due attention should be paid to individual businesses from other places. This has helped restrict the violated despite the large tourist volume in summer season. Local authorities have strictly treated the violators by forcing business cessation, retrieving business licenses and even expelling the violated out of the business area. These are the measures that Thanh Hoa tourism sector has implemented and tried to promote their effectiveness during the past time.
However, there exists a fact that sanction is not effective enough to treat this problem. In this regard, do you have any recommendation?
Sanction is of temporary significance. The problem is the difficulty in finding the solution to restrict the substandard businesses. The most important is to find the drastic solution to treat the problem. To this end, we have to raise the awareness of businesses. In addition, it is necessary to disclose the tourists’ feedback on substandard services. In management, it is crucial to prevent the ineligible partners to participate in business activities.
Could you please reveal how the food safety and sanitation are managed?
To deal with this issue, it is necessary to coordinate with agencies such as food inspection unit, the inspection team of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment response for water resources management. It is also an important issue for Sam Son tourism that needs a proper and systematic solution. Therefore, Sam Son has now put a ban on the use of groundwater to serve business activities. Instead, standard quality water is used. Besides, in season when food from many places is transferred to the tourist sites, it is hard to inspect all of the food’s origin. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct propaganda to service, food and beverage businesses to self-examine or inspect the quality of these stuff. In addition, it is advised that the businesses do not get foods with unknown origin. This is a key task to ensure the right of consumers as well as businesses.
Could you please let us know the progress of toilets construction at tourist sites?
We have also commenced building standards toilets at tourist sites. Though this is not a big task, it is not simple at all as this is rather sensitive to the historic relics and scenic spots. Therefore, it is essential to have a synchronized planning and consistent implementation at all the levels. If the task is not well implemented, it will exert a negative impact on the environment and landscape.
The construction of
toilets is very difficult to complete in 1-2 months or even 1-2 years. Thanh Hoa is conducting current planning and there currently exist problems in the harmony between tourism planning and construction planning, between construction planning and others
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