Generating environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in ba vi district, hanoi, vietnam

z MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY STUDENT THESIS Generating environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam Major: Natural Resources Management Code: D850101 Faculty: Forest Resources and Environmental Management Student: Bui Thuy Linh Student ID: 1553090425 Class: K60 Natural Resources Management Course: 2015 – 2019 Advanced Education Program Developed in collaboration with Colorado State University, USA Supervisor: Ph.D Nguyen Thi Thanh An Hanoi, 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To complete this thesis, I received assistance and supports from my supervisor and departments of Vietnam national university of forestry as well as tourism organizations I am very grateful to Ba Vi National Park’s staffs, who helped and provided necessary information to me I also thank the staffs in the People's Committee of Ba Vi District, Ao Vua Joint Stock Company for helping me to collect data Especially I would like to thank my supervisor Ph.D Nguyen Thi Thanh An, who directly supported me throughout the process of conducting the thesis, for her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge Her guidance helped me all the time in studying and writing this thesis I sincerely thank you! i TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i TABLE OF CONTENT ii TABLE LIST iv FIGURE LIST v ABSTRACT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 2.1 Goals 2.2 Objectives CHAPTER III STUDY SITE AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 Study site 3.1.1 Natural conditions 3.1.2 Current situation of population and humanities resources 3.2 Methodology 3.2.1 Process of implementing the topic 3.2.2 Methods of general information collection 10 3.2.3 Delphi method 11 3.2.4 Statistical analysis 14 CHAPTER IV RESULTS 20 4.1 Current situation of tourism development in Ba Vi District 20 4.1.1 Tourism development potential 20 4.1.2 The main types of Ba Vi Tourism 22 4.1.3 Challenges for tourism development of Ba Vi District 24 4.2 Generating environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam 24 4.2.1 Test results in round 27 4.2.2 Test results in round 34 CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE TOPIC 44 ii 5.1 General conclusions and contributions to the topic 44 5.2 Limitations of the topic 45 REFERENCES APPENDIX iii TABLE LIST Table The number of tourists in 2016-2018 in Ba Vi District 20 Table 2: List of tourism business in Ba Vi District, Hanoi 21 Table 3: Recommended criteria and indicators for consultation with experts on sustainable tourism monitoring and evaluation in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam in round 25 Table 4: Statistical description of evaluation results of experts after round 28 Table 5: Test results by Friedman test round 30 Table 6: Calculation results of Cronbach’s Alpha in round 30 Table 7: Calculation results of Intraclass Correlation Coefficient in round 31 Table 8: A summary of criteria removed after round 32 Table 9: A summary of some general ideas for indicators removed after round 32 Table 10: Recommended criteria and indicators for consultation with experts on sustainable tourism monitoring and evaluation in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam in round 34 Table 11: Statistical description of evaluation results of experts after round 36 Table 12: Test results by Friedman test round 38 Table 13: Calculation results of Cronbach’s Alpha in round 38 Table 14: Calculation results of Intraclass Correlation Coefficientin round 39 Table 15: Set of environmental criteria and indicators to monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism after Delphi rounds 40 iv FIGURE LIST Figure Ba Vi Tourism Map Figure 2: The thesis’s analysis framework 10 v ABSTRACT Tourism industry is important because the benefits it brings and its role as a commercial activity that creates demand and growth for many more industries Tourism not only contributes towards more economic activities but also generates more employment, revenues and play a significant role in development Ba Vi District is blessed with beautiful untouched countryside and is strongly imbued with many cultural and historical characteristics Ba Vi has great potential for developing spiritual, ecological and relaxation tours and it is striving to turn tourism into a spearhead economic sector However, in recent years, tourism has been causing inadequacies and constraints in Ba Vi's environment Facing such a reality, by Delphi method, this thesis has been developed to monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism which contributes to promoting Ba Vi tourism to more sustainable development in the environmental dimension CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Vietnam tourism has been dubbed the “goose that laid the golden eggs" because of the huge benefits that tourism brings to the country Especially, when people's life is getting better, their demand for enjoyment is increasing, leading to a strong development trend of tourism On the other hand, the explosion in urban and industrial zones in recent decades has made people more and more distant from nature People often live and work in industrial environments with high pressure This has motivated people to race towards nature, the demand to find places with quiet space, fresh and cool air to rest, relax and renew human health is increasing This is an opportunity for tourism to develop Tourism is a general economic industry, whose existence and development interact with many socio-economic sectors and fields, in which the relationship between tourism and the environment are linked: the existence and development of tourism associated with the environment, tourism only develops when the environment is protected (Trung Dung, 2017) The proper exploitation and usage of natural resources and environmental conditions at the destination during the development process of tourism is a desirable aspect (UNWTO, 2002) Environmental protection is always an important issue for tourism activities The impact of tourism on the environment in the development process will be limited in parallel with the contributions of the business community for efforts to restore resources and protect the environment (Ha Thi Phuong Lan, 2012) Ba Vi is a district in the semi-mountainous region, located to the northwest of Hanoi capital With a total area of 424.03 km2, the population is over 267 thousand people (including ethnics: Kinh, Muong, Dao) The district has 31 communes and towns, including mountainous communes The East borders Son Tay town, the South borders HoaBinh province, the West borders PhuTho Province and the North borders Vinh Phuc Province Ba Vi is endowed by nature with a romantic scenery, rich ecosystems, diverse vegetation and considered "green lungs" in the west of Hanoi capital Due to favorable geographical conditions and the attraction of resources, tourism activities in Ba Vi District developed rapidly The development of tourism has affected sfvthe natural environment in Ba Vi District However, the protection of the natural environment in tourism activities in Ba Vi is still limited, the efficiency is not high, and leading to the environmental quality is not guaranteed for the success of tourism activities The issue of environmental protection in Ba Vi tourism activities has an important meaning in the tourism development strategy of the region (Vice Chairman of the Ba Vi District People's Committee Do Manh Hung, 2018) So, tourism organizations, managers, scientists, people who participate in tourism activities must be responsible for contributing their strength and wisdom to the existence and development of Ba Vi tourism Therefore, I selected the topic: "Generating environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam" to make a graduation thesis in the hope that the topic will be built a set of criteria and indicators of environmental assessment of tourism activities in Ba Vi District, and find positive solutions to protect the natural environment for sustainable development CHAPTER II GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 2.1 Goals The goal of this thesis is to generate environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam 2.2 Objectives 1) To access current tourism status in Ba Vi District 2) To establish a scientific and practical basis for establishing environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District 3) To develop a set of environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in the study area by the Delphi method CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE TOPIC 5.1 General conclusions and contributions to the topic This study is to generate environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam, to propose appropriate criteria and indicators for the research area, research results have led to the following conclusions: Firstly, to generate a set of criteria and indicators, I applied the Delphi method to combine with the statistical evaluation The Delphi method is based on the evaluation of an interdisciplinary group of 13 participants in the first round and 9participants in round Through each evaluation round, I used statistics to test the consistency of experts when scoring by the Friedman nonparametric test To test the reliability of the 5-point Linkert rating scale evaluated by various experts for the two-round indices with Cronbach's Alpha value and check the reliability of the average value of the evaluation points of experts by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) uses a 2-dimensional mixed analysis model and checks for absolute consistency Secondly, I proposed a set of criteria and 44 indicators sent to 13 reviewers, the results after the first round removed 30 indicators with the following characteristics: mean 1 and IQR>1 Particularly for the case is the indicators as 1.1; 2.2 will be retained and replaced with other measurement standards Some of the indicators will be regenerated based on the aggregate of information that experts have commented on and suggested In round 2, the criteria remain the same as in the first round, but the number of indicators is significantly reduced, along with the number of added indicators, the number of indicators is 29 Thirteen experts who participated in the first round were invited to participate in the second round, but only nine experts responded Contributions of this study include: Firstly, the thesis applies a set of integrated tools and new methods in proposing the development of a set of criteria and environmental indicators for 44 sustainable tourism development based on an overview of the research situation of foreign authors, the evaluation method is selected, ensuring high reliability by applying standards and statistical values to select the appropriate indicators Secondly, this study has proposed generating a set of environmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism activities, bringing a new perspective on sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District This set of criteria can be applied directly or adapted to suit future conditions of usage 5.2 Limitations of the topic Besides practical contributions, I think this topic still has some limitations as follows: The set of criteria and indicators is developed based on the overview researches but is also subjective based on personal feelings and depends on the responding attitude of the experts, this affects the survey results and sustainability evaluation results To improve this, future studies can combine interdisciplinary groups to formulate questions and then combine with workshops with experts to clarify the objectives and content of the research before implementing the survey The time of constructing and implementing the thesis is short, so it has not tested in Ba Vi National Park, tourist areas and whole Ba Vi District Therefore, it takes more time to test the set of criteria, careful consideration between work, time and thesis development 45 REFERENCES Ha Phuong (2018), Tourist attractions in Ba Vi, Ba Vi tourist information website Trung Dung (2017), The relationship between the environment and tourism development, Environment Magazine Ph.D Nguyen Thi Thanh An (2019), Generating criteria and indicators in monitoring sustainable ecotourism in the DakNong by the Delphi method, 4, 36– 42 Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations: A guidebook (2004) The international working group on indicators of sustainable tourism to the environment committee Madrid, Spain: World Tourism Organization, 117–185 Haruna Danladi Musa, Mohd Rusli Yacoba*, Ahmad Makmom Abdullahb, Mohd Yusoff Ishaka (2015), Delphi method of developing environmental wellbeing indicators for the evaluation of urban sustainability in Malaysia, Procedia Environmental Sciences 30, 245–246 Dao Thi Bich Nguyet (2012), The master’s thesis:Tourism development in NhaTrang (KhanhHoa) towards sustainable development, 3, 105–120 Tran Thi Huong, Nguyen Thi Bich Hao, Nguyen Dac Manh, Luu Quang Vinh, Nguyen Hai Ha, Phung Thi Tuyen, Ta Tuyet Nga, Bui Thi Sang (2018), Assessing the impact of ecotourism activities on the natural environment and socio in Ban Lac, Chien Chau commune, Mai Chau District, HoaBinh Province, 111–119 Le Chi Cong (2015), Generating criteria for evaluating sustainable tourism: A study site in Nha Trang City, 59 Hung Nguyen (2018), Assessment of sustainable tourism development: Community-based tourism in Lac Village, 49–55 10 Phuong Van (2018), Arousing the potential of Ba Vi tourism, Industry and Trade newspaper, 11 Ha Thi Lan Phuong (2012), The graduated thesis: Protecting the natural environment in tourism activities of Ha Long Bay, QuangNinh, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1–5 12 Ho Ha (2018), Creating favorable conditions for tourism Ba Vi, Economic and Urban newspaper 13 Nguyen Thi Quynh Trang (2017), Monuments and landscapes of Ba Vi district, Hanoi city with current tourism development, Hanoi University Of Culture, 1–6 14 Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (2012), Solutions for sustainable eco-tourism development in Ba Vi National Park, Journal of Forestry Science and Technology 15 Minh Hue (2019), Sustainable development of Ba Vi forest: Protecting "green lungs" for the capital, Hanoi Portal APPENDIX Appendix 1: Questionnaire for experts in round QUESTIONNAIR FOR EXPERTS GENERATING ENVIRONMENTAL CRITERIA AND INDICATORS IN MONITORING AND ASSESSING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN BA VI DISTRICT, HANOI, VIETNAM All information in this Questionnaire will only be used for statistical and research purposes I undertake not to disclose the information that you provide Please tick  on one option or fill out the information in accordance with Mr./Ms Thank you! I Personal information: Full name: Address: Phone number: Fax number: E-mail: You are working at: □ Research staff □ Governmental agency □ Independent expert □ Tourism company and organization II Survey question: Which fieldss did you contribute to the development of criteria and criteria to assess the impact of tourism activities? Frequency No Field Economy Socio Environment Usually Sometime Seldom No information Never The questionnaire selects a 5-point Likert scale (with being completely incapable of rating and a is a very high rating) The generatingenvironmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District will be great significance in making the optimal decision-making plan in the field of resource management Please indicate your level of agreement with the environmental criteria and indicators to monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District, in order of to with increasing level of agreement Please tick  on the box you choose Completely incapable to rating No ability to rating The ability to rating is not high Ability to appreciate The ability to rating is very high NO 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 INDICATORS TB TV S Criteria 1: Treatment of wastewater from tourism activities To organize the treatment of wastewater in tourist businessreach the standards in TCVN 5945-1995 before discharging it into the environment The volume of wastewater generated by tourism activities in Ba Vi District (m3 / year) Percentage of wastewater from tourism resorts that are treated Percentage of tourism facilities that have a wastewater treatment system (suitable) A number of pollution events reported each 1.5 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 year (in months) in the receiving waters Criteria 2: Management of solid waste from tourism activities The total amount of waste generated in Ba Vi district (tons / person / year) due to tourism activities Organizing the collection of waste in tourist business reach standards of TCVN 59451995 before discharging into the environment Having a waste collection system on average or there is at least 01 garbage bin with a lid over 300m along the internal roads There is an average of at least 01 garbage collection area of the tourism resort There are measures to increase waste 2.5 collection when at the time of travel Use specialized high-tech support tools 2.6 (using chemicals allowed to treat pollution, waste treatment, etc.) in appropriate areas 2.7 Having a separate waste treatment system in the tourist area or having means of IQR transporting garbage to the local garbage disposal area with the frequency of time / day A number of specialized staffor plurality staff 2.8 responsible for waste management of tourist resort The policy encourages the purchasing, usage 2.9 and consumption of environmentally friendly materials, goods Criteria 3: Management of air pollution from tourism activities 3.1 Source of emissions 3.2 The number of days exceeds the standard Emissions from passenger vehicles: CO, 3.3 SO2, Pb (m/l) Percentage of respiratory problems for year 3.4 (locals and tourists) A number of warnings related to air pollution 3.5 in Ba Vi District in major publications and guidebooks Using tourist vehycles must meet the environmental protection requirements prescribed in the Minister of Transport's 3.6 Decision No 4134/2001/QD-BGTVT on December 5, 2001 about technical safety standards and environmental protection of road vehicles and relevant legal documents Criteria 4: Controlling the noise from tourist activities The noise level in a tourist resortis calculated 4.1 in decibels (dBA) The noise from passenger vehicles (based on 4.2 dBA) 4.3 A number of complaints received in year Enterprises shall apply the regulations on coordination in the management of noise and 4.4 noise in cultural activities and cultural services Criteria 5: Management of visual impact of facilities and infrastructure 5.1 The total length of a travel destination 5.2 A number and size of travel signs Quality in watching the night sky (in natural 5.3 areas) 5.4 The number of standard public toilets serving tourists in functional areas and major attractions The density of buildings in the resort per 5.5 hectare Percentage of tourism facilities and 5.6 infrastructure that is appropriate or coordinated with the local culture Percentage of locations removed for tourism 5.7 development The number of indigenous trees removed for 5.8 tourism development Criteria 6: Conserving biodiversity, ecosystems and natural landscapes The situation of purchase, sale and use of rare and precious animals and plants prescribed in Decree No 18/HĐBT of January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers prescribing the List of rare and precious forest plants and animals and the regime of management, protection and the Government's Decree No 48/2002/NĐ-CP of April 22, 2002 about amending and 6.1 supplementing the List of rare and precious wild plants and animals, promulgated together with the Decree No 18/HĐBT of January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers prescribing the List of rare and precious forest plants and animals and the regime of management, protection and their products for ornamental purposes, food, medicine or souvenir Illegal transport of rare and precious animals and plants prescribed in Decree No 18/HDBT of January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers prescribing the List of rare and precious forest plants and animals and the management and prtection regime and the 6.2 Government's Decree No 48/2002/NĐ-CP of April 22, 2002 about amending and supplementing the List of rare and precious wildlife and plants promulgated together with Decree No 18/HĐBT of January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers defining the list of 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 rare and precious forest plants and animals and the management and protection regime A number of rare and precious animal species exploited in year A number of rare and precious animal species exploited in year Enterprises supporting biodiversity conservation include activities supporting special-use forests with high biodiversity value Interactions with wild animals must not cause adverse impacts on the wildlife community and the impacts on natural ecosystems, and rehabilitation is one of the compensation aimed at contributing to conservation efforts Criteria 7: Increasing environmental alawareness A number and type of measures to engage local people in conservation activities (meetings, programs, etc.) Percentage of local people who are actively involved in conservation activities Percentage of tourism managers who have environmental training activities Percentage of tour operators and hotels that have environmental policies and strategies Percentage of visitors who understand the importance of the conservation value of a tourist resort Attitudes and behaviors of tourists and local communities towards environmental conservation activities Appendix 2: Questionnaire for experts in round QUESTIONNAIR FOR EXPERTS GENERATING ENVIRONMENTAL CRITERIA AND INDICATORS IN MONITORING AND ASSESSING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN BA VI DISTRICT, HANOI, VIETNAM All information in this Questionnaire will only be used for statistical and research purposes I undertake not to disclose the information that you provide Please tick  on one option or fill out the information in accordance with Mr./Ms Thank you! I Personal information: Full name: Address: Phone number: Fax number: 10 E-mail: You are working at: □ Research staff □ Governmental agency □ Independent expert □ Tourism company and organization □ Administrative unit Survey question: Which fieldss did you contribute to the development of criteria and criteria to assess the impact of tourism activities? Frequency No Field Economy Socio Environment Usually Sometime Seldom Never No information The questionnaire selects a 5-point Likert scale (with being completely incapable of rating and a is a very high rating) The generatingenvironmental criteria and indicators in monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District will be great significance in making the optimal decision-making plan in the field of resource management Please indicate your level of agreement with the environmental criteria and indicators to monitoring and assessing sustainable tourism in Ba Vi District, in order of to with increasing level of agreement Please tick  on the box you choose Completely No ability to The ability to Ability to The ability to incapable to rating rating is not appreciate rating is very rating high high NO 1.1 1.2 1.3 INDICATOR TB TV S Criteria 1: Treatment of wastewater from tourism activities Source of wastewater Wastewater is treated at centralized wastewater treatment system or septic tanks, manholes Wastewater after being treated up to QCVN 14:2008/BTNMT column B- National Technical Regulation on Domestic Wastewater discharged into water sources not used for supply of daily-life water before being discharged into the environment For tourist area with swimming pools, herbal baths reach the standards of QCTHNHN 02:2014/BTNMT: Hanoi Technical Regulation on Industrial Wastewater IQR 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Criteria 2: Management of solid waste from tourism activities Source of solid waste There is a classification between ordinary solid waste and hazardous solid waste The total amount of waste generated in each tourist area (tons / person / year) due to tourism activities The solid waste generated from the tourism area will be collected to the solid waste storage area complies with Decree 38/2015/ND-CP on management of waste and discarded materials; Decision No 16/2013/QD-UBND of Hanoi People's Committee promulgating the regulation on management of ordinary solid waste in Hanoi city The hazardous solid waste generated at the tourist area will be collected to hazardous solid waste storage area which complies with Circular No 36/2015/TT-BTNMT on management of hazardous waste Having a waste collection system, with the number and distance of garbage bins suitable to the characteristics and area of the tourist area Having a separate waste treatment system in the tourist area or having means of transporting garbage to the local garbage disposal area with the frequency of time/day Number of specialized staff or plurality staff responsible for waste management of tourist area Criteria 3: Management of air pollution from tourism activities Source of emissions The number of days exceeds the standard Emissions from passenger vehicles, toilets, cafeterias : CO, SO2, Pb (m/l) Organizing the treatment of exhaust gas in tourist areas and the exhaust gas output reaches the permitted limit according to QCVN 05: 2013 / BTNMT National Technical Regulation on Ambient Air Quality and QCTĐHN 01:2014/ BTNMT Hanoi Technical Regulation on Industrial Emission of Inorganic Substances and Dusts There are works and plans to protect the 3.5 environment: greenery systems, watering roads Criteria 4: Controlling the noise from tourist activities The noise level in a tourist area is calculated 4.1 in decibels (dBA) The noise-generating activities at the tourist 4.2 area complies with QCVN 26:2010/BTNMT National Technical Regulation on Noise 4.3 Arranging traffic in and out reasonably Criteria 5: Management of visual impact of facilities and infrastructure The number of standard public toilets serving 5.1 tourists in functional areas and major attractions The density of buildings in the resort per 5.2 hectare Percentage of tourism facilities and 5.3 infrastructure that is appropriate or coordinated with the local culture Criteria 6: Conserve biodiversity, ecosystems and natural landscapes Number of rainy days in a year and total 6.1 rainfall 6.2 Availability of native plants Exploiting forest plants and animals complies with Decree 32/2006 / ND-CP on the 6.3 management of endangered, precious and rare forest plants and animals Criteria 7: Increasing environmental awareness Percentage of tour and hotel operators that 7.1 have environmental policies and strategies A number of tourism businesses have 7.2 periodic Environmental Impact reports A number of tourism businesses sanctioned 7.3 for violations of regulations on protection of natural resources and environment A number of educational activities about 7.4 protecting nature, environment at local schools, and for tourists Appendix 3: Eco-tourism in Ba Vi National Park and Suoi Hai Lake Appendix 4: Leisure tourism in Ao Vua and Dam Long Resort Appendix 5: Community-based tourism in LAI Farm Ba Vi and Detrang Farm Appendix 6: Spiritual cultural tourism Thuong Temple and Uncle Ho Temple (Souces: Linh Bui-VNUF, 2019)