Tourists visiting Thanh Toan tile-roofed bridge

The number of tourists has increased

5 tourist attractions recognized by the provincial People's Committee are Luong Quan - Nguyet Bieu garden house, Huyen Tran Cultural Center (Hue City); Thanh Toan tile-roofed bridge (Huong Thuy town); Thanh Tien paper flower village – Folk paintings of Sinh village (Phu Vang) and ecological Chuon Lagoon (Phu Vang)

Mr. Le Ngoc Sanh, Chief of the Department of Tourism said that when being recognized, the tourist attractions basically met the criteria of infrastructure and essential services to serve the tourists well. All the attractions also satisfied the conditions of security, social order and safety and environmental protection.

"The recognition is an affirmation that those destinations have tourism resources and that they could meet the requirements to offer the best service to tourists when coming to Hue," Mr. Sanh emphasized.

The process of preparing to become a tourist destination has contributed to improve the services of the tourist destinations. At the same time, once accredited, previous services were also invested for better quality. All the destinations had their management, security, and safety improved a lot more than before.

In addition to building the brand-name of the tourist attractions, after being recognized, the tourist attractions were promoted in many ways. Not only are the tourist attractions promoted through channels of the tourism industry, at domestic and foreign fairs and conferences, tourist attraction they are also invited to participate in certain events and promote their images to the public. This is an opportunity for tourist destinations to call for investment.

Mr. Tran Quang Hao, Director of Huetourist, the enterprise that directly exploited Luong Quan - Nguyet Bieu garden house and Chuon Lagoon informed: “We have made good use of media, so the number of tourists has increased quite a lot compared to before; for example at Chuon lagoon, in recent months, the number of domestic visitors has increased considerably”.

One thing that made artisans and people in tourist attractions excited was that since being recognized, the infrastructure had better attention. Specifically, in Phu Mau, where Thanh Tien paper flower village and folk paintings of Sinh village were located, a series of new wharves serving Dragon Boat was built to help chauffeuring tourists effectively and creating beautiful scenery of Sinh and Thanh Tien villages.

According to the information from the Travel Association, at all those tourist attractions, the number of tourism business operators also increased. For example, Thuy Bieu - Tam Giang tour, spiritual tours, pilgrimage tour to Huyen Tran Cultural Center, or the bicycle tour to Sinh village were exploited by many companies... bringing visitors to the attractions, encouraging the diversity of Hue tourism.

The need of taking advantage of opportunities

In order for the recognized tourism sites to increase the capacity of tourism, infrastructures are needed to be invested and upgraded by the tourism industry and localities. In order to maintain and attract investment, tourist attractions have to improve facilities and tourism products. The more services provided by tourist attractions, the more attractive it would be for the tourist destination in particular and Hue tourism in general.

Mr. Le Ngoc Sanh said that our province was preparing to pass a regulation on supporting community tourist attractions. The increase of resources to invest in facilities, tourism products ... would be the best opportunity for the tourist attractions to develop, attracting more visitors.

Mr. Tran Quang Hao claimed that one thing that the tourism industry and the local authorities needed to do was to make plans and strategic development orientation at the tourist attractions and the nearby areas. Only when there was a specific orientation, would tourism businesses be willing to invest in better services and products to serve tourists.

As the regulation said, to be recognized as a tourist attraction, these requirements and conditions have to be met:

- Having tourism resources, with defined boundaries on the map.

- Having essential facilities and services to ensure tourist service: convenient transport connections and communications; electricity and clean water; having signposts and explanations on tourist spots; having catering and shopping services.

- Satisfying the standard of security, social order and safety, and environmental protection; this includes having an available security department on duty 24 hours per day; publicizing telephone numbers and addresses of organizations and individuals managing tourist attractions; taking forms and receiving timely feedback from visitors; public toilets need to be clean, with ventilation and proper lighting, and being arranged neatly; and these must correspond to the number of tourists in the peak of travelling season; ...

Story and photo: Quang Sang