This was the theme of a conference on sustainable tourism development in the era of climate change held by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) with the technical support of the Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development (ESRT) Programme funded by the European Union (EU-ESRT Project). The conference aimed to enhance the interest of international agencies and organisations engaged in climate change for tourism and share best practices on adaptation and response to climate change in tourism.
Ms Dang Thi Bich Lien, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that climate change is a globally affected phenomenon, manifested by the increase in the average temperature of the Earth, changing rainfall and rising sea level, accompanied by more frequent weather-related disasters. Vietnam climate change has direct impacts on the agricultural sector, fisheries, culture, tourism, trade and services, while at the same time it has indirect negative effects on other sectors such as transport, transportation, construction industry and public health. Rising sea levels may result in the disappearance of some beaches, while others are suffering from inland erosion; affect to the natural resources in the coastal lowlands, damaging the cultural heritage, protected areas, eco-tourism areas and the tourism infrastructure.
Mr Bruno Angelet, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the EU to Vietnam, said that climate change is a critical issue facing Vietnam. Tourism sector and the European Union (EU) play important roles in responding and mitigating negative impacts of climate change.
Professor Peter Burns, an EU-ESRT senior expert, said, in Vietnam’s tourism sector, provincial tourism departments have an awareness of climate change risk but lack the technical knowledge about adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation measures often adopted are based on individual business response, for example, a single resort trying to do what it can.
On the science side, provincial environment departments have “excellent” scientific knowledge but remain unaware of specific problems for the tourism sector. Therefore, he said, Vietnam needs greater communication and knowledge exchange. The tourism sector should promote sharing knowledge and information as well as coordinating research and development programmes to enhance science in the context of tourism.
Besides, Vietnam needs new, radical, coherent policies and green business practices linking tourism with environmental protection and climate action, heard participants at a conference yesterday over sustainable tourism and climate change. Policy and learning dialogues between major stake holder groups were also needed. In addition, it is necessary to enhance communication to influence attitudes and expectations of consumers (tourists) towards environmental protection practices while they are going on travel.
From April 2016, EU-ESRT experts started to build “Good practice Guidelines on Sustainable Development of Vietnam Tourism Sector”. This conference was an opportunity to collect feedbacks and contributions from internal and external industry partners, thus completing the document. Participants were divided into three groups to discuss ways of adaptation and mitigation of climate change as well as communications on this theme.
Also in the framework of the conference, the Institute for Tourism Development Research (under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism - the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) and the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the aim of establishing a common action foundation for tourism and climate change for the purpose of sustainable tourism development and effective climate response in Vietnam.
Giang Tu
Vietnamese
