Strategy for sustainable trourism development of Nghe An province to the year 2020

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE - NGUYEN TU LUONG NGUYEENX NNGGYỄN TƯ LƯƠNG STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE TROURISM DEVELOPMENT OF NGHE AN PROVINCE TO THE YEAR 2020 FACULTY: ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT CODE: 62.34.04.10 DOCTOR THESIS SUMARY HA NOI - 2015 THE THESIS WAS COMPLETED AT VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE Instructor: PGS, TS Nguyễn Doãn Thị Liễu TS Phạm Xuân Hậu Reviewer 1: Reviewer 2: Reviewer 3: The Thesis was presented among The University evaluating thesis Council, at the Library Conference room, Vietnam University of Commerce, at … , dated………….2015 The Thesis can be found at: National Library of Vietnam Library of Vietnam University of Commerce LIST OF PUBLIC SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF THE AUTHOR RELATING THIS THESIS Nguyen Tu Luong (2014), International and domestic tourism development: a lesson for Nghe An, Asia-Pacific Economic Review, author, number 435 (10/2014) Nguyen Tu Luong (2014), Sustainable Tourism is essencial requirement, Vietnam Tourism Review, author, number 10/2014 Nguyen Tu Luong (2014), Strategy for tourism development of Nghe An province, the questions for sustainable tourism development, Trade Science Review, co-author, number 73 (9/2014) Nguyen Tu Luong (2012), Sustainable tourism development for Vietnam, Vietnam Tourism Review, co-author, number 5/2012 Nguyen Tu Luong (2008), Building Marketing strategy - destinations for Vietnam tourism, Vietnam Tourism Review, co-author, number 6/2008 and 7/2008 Transportation – an important factor in tourism development (1999), Vietnam Transportation Review, author, number 3/1999 Nguyen Tu Luong (2010), Pratice Travel and Tourguide professional knowledge, text book, editor, Labour Public Press Nguyen Tu Luong (2010), Travel management, text book, co-editor, Labour Public Press Nguyen Tu Luong (2007), Travel and Tourguide professional knowledge, text book, co-editor, Ha Noi National Economics University Press 10 Nguyen Tu Luong (2009-2010), Some solutions to promote typical foods of Vietnam to the West - European visitor Market, the ministry level thesis of science-technology-research; Ministry of Cultrure, Sports and Tourism, keymember INTRODUCTION Necessary of the theme In the world today, a sustainable tourism development is one of the important trends in the tourism development It contributes to ensure balance for the tourism industry in environmental, social and economic of the countries, locals A Sustainable tourism development helps ensure the best use of environmental resources, protect the natural biodiversity and the environment, It contributes to preserve heritage, traditional values of national culture as well as solve the employment and income for people in the whole world Not only that, a sustainable tourism development help to maintain economic activities, provide social and economic benefits to all beneficiaries, and allocate fairly, including vocational careers and opportunities for stable profit and social services for the local community, and contribute to poverty reduction and prevent the negative impacts of unsustainable tourism development activities In long term point of view, sustainable tourism helps exploit resources in a conscious and science way, ensure these resources to thrive and develop for the next generations who can follow and take benefits from Nghe An province is located in the center of the North Central Region It has great potentials and advantages to develop tourism In recent years, Nghe An government has focused on promoting the development of tourism to bring into full effect the advantages and exploit natural incentives, historical and cultural relics for developing economic Nghe An province has considered the development of tourism as one of the key elements for economic growth in the context of the domestic economy faced many difficulties recently As a result, the province has obtained many achievements in tourism activities In particular, in 2014, Nghe An People's Committees has directed the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to focus on building a civilized, safe and friendly tourism environment; Organized many promotion activities advertise tourism in Udon Thani (Thailand), Lam Dong, Da Nang ; Signed tourism program between Nghe An and HCMC period 2014 - 2018; Organized conferences with tourism businesses; Opened Cua Lo Tourism Beach Festival 2014 In addition, the Province localities had directed to improve the work of ensuring security, safety, sanitation, food safety on area Hotels and restaurant’s business activities remained stable, especially coastal food services tend to increase In the recent period, on the basis of tourism development strategy of Vietnam, Nghe An also constructed tourism development targets, some programs and projects for tourism development Basically, programs and projects for tourism development of Nghe An has guided the development of tourism in a sustainable way Under the leadership of People's Committees, Nghe An Tourism was initially promoted the strength of a province with great potential of natural, forest and marine ecology, It’s an important contribution to economic growth and environmental protection and towards the development of sustainable tourism Thus, It contributed to solve employment for a large of employees, improve the quality of life and income of local communities Through surveys and assessment on different angles (angle of travel managers, businesses and the community and visitors) has shown that tourism development programs and projects of Nghe An is still insufficient Planning, construction and implementation of plans and programs for tourism development currently is slow, difficult to attract investment Besides, the infrastructure system, transportation as well as the quality of human resources in tourism are low; Awareness of citizens and tourists in protecting environmental resources is not really good; The effectiveness of coordination between agencies with different management and tourism businesses, local people in the development of sustainable tourism is not high Nghe An’s tourism products is monotonous, lack of diversity and it’s competitive strongly from many tourist areas throughout the country as well as international Besides, the unfavorable weather and seasonality also affected significantly to the development of the North Central tourism in general and Nghe An province in particular It was found that Nghe An Tourism has many opportunities to develop but there are also many difficulties, challenges and potentially unsustainable factors Therefore, the province should have a strategy for sustainable development, which should enhance the quality of planning and construction programs and plans for tourism development, strengthening investment and development tourism infrastructure and protecting the environment, improving the quality of human resources to ensure the province's tourism develop sustainably To contribute to systemize some theoretical issues of strategic development of sustainable tourism as well as analyze and evaluate the state of the implementation of the tourism development strategy into practical national building targets tourism and construction programs, plan, plan for tourism development of Nghe An, thereby determining the remaining issues to be addressed and propose some solutions to build development strategies sustainable tourism, the author has chosen the theme "Strategy for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province to the year 2020" to my research Objectives and tasks of the study * Objectives of the study: Researching the theoretical and practical issues about sustainable tourism development strategy in the present context, from that it’s applied to analyze and evaluate the strategy for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province some years and propose solutions in order to improve the tourism development strategy of Nghe An province in a sustainable way by 2020, vision 2030 To achieve this goal, subject identified research approach as follows: At present, almost provinces have not constructed yet the Strategy for tourism development However, the provinces are conducting strategy implemented national tourism development in the specific conditions of their province to build the strategic goals, plans, plans and programs to achieve the objective strategy of tourism development Therefore, on the basis of a baseline study that content deployment of Nghe An, subjects will be analyzed, evaluated and recommended the perfect solution for the period 2020 and the following years * Tasks of the study: - Systemize and clarify some basic theoretical issues of strategic development of sustainable tourism; analyze the characteristics, principles and strategic content for tourism development in the direction of a local sustainability - Analyze and assess the status of the conditions to develop strategies for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province in some years to make accurate conclusions about the achievements, limitations and cause of limitations - On the basis of theoretical studies and the status, subject given point strategy for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province and propose some solutions to develop a strategy of tourism development Nghe An province in a sustainable way by 2020, vision 2030 Object and scope of research * Subject of the study: The study rresearched theoretical and practical issues about strategies for developing tourism in a sustainable way The study researched the process of implementing strategic national tourism development until 2020, vision 2030 to identify targets, planning, and program for sustainable tourism development of Nghe An province to 2020 and vision to 2030 * Scope of the study: - Scope of time: The study researched the actual status of deployed strategy for national tourism development in Nghe An, therefore it proposed a number of solutions to complete the construction sustainable tourism development strategy of Nghe An until 2020, vision 2030 The research data used in the subject were collected primarily during the past 10 years - Scope of space: the study researched strategy of national tourism development as a basis for analyzing and evaluating the implementation of tourism development goals and plans as well as programs for sustainable development of Nghe An province Method of the Study: - Method of dialectical materialism and historical materialism: the common methodology for the research methodology of the subject - Methodology desk research and inheritance: Look at the documents related to sustainable tourism development and strategy for sustainable tourism development inside and outside of the country to synthesize and systemize the theoretical issues of sustainable tourism development of a province - Data collection methods: + Secondary data: using secondary data from the reports, statistic from Nghe An Statistic Office, Tourism Promotion Center, Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nghe An province + Primary data was collected from two sources: survey of businesses, organizations and business tourism services in Nghe An province, the tourism state managers of province, tourists coming to Nghe An, locals people in Nghe An and direct interviews with the tourism state managers Sociological Survey was conducted directly by author through 150 questionnaires sent to the tourism companies and organizations in Nghe An province; survey of 102 provincial travel managers of county / district or town; 105 tourists to Nghe An and 105 local people in Nghe An The interview process was done for the State management as representatives of Nghe An People's Committees, The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nghe and some business leaders - Method of data processing: + Secondary data: using the analysis, evaluation, comparison and synthesis + Primary data: collected primary data was processed by SPSS software in conjunction with Excel to have the analysis results to reflect reality research problem - Other methods: Statistical methods, analysis, synthesis, comparison… New contributions of the study * Theoretical contributions: From the general theory of sustainable tourism development, subject has some contributions on the following reasons:: - Aggregate, analyze and offer approach point of view, the concept of sustainable tourism development as well as point of view of strategic sustainable tourism development, besides the project also point to the role of strategic sustainable tourism development for the economic development, society and environment of a local - Analyzing basic content of the strategic sustainable tourism development for the province include some content such as analyzing environmental sustainable tourism development, building strategic objectives, planning provincial tourism development sustainably, developing a plan for sustainable tourism development, building the institutions and policies of the province to implement the strategy of sustainable tourism development, implementation and strategic adjustments For each item, subjects specified basic characteristics, conditions and circumstances applied and application-specific formats On the basis of summing up the dissertation for sustainable tourism development and strategies for sustainable tourism development, the project has identified the objective and subjective factors that influent to strategic tourism development of a province, the objective factors include: state policies and local development of sustainable tourism, environmental law and local state of sustainable tourism development, the advantage compare geographical location and role for sustainable tourism development, the comparative advantages of geography and natural potential for sustainable tourism development, the development trend of demand for domestic and foreign sustainable tourism, social infrastructure in general and local in particular for sustainable tourism development and awareness of local communities about sustainable tourism Group subjective factors include: Awareness of the role and importance of formulating strategies for sustainable tourism development of local leaders; local investment for sustainable tourism development; level of management staff and direct construction, implementation planning, tourism development strategy; workforce of the local tourism industry; competitiveness of local tourism businesses; promote the dissemination and promotion of tourism development - Building data and objects survey information (including enterprises, tourism managers, tourists and locals), ensuring the representativeness, objectiveness, as basis for evaluating the conditions of strategic sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province and analyzing the influence of objective and subjective factors related to the strategy for sustainable tourism development of Nghe An province * Practical contributions drawn from research results - Analyzing topic and learning experience through previous studies in the field of sustainable tourism development as well as related documentation inside and outside abroad in order to draw experience lessons for the building strategy of sustainable tourism development of Nghe An - On the basis of secondary data, the subject has generalized the situation of tourism development of Nghe An province on a number of criteria such as the number of tourists, the contribution of tourism to the socio-economic development of province - Based on the data and survey information objects (including business, tourism managers, tourists and locals), subjects were shown the existing problems, limitation and reasons as well as issues that need to continue to improve in order to build strategy for sustainable tourism development of Nghe An province - Making recommendations in order to support the implementation of solutions for strategy sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province include: Improving environmental assessment of tourism development, completion of work planning, tourism development plan, including promoting regional links and tourist areas, perfecting the institutions and policies for implementing the strategy and mobilize all resources for the development of sustainable tourism, improvement evaluation strategy for sustainable tourism development - Proposed some recommendations for enterprises and concerned organizations Solutions and recommendations of the research is basically consistent with the general development trend of the field of sustainable development in the tourism industry, and in line with the strategy, planning and tourism development of Vietnam in general and Nghe An province in particular until 2020 Above is the contribution of theoretical and practical aspects of the project contribute to improving the theoretical and practical strategy for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An Province Overview of the Study There are some research on tourism and development strategies inside the country and in the world A common characteristic of these studies published was limited to the study of tourism development on some certain aspects, referring mainly to the solution of sustainable tourism development at a local The research strategy of sustainable tourism development of Nghe An is a matter yet to be drill works on research To fill that knowledge gap, there should be an in-depth study more comprehensive and relevant to the sustainable development strategy of tourism in Nghe An province So it can affirm that the research: "Strategy for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province to the year 2020" is not identical to the study published in the country and abroad Structure of the Thesis In addition to the cover page, table of contents, list of tables, figures, abbreviations, overview of the research, conclusions, list of references and appendices, the Thesis were structured into chapters as follows: - Chapter 1: Some basic theoretical issues about sustainable tourism development strategies of a local - Chapter 2: Current status of the construction and implementation of the sustainable tourism development strategy of Nghe An - Chapter 3: Suggested solutions to partly contribute in construction and implementation for the strategy for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An up to 2020, vision 2030 CHAPTER SOME BASIC THEORETICAL ISSUES ABOUT SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF A LOCAL 1.1 BASIC CONCEPTS AND ROLES OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Synthesis, analysis and unified view of sustainable tourism development (STD) and strategy for STD, includes: - The concept of sustainable development; - The concept of sustainable tourism; - The opinions of sustainable tourism development in the world - The concepts of strategy - The concepts of strategy for STD: Based on the synthesis and analysis of relevant concepts, the author introduced the concept of strategy for STD as follow: "Strategy for sustainable tourism development is a common path and the key and overall solutions to develop tourism in a sustainable way" 1.2 CONSTRUCTION AND IMPLEMENTION PROCESS OF STRATEGY FOR STD OF A LOCAL Contents of a strategy for STD includes: - Building strategic targets: + Analyze the environment for STD + Building strategic targets - Master plan tourism development of a local in a sustainability way - Make a plan of sustainable tourism development - Build institutions, policies of a local to implement the strategy for STD - Implement, assess and amend the strategy 1.3 STANDARDS FOR ASSESSING THE STRATEGY FOR STD AT A LOCAL - According to quantity - According to quality 1.4 FACTORS AFFECTING THE STRATEGY FOR STD OF A LOCAL - Objective factors: + Development trends of tourism demand towards the factors of sustainable development + Policies for sustainable tourism development of government and local + Competitiveness in tourism business + Natural potential advantages for sustainable tourism development + Comparative advantages of geographical location for sustainable tourism development 10 applied electronic mail system with locale names, electronic office Local authorities already have web portal and initially provide online public services Information technology has also been applied in production, business and social cultures to varying degrees depending on the characteristics and conditions of each local and each fields + Electricity, water and communication: Basically meet the requirements of tourism destinations However, there has been difficulty in the dry season when the general power shortage in the country will be affected to the use of electricity in the area, tourist destinations 2.1 CURRENT STATUS OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE PAST TIME OF NGHE AN PROVINCE 2.2.1 Growth in tourism and tourism's contribution to Socio- economic growth of Nghe An province According to the data of Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, revenue and contribution of tourism to the province's GDP increased continuously during the past 10 years From 385.4 billion VND and contributed 1.3% of GDP in 2005, total tourism revenue in 2014 reached 2,381 billion (not including revenue from transporting passengers by rail, aviation) increased by 13% compared with same period of 2013 and reached 106% of the plan year in which sales of international tourists reached 11.9 million, contributing 4.2% to the GDP of the province Tourism development of Nghe An has also contributed to improving the living standards of the people, to solve many social problems, create more job chances for the people For tourists to Nghe An recent period, according to statistics, in 2014 the total number of tourists staying in the province reached 5.9 million, equal to 109% compared with 2013, of which international tourists reached 155.70 respectively, by 112% over the same period in 2013 Table 2.1: Times of tourists come to Nghe An in the period 2005-2014 Unit: thousand times of tourists Year 2005 International 40,90 Domestic 1.359,92 Total 1.400,82 2006 47,02 1.543,56 1.590,58 2007 69,74 1.852,69 1.922,43 2008 2009 84,28 86,85 2.074,07 2.115,00 2.158,35 2.201,85 2010 104,82 3.903,00 4.007,82 2011 2012 105,26 122,09 4.191,01 4.819,78 4.296,27 4.941,87 2013 138,82 5.327,85 5.466,67 2014 155,70 5.834,00 5.986,70 Source: Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism 2.2.2 The reality of infrastructure for tourism development The province has one 5-star hotel, five 4-star hotels 5, fifteen 3-star hotels and nearly 100 rated from to stars hotels with over 1,500 reception staff are trained from various schools 11 but different qualification However, they had made great efforts in performing their duties In terms of distribution, hotels concentrated in Vinh City and Cua Lo Town, in other areas, accommodation facilities not currently meet the requirements of both quantity and quality Table 2.2: Accommodation infrastructure of Nghe An in the period 2000 - 2014 2000 2005 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Number of accommodation bases 86 201 455 500 572 608 665 Number of rooms 2.470 5.219 10.392 11.440 12.704 13713 15.138 Source: Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism The shopping centers, entertainment points are also being built to serve tourists Although it is facilitated with the policies of attracting investment but at present a modern shopping center in Cua Lo has not been built yet This is a weakness in infrastructure 2.2.3 Situation of human resources for tourism of Nghe An Up to December 11/2014, total number of labour working in the tourism sector in Nghe An province was approximately 11,300 people It is estimated that to the end of 2015 the number of labour will be about 39 278 and in 2020 this figure could reach 80 284 people However, there are still many shortcomings in tourism human resources in Nghe An and has not meet the demand of integration trend Regarding quantity, tourism enterprises are mostly small scale so the average number of employees is low Besides, the weakness in the foreign language skills of the majority of cadres and workers make them face many difficulties in communication, promotion and expansion market of international visitors Most enterprises tourist in the province of Nghe An is currently small, seasonal activities so they did not pay much attention to training high skilled workers 2.3 ANALYSE, ACCESS THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE CONSTRUCTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY FOR STD OF NGHE AN 2.3.1 Analyze the environment for doing tourism business, master plan and making plan of tourism development The work of analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, challenges has been started but just stopped at some basic contents, not to be done methodically, professionally and frequently From analytical work to the option to make strategic model for STD still limited Nghe An province need to further improve the work of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the tourism industry, leveraging the strengths and limitations of weakness when building strategy for STD The forecast of domestic tourists to Nghe An perform relatively well, the figures forecast in the plan, program or scheme for STD was relatively closed to the real results However, due to fluctuations of the international tourism market and the impact from the world economic crisis should forecasts international tourist arrivals to Nghe An have significant deviations Regarding the work of building targets of tourism development, tourism target of Nghe An basically ensure the proper and specific, consistent with the overall objectives of Vietnam, the province in the neighborhood and socio-economic objectives of the province 12 Overall planning for tourism development up to 2020 of Nghe An province is the foundation to build programs and projects of tourism development of the province and other localities in the province Nghe An has planned key tourism areas such as Cua Lo Beach, Vinh City, Nam Dan The master plan for those tourism area are conducted according to the right order, starting from calling for investment in tourism, have created favorable conditions for natural resource management, tourism product development and partly contribute to the socioeconomic efficiency However according to the evaluation, planning work was slow deployment, planning is difficult to perform or improper performance of the approved content Regarding the work of building tourism development plan, in general it is seen that Nghe An tourism development program period 2006 -2010 has basically met the requirements of the tourism development of the province The projects such as sea-island tourism development of Nghe An up to 2020, the project of tourism development of the western Nghe An in 2007-2010 also had the basic orientation to the sustainable tourism development However, these STD activities have not been implemented effectively 2.3.2 The real implementation of tourism development efforts of Nghe An in the time being Regarding the dissemination of tourism development targets of Nghe An to enterprises has been concerned and implemented well However, it should be more specific in implementing dissemination and propagation tourism development targets for businesses, tourism management levels In the future, need to continue to enhance the effectiveness of this work, ensuring tourism enterprises in the province get relating necessary information, contributing to the development of Tourism Industry of Nghe An Regarding the investment and attracting investment for facilities serving tourism development, the province was interested in investing in infrastructure for the tourism industry, and gradually invested additional services such as restaurants, entertainments and shopping points but this work is still limited by the difficulty in calling for investment Accommodation bases mainly concentrated in the major tourist destinations and only focused on operating marine tourism as well as cultural tourism therefore attracted mostly domestic visitors Investment activities on tourism development: Land transport, air transport are continue to be upgraded, expanded It continuously to invest in projects of marine tourism, resorts, and interested in invest in building and conserving of cultural and historical relics, improving qualification of tourism staff In additions, investments in security, safety guarantee for tourists as well as environmental protection The limitation of investment budget is one of the biggest problems of the province Besides, there is no public toilets in any tourism regions, no huge investment projects, particularly foreign investment projects, shopping points with poor souvenirs Regarding investments for tourism human resources: The province has actively promoted the work of training human resources on environmental protection, improve foreign languages skills (including the rare languages such as Thai, Korean, Japanese, etc.), as well as sending officers to abroad for training However, enterprises in Nghe An are mostly small scale therefore the average number of employees is low, the workforce is affected by seasonality, labor quality is not high, lack of management skills Besides, the course is not close to reality, 13 the training program is not unified that affected the output quality Enterprises also faced difficulty in keeping their qualified staff after be trained due low and poor salary policies Source: Author’s survey Figure 2.1:Assessment of the tourism enterprises in some policies of training and attracting tourism personnel of Nghe An Regarding investment in improving the quality and diversifying tourism products: Most companies and managers informed that quality of hotel services is low, staff qualification in the province's tourism industry is at normal level and can not meet the request Besides, the management staff level is not high, the quality of accommodation services stayed at low level and was inadequate In the future, the province should further enhance the investment in improving the quality of accommodation services to meet the requirements of tourism development According to the survey, the tourism products of Nghe An are mainly grow in breadth with not high quality & efficiency, monotonous, no typical tourist products, no large investment projects, difficult to attract international tourists Conducting traveling tour of Nghe An enterprises is poor with no innovation to attract visitors There are many possible causes including: Mechanisms and policies of tourism, tourism promotion, tourism investment, product links The factors affecting diversity of tourism products includes: the promotion of tourism, tourism investments, human resources, tourism seasonality, policy mechanisms, tourism product links Regarding the quality of tourist services, the majority of enterprises said that the quality of tourism services is low, the survey also showed that factors affecting the quality of tourism services including business management skills in tourism is low, tourism human resources is normal and inadequate infrastructure for tourism The province had issued legal documents to protect environment for tourism At the same time, localities had also issued and performed relatively well on environmental protection regulations such as building tourist models of people involve in environmental protection in the wards, communes, etc tourism areas was equipped with public bins, signposts to raise 14 awareness of local people Maritime rescue work has been paid much attention to be invested to ensure safety for tourists The remaining problems of such systems are listed as inadequate public toilets at tourist sites, no common areas for rubbish processing; traditional villages excess wastewater that causes environmental pollution, management team has poor understanding of environmental protection activities Source: Author’s survey Figures 2.2: Some criteria affecting tourism services quality of Nghe An Province Tourism promotion has been continuously invested and get significant achievements Images, destinations, tourism products of the province have been widely advertised; many events, promotional activities are organized, particularly the province has signed a tourism development agreement with several provinces, cities as Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang city and so on The province also worked with other international tourism organizations to coordinate tourism promotion for Nghe An image, attract more international tourists to visit in Nghe An Some remaining still exist, such as the promotion of international tourism is still low, the number of international tourists knew about Nghe An Tourism is not high, due to the market research are not formal, not clearly identified potential beneficiaries leading to waste in advertisement and not effectively Source: Author’s survey Figures 2.3: Evaluate the effectiveness of tourism promotion of Nghe An province 15 Mechanisms and management policies, the province has issued a number of mechanisms and policies to attract investment, reform administrative procedures, training officials, enhance promotion in order to create the more attractive investment The management officials has paid more attention in the label, the criteria of STD such as a sustainable tourism labeled “Blue lotus flower” Some limitations remained: the administrative procedures are cumbersome, lead to difficulty for investors; some localities are lack of creative initiation in propaganda of seeking investment partners, limited clearance etc Connection activities in tourism development between Nghe An tourism and other provinces as well as among localities within province has remained to be weak However, the connection between tourism and other sectors in the province has certain advantages In recent years, the province has also actively conducted many joint activities, promote tourism at home and abroad, initially yielded positive signs Source: Author’s survey Figures 2.4: Tourism Enterprise’s evaluation on tourism connection activities of Nghe An province Additionally, Nghe An province are facing many difficulties in the attraction of local communities in tourist activities due to low income, seasonality of tourism, the ineffective people support policy, lack of dissemination of knowledge on tourism The province has issued various legal documents to steer on state management for tourism businesses in the area, environmental protection and security protection at the tourist points Constantly improve the quality of the advisory steering management agencies meet mission requirements and conducting inspections, checks on the situation of security, order and safety, food hygiene, sanitation schools in the district sights key tourism of the province; Working interest in ensuring food safety and travel security order Some problems still exist as the tram system management, price management policies of tourist services is inadequate 2.3.3 Assessment status of the plan’s implementation and strategic objectives for STD in Nghe An Province The assessment of conditions for STD in the province has gradually been more concerned over specific activities About tourism potential, the province assessed and master planed the key 16 areas for tourism development including Vinh City, Cua Lo Town, Nam Dan, corresponding with tourism products are the strength in cultural tourism, festivals, tourist beach resort, cultural and historical exploitation The province is also interested in assessing specific objectives as the number of tourists at home and abroad, tourism market forecasts etc Besides, the province has organized numerous meetings and seminars in order to remove difficulties for tourism enterprises Some problems still exist as only evaluation in the basic criteria, the system does not have specific criteria to assess STD ensuring overall tourism activities; information collection has not been paid much attention; qualified management is low etc 2.4 OVERALL EVALUATION 2.4.1 Obtained achievements By analyzing the situation, the subject has concluded on the results of the strategic deployment of developing national tourism in specific conditions develop strategy for STD in Nghe An on the following issues: - Analysis of business travel environment - forecast of tourism development - Building objectives for tourism development - tourism development plan of the province - plans and programs for tourism development - The dissemination of tourism development objectives of Nghe An province to travel companies - Investment and attracting investment for facilities to serve the development of tourism - Investment in human resources of tourism - Investment to improving the quality and diversity tourism products - Investment for environmental protection activities - Tourism promotion - Management policy to ensure support and monitor the implementation of the objectives of tourism development in Nghe An province - The evaluation of the implementation plan and strategic objectives for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An Province 2.4.2 The limitations and reasons * Besides these achievements, some limitations should resolve include: First, the environmental objectives are not mentioned and set clear, specific data were not available to clarify the results to be achieved in the province's goal of tourism development for environmental protection and embellishment tourism resources etc Second, the planning work was slow and difficult or improper performance of the basic contents approved Unexploited tourism potential, no linked programs to construct together specific tourism products, monitoring the implementation of plan was weak leading to investment did not comply with the plan 17 Third, investment in implementing elements of tourism development goals not met requirements Fail to attract visitors from the high market, the quality of accommodation are not really good and unequal, the supplementary services such as shopping centers, entertainment are weak, provincial revenues from tourism remains low compared to the country * Causes of the limitations: - First, Nghe An province is difficult area, uneven literacy, tourism operators affected by seasonality Natural disasters occur frequently - Second, the resources of the provincial tourism distribute unfocusedly but scattered all over the province, It makes difficulty to invest in infrastructure and transport - Third, infrastructure and technical facilities are limited and can not meet the full requirements of the traveler It’s no key investment projects - Fourth, the system of accommodation are small and lack of amenities, the additional services are poor, the accommodation primarily concentrated in the major tourist sites and lack of Entertainment As Well As Shopping center - Fifth, the global economic crisis led to tourists spend more limited, usually tourists in transit - Sixth, the majority of enterprises are small, weak competitiveness, link together limited, lack of staff, management, foreign languages, skilled workers The enterprises are not really serious about training of skilled personnel The enterprises in the province are difficult to retain good employees 18 CHAPTER SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TO PARTLY CONTRIBUTE FOR CONTRUCTION AND IMPLEMENTATION THE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN NGHE AN UP TO 2020, VISION 2030 3.1 ECONOMIC STATUS, CONCEPTS AND TARGETS OF NGHE AN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT TO 2020, VISION 2030 3.1.1 Identify the advantages and disadvantages from the context of domestic and international economy, for the development of tourism - The tourism sector is growing and bringing positive signals for the economy - Some issues related to political instability, conflict are the causes affecting the development of the tourism industry worldwide - In the country, the political situation, society is stable, reputation and image of Vietnam was improving as the favorable conditions for tourism development However, shortcomings in the organization of management, human factors are hindering the development of tourism 3.1.2 The concept of tourism development of Nghe An towards sustainability - Continue to exploit the strengths of tourism resources to make tourism development become a key economic sector, connect Nghe An tourism with other tourism region in a sustainable way - Tourism development towards professional, modern, focus on key points Tourism development in depth to ensure efficiency, rebranding and competitiveness - Expanding and combining forms of tourism in order to create a diversity of tourism products - Enhancing socialization of tourism industry to mobilize domestic and foreign resources - Tourism development need to be tied with conservation and promotion the nation's cultural values, preservation of landscapes, protection of environment, security and defense 3.2 SOME SOLUTIONS TO PARTLY BUILD THE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT OF NGHE AN 3.2.1 Suggested models of STD strategy of Nghe An The author would like to suggest the choice of models of STD strategy as follow: Table 3.1: Suggest to analyze SWOT and choose strategy model of STD of Nghe An province SWOT Opportunity (O) Threats (T) O1: The open door policy of integration of Vietnam O2: The world’s concern of Vietnam O3: Vietnam has plenty of famous landscapes… O4: The Government pay attention and create favorable condition for T1: Nghe An tourism industry is in the early stage of development T2: The world varied badly (terrorism, pandemics, natural disasters ) T3: Competition from other countries within area T4: Weak connection 19 tourism development O5: The trend of international travelers to countries with stable political situation … among tourism industry and with other industry T5: Weak diversification of tourism products T6: Not synchronized legal documents on tourism T7: Over exploitation of natural environment + Combine S1, S2, S3, S8 and O1, O2, O3, O4, O5, S1: Favorable geographical strategic choice to focus attracting domestic and location S2: Rich tourism resources foreign tourists, especially international tourists to S3: Favourable infrastructure Nghe An and technical base for + Combine S3, S4, S7 and tourism development O1, O2, O4, choose S4: Master plan for strategy to leverage internal Tourism development was and external investment to paid much attention the tourism sector S5: Legislation system is Especially to tourism completing by time infrastructure S6: Big potential of labour + Combine S1, S2, S3, S4, for tourism of Nghe An S7, S8 and O2, O3, O4, O5 S7: Preferential policies for strategic choice to diversify tourism development in the tourism products, affiliate province is quite favorable products inside and outside the province to create S8: Good experience of competition for parks and tourism development tourist areas + Combine S1, S2, S3 and T1, T2, T3: Choose strategy to continue focusing on attracting domestic tourists, gradually attracting international tourists + Combine S1, S2, S3, S4, S7, S8 and T1, T3, T4, T5: Choose strategy of diversification of tourism products, affiliate products inside and outside the province to create competition for tourist areas + Combine S4, S5, S7 and T6, T7: Choose the strategy to complete legal documents on tourism and environmental protection + Combine W2, W3, W7, W8 and O2, O4, O5: W1: Not good condition of Choose the strategy to climate for tourism preserve, embellish and development development of tourism W2: Less effective resources management and + Combine W4, W8 and exploitation of tourism O1, O2, O4, O5: Choose resources the strategy of developing W3: Infrastructure, human resources both in technical base have not met quality and quantity the requirement of the + Combine W1, W2, W5, industry W8 and O2, O3, O4, O5: W4: Lack of highChoose the strategy to qualified-labour diversify tourism products, W5: Tourism products affiliate products inside and monotony, lack of outside the province to connection between the create competition for + Combine W1, W2, W5, W8 and T1, T3, T4, T5: Choose strategy to diversify tourism products, affiliate products inside and outside the province to create competition for tourist areas + Combine W2, W8 and T1, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7: Choose the strategy to strengthen the effectiveness of state management of tourism activities in the province To strengthen the organizational structure of the state + Combine W5, W6, W8 Strength (S) weakness (W) 20 tourism products W6: Less effective activities of tourism promotion W7: Limitation in capital and technology investment W8: State management of tourism also present shortcomings tourist areas + Combine W4, W5, W6, W7, W8 and O1, O2, O4, O5: Choose the strategy to enhance tourism promotion both internal and external + Combine W7, W8 and O1, O2, O4, O5: Choose the strategy to enhance investment in capital and technology for tourism activities + Combine W8 and O1, O4: Choose the strategy to improve the effectiveness of state management on tourism activities and T1, T3, T4, T5: Choose strategy to strengthen the connection among tourism activities including tourism products inside and outside of province, connection between tourism industry and other industries, with other organizations Source: Suggestion of the author 3.2.2 Complete the master plan and plan for tourism development - Improving the system of legal documents related on the basis of the Law on Tourism to suit the conditions and circumstances of local investment attraction - Apparatuses tourism management organization from the provincial to the local level, creating favorable conditions for tourism development planning, creating strong links, ensuring the rights and interests between localities While enhancing inter-agency coordination to enhance management efficiency - Investigate, assess and classify, manage the province's tourism resources, forming a database of local tourism service for the construction of tourism development plan - The Department of Cultural, Sports and Tourism direct to check, making plan of the order of priority for development planning tourist areas, major tourist attractions, the national tourist destinations - Continue to improve the qualification of tourism management officials, state officials relating tourism industry - The Department of Cultural, Sports and Tourism cooperate with other relating organization to solve obstacles and difficulties in building and implementing the master plan for STD strategy - Encourage the connection activities among localities within a region; the construction and implementation of the strategy should be based on the connection of tour, tourism promotion - Enhance the connection with other North Middle Provinces as well as the provinces of the country; cooperation with key markets such as Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Japan, Western 21 Europe , in order to enlist support tourism resources and promote the image of tourism in Nghe An 3.2.3 Iimprove quality and diversify tourism products and services - Market expansion solutions: Promote research and selection of new target markets, use marketing policies to penetrate markets where the province's tourism industry forward Apply strategy to diversify, attract and develop in the market group Strengthening the promotion activities in depth in the key international markets such as the ASEAN countries, the countries in the Greater Mekong Sub region and the East-West Corridor, Northeast Asian market - Improve quality of tourism products and services: Development focused typical tourism products on the basis of bringing in to full play the strength of the province's tourism potential which is unique, distinctive and prominent Diversifying tourism products aiming to overcome seasonality Strengthening connection of tourism product development, that is high competition, avoiding duplication Emphasis on improving the quality of tourism services and the conditions for development of tourism products, make them be competitiveness with good brand The tourism product group should be focused on development in the future, including: - Historical relics, cultural travelling: Kim Lien relic, Nam Dan - Marine resorts: Cua Lo beach, Dao Ngu Island, Lan Chau Island, Cua Hoi beach - Eco-tourism: Pu Mat National Garden; Pu Hoat Nature Reservation area - Heritage Travel: Concentrate in Vinh city such as Quyet mountain; Phuong Hoang Trung Do, Ho Chi Minh Statue, Ho Chi Minh Square, Hong Son Temple, Can Linh pagoda, Vinh ancient citadel, general museum of Nghe An, So Viet Nghe Tinh museums, Museum of military Region IV, the historic cultural relics at Ben Thuy junction, Vinh power plant Formation of shopping malls, conferences, services establishments and entertainment for visitors Building capacity to meet the demand of visitors to travel in a long time, using the advantage of marine tourism to develop products more attractive for tourists Focusing on protecting the environment during exploitation, product development, protection of the marine environment In addition, it is necessary to develop the field of food & beverage for visitors, especially in special and traditional food, like eel porridge, grilled fresh squid cuisine and specialty items as a gift of Nghe An to serve tourists The tourism management agencies should conduct an investigation and assessment of the current state of the tourism products and the unexploited potential to develop feasible plans of creation for good quality tourism products, able to compete with tourism products in other areas, countries and the world 3.2.4 Increase investment in tourism development 22 - Increase investment in tourism infrastructure; attract private sector to invest in tourism infrastructure, technical facilities, increase State budget to invest in tourism development, especially the potential areas Enlist the support of foreign countries to strengthen tourism potential, environmental protection and so on - Mobilize and diversify financial resources from internal and external invested in tourism training institutions, restore, mining tourism resources, diversify tourism products and so on Establish policies to attract available capital from people for tourism development investment 3.2.5 Complete institutions, policies for tourism development - Policies and institutions solutions: + Policies relating investment: Give priority for the development of transport infrastructure (especially roads and air transport), with the support of the land tax, ground clearance, environmental pollution treatment and research of clean energy sources etc Special offers for new tourist destinations, simplify administrative procedures in tourism etc + Priority for tax exemptions, free tax for some limited tourism investment projects in key areas of the province like Vinh City, Cua Lo Town, Nam Dan district, Western Region of Nghe An in order to attract investment, develop tourist destinations + Market policy: Need to support budget for market research activities, strengthen financial support and socialize tourism promotion activities in the short and long term Simplifying procedures for insurance, banking + Immigration policy, customs: Improve procedures to create favorable condition for domestic and international tourists, Improve the security equipment at the borders as well as convenient services for foreigners such as currency exchange, duty free shops, + Policy of tourism socialization: to encourage all economic sectors engage in tourism in many forms, encouraging economic sectors to invest in protecting, restoring historical relics, landscape, conservation festivals + Mechanisms of linking branches and localities in the province and country: develop tourism products base on the connection in their promotional activities, tourism investment Encourage regional cooperation, build mechanisms + Constructing and conserving existing forms of tourism are the key mission of the province At the same time, to develop ecotourism base on principles and specific criteria - Improve the effectiveness of state management of tourism + Strengthening the capacity of the State management agencies on tourism from all levels in order to meet the development requirements of tourism Clearly defining functions and creating strong links between the state management agency on tourism and associations; travel clubs + Strictly manage the master plan of tourism development to attract investment, create connection within the province, continue to improve tourism statistics system, track tightly 23 international tourists as well as domestic tourists to go immediately to improve the quality of tourism activities in the province 3.2.6 Strengthen connection, promotion, marketing for tourism Strengthen connection, promotion for tourism includes: Investment for tourism development; Construction of tourism programs of the local; Promotion and marketing the image of local, training and development of personnel; Connection with Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh provinces to combine beach tour, spirit and cultural tour on the heritage route of the Middle region among three provinces, These methods would create favourable condition for researching to develop the province’s tourism Strategy for tourism promotion of the province should be paid attention with deep development, focus on branding province's tourism, taking the strategy for product development as the content of building strategy and promotion plan to set up position for Nghe An tourism in the tourism market tourists both domestic and international Using messages and appropriate communication channel, focusing on the communication channel through the electronic media, the Internet, etc Develop plans to promote tourism long-term from 5-10 years and as well as annual Actively participate to promote tourism image of Nghe An tourism at any Tourism Fairs at home and abroad, cooperate with mass media, TV channels, establish Nghe An representative office at important potential countries, raise the people's awareness in promoting tourism with rich diverse, attractive content 3.2.7 Develop human resource for tourism Complete the policies relating to labor in the tourism sector; Continue to develop a network of tourism training, invest more in infrastructure and operation conditions, diversify the tourism training institutions by encouraging to open the training facilities at companies, particularly focus on folk music in the form “ vi dam”of Nghe An It is necessary to set up a training program according to common standards base on the collaboration of multiple agencies Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, etc Training programs should be paid special attention to factors of STD, research long-term programs on tourism base on the program of developed nations Enterprises also need to actively organize training programs about tourism for staff and should have policies such as salary, bonuses, training opportunities abroad etc to attract and retain employees 3.3 RECOMMENDATIONS To facilitate the construction strategy for sustainable tourism development in the province of Nghe An to 2020 and vision to 2030, the Thesis would like to suggest following recommendations: - The recommendations to the state authorities - The recommendations to the local authorities - The recommendations to relating enterprises and organizations 24 CONCLUSION Nghe An is a potential area for tourism development with rich potential development of marine resort, cultural tourism, spiritual tourism, ecotourism … Through the development phases, the tourism industry of Nghe An has achieved many remarkable achievements especially on domestic tourists However, in recent years, the economic crisis has been affecting many sectors including tourism Nghe An Province has had many positive actions to partly limit the influences of the economic crisis through the promulgation and implementation of programs and projects for tourism development in the province However in order to develop the province's tourism industry in a sustainable way, it is necessary to establish the strategy for tourism development with more specific orientations and activities To help managers with an overview of the strategy for sustainable tourism development of a local as well as analyze and evaluate the state of development of the tourism industry as well as the conditions to build strategy for sustainable tourism development of the province in several years, as a basis for the proposed strategy for sustainable tourism development in Nghe An province to the year 2020 and vision to the year 2030 With the obtained results, the authors hope to help the management authorities in Nghe An’s tourism sector with suitable decisions and appropriate actions to develop the province's tourism industry rapidly and sustainably in the coming period Thereby enhancing the competitiveness of the tourism industry in Vietnam in general and in Nghe An in particular References Vietnamese documents (65) English documents (16) From Internet (3) The appendix Appendix1: Sample survey questionnaire for tourism enterprises Appendix 2: Sample survey questionnaire for state managers of tourism in Nghe An Appendix 3: Sample survey questionnaire for tourists about sustainable tourism development of Nghe An Appendix 4: Sample survey questionnaire for local people about sustainable tourism development of Nghe An Appendix 5: Preliminary results of the survey Appendix 6: Some analyzed results of the survey data Appendix 7: List of surveyed enterprises