On the morning of July 8, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thai Nguyen province held a seminar with the theme: "Evaluating potential, advantages, suggesting solutions to develop tourism in Thai Nguyen province" to assess the potential and suggest solutions to develop tourism after merging Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan (old), attracting more and more visitors.
New opportunities with challenges
Speaking at the seminar, Mr. Duong Xuan Hung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thai Nguyen province, assessed that Thai Nguyen after the merger has a geographical location, convenient transportation, advantages in natural resources, cultural resources, and rich humanity with over 1,000 historical, cultural, and scenic sites.
After the merger, Thai Nguyen province entered a new era of development, the local tourism industry faced new opportunities and fortunes. Thai Nguyen owns more diverse tourism resources, with values that are congisoned and complemented between the old Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan.
According to Dr. Le Quang Dang (Vietnam Institute of Culture, Arts, Sports and Tourism), the new Thai Nguyen province has a wider space for tourism development, removing barriers in both administrative boundaries (old provincial and district levels) and soft boundaries in state management of tourism, facilitating investment in tourism.
Not only that, the ability to link regional tourism is more effective. The merger between provinces and the rearrangement of the administrative apparatus has created opportunities and favorable conditions for Thai Nguyen to strengthen links and cooperation in tourism development with provinces with developed tourism such as Hanoi, Tuyen Quang, Phu Tho, Lang Son, Cao Bang, Bac Ninh, said Dr. Le Quang Dang.
However, the tourism industry faces many challenges and difficulties such as poor tourism products, limited infrastructure, limited and weak tourism human resources and the tourism market is mainly domestic visitors.
According to the Thai Nguyen Tourism Association, in reality, tourism linkage activities between the two localities of Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan (old) are still disjointed, lacking a common strategy. Tourism infrastructure and accommodation services in Bac Kan (old) are still lacking and weak. Community tourism has not been professionlized.
Orientation of tourism development strategy after merger
Experts say that after the merger, the new Thai Nguyen province needs to reposition the local tourism brand.
Dr. Le Quang Dang said that Thai Nguyen needs to reshape the way of doing tourism and reorient the tourism product system.
The tourism product system of Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan (old) is quite similar, with 4 main product lines: eco-tourism, cultural tourism - revolutionary history, agricultural tourism, community tourism. Therefore, the merger can be a combination of space and resources, but it should not be a combination of products.
This expert suggested that in addition to the 4 main products that are available, Thai Nguyen can research and develop new products for industrial tourism; high-end eco-resort tourism associated with Nui Coc Lake National Tourist Area, Ba Be Lake; tourism associated with large-scale events and festivals such as the International Tea Festival, the Vietnam-Bac Highlands Cultural - Culinary Festival, taking the Tay Dancing Bowl Festival as the center.
Meanwhile, Ms. Tran Nu Ngoc Anh, Vice President and General Secretary of the Thai Nguyen Tourism Association, said that after the merger, Thai Nguyen tourism can enhance the value of experiences, develop inter-regional tourism product chains and create attractive tourism routes. From there, the new Thai Nguyen province will attract visitors, extending the stay period from one day to 2-3 days.
The connection between ecotourism - community tourism of Bac Kan and cultural - historical - craft village tourism of Thai Nguyen will create a complete product chain for domestic and international tourists. Thus, after the merger and development of tourism products, it is possible to create more attractive tour routes - tours - tour areas instead of exploiting them individually and disjointedly," Ms. Ngoc Anh analyzed.
Thai Nguyen is famous for the locations known to tourists for its "red addresses" such as: Dinh Hoa National Special Relic Site, Cho Don National Relic Site, National Historical Site, Memorial Site of Youth Volunteers of Company 915, Team 91 Bac Thai, Na Tu National Historical Site, - where Uncle Ho visited the Youth Volunteer Company 312 in 1951; along with that is the legendary beauty of Nui Coc Lake, rich and diverse natural tourism resources of Ba Be National Park with the center being Ba Be Lake...
Nguom Stone Ramp - one of the famous archaeological sites of Vietnam; Vietnam Ethnic Culture Museum - a place to preserve the cultural identity of the Vietnamese community; Thai Hai Ethnic Ecological Dust Village Conservation Area was recognized by the World Tourism Organization as one of the 32 "Best Tourist Villages in the World" in 2022 and one of the first two 5-star OCOP tourism products nationwide.
