Efforts to Make Dak Lak a Top Tourist Destination

Blessed with many historical sites, beautiful landscapes and diverse cultural traditions, the tourism sector of Dak Lak province has concentrated on tapping a variety of tourism forms like ecological and cultural tourism, coffee, elephant and gong tourism. The province has formed many key tourist sites like Buon Don tourist centre, Lak Lake tourist site, Buon Jun cultural village, and Ko Tam ecological community tourist site. The province has attracted travel companies nationwide to link their tours to Dak Lak.

 

However, some tourism companies lack long-term professional investment to tap local resources; thus, the attraction to and satisfaction of tourists is unstable and unsustainable. In the coming time, to enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of destinations, Dak Lak tourism industry will focus on building locally unique tourist products, particularly community-driven tourism models tied to preservation and the development of ethnic minority groups in Buon Ma Thuot City, and tourism and service models that serve local residents during festivals, public holidays and weekends. In addition, the hospitality sector will continue investment for developing supplementary services like entertainment, food and sports. These supplementary services will not only raise competitiveness and attractiveness of typical products but also attract new customer markets, thereby diversifying tourist markets and ensuring stability and sustainability.

 

To raise tourism investment attraction efficiency, Dak Lak province will focus both central and local State Budget sources to stimulate tourism development. In the near term, the province will give priority to infrastructure development in major tourist attractions. This approach was specified in the Provincial People’s Committee’s Dak Lak Tourism Development Plan in 2012-2014 (appendix to Decision 2199/QD-UBND dated September 26, 2012) in order to work out the master plan for tourism development in Dak Lak province until 2020, with a vision towards 2030. Investment for tourism is expected to account for 0.5 percent of the province’s State Budget revenue in order to effectively build infrastructure for tourism areas as well as finance tourism human resource training development.

 

Moreover, the province gathers resources of all economic sectors for tourism development, particularly expanding and upgrading traffic routes and transportation services to tourist destinations and resorts.

 

To implement the Provincial People’s Committee’s policies on tourism cooperation with other localities in the country, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has deployed many tourism promotion activities while coordinating with other provinces and cities in the country as well as other nations in the world to create competitive advantages for its tourism industry. Specifically, the Department has coordinated with the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City to organise a conference on the 5-year tourism development cooperation in 2007 - 2012 and sign the new tourism development cooperation for a new phase from 2012 to 2017. It has also collaborated with the Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Phu Yen and Nghe An provinces to organise their tourism promotion conferences in Dak Lak province, and joined the East West Economic Corridor tourism survey delegation launched by the Office of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Danang City, aiming to introduce Dak Lak tourism to international tourists, specially countries along the East - West Economic Corridor (EWEC).

 

In the coming time, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Dak Lak province will continue tourism development cooperation with other provinces like Lam Dong, Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan and Phu Yen in accordance with the socioeconomic development cooperation agreement signed by six provinces.

 

According to the master plan, Dak Lak province will strive to make tourism an important economic sector and an engine of socioeconomic development in 2020, draw more domestic and international visitors with higher spending capacity, and become a major tourism destination in Vietnam. By 2030, tourism will become a spearhead economic sector of the province. The master plan also sets out specific criteria like 560,000 visitors and revenue of VND420 billion in 2015, 1.129 million visitors and revenue of VND1,330 billion in 2020, and 2.863 million tourists and revenue of VND4,600 billion in 2030, representing an average annual growth of 14.82 percent in 2011 - 2015 period, 25.93 percent in 2016 - 2020 period, and 13.21 percent 2021-2030 period.

 

To achieve the above objectives and targets, the master plan also pinpoints eight solutions: Intensifying promotion activities; promoting tourism development investment; developing and diversifying unique tourism products; stepping up scientific and technological research and application; expanding regional and international tourism cooperation; training human resources; protecting natural resources - environment, ensuring sustainable tourism development; attracting investment resources; and enhancing the Party's leadership and State administration over tourism activities.