Tam Giang Lagoon started to welcome guests. Photo: DUC QUANG
No exploitation, forever being a potential
According to travel experts, any tourist attraction always undergoes five stages of development. The first phase, the warm-up phase, is when the destination is newly known to tourists. At this stage, all the activities are spontaneous, and the service is not yet formed. In the second stage, the first simple services are introduced, combining with some infrastructure investment.
Subsequently, the third stage is when the most important services, which are accommodation and entertainment, are exploited, and the infrastructure meets the development pace. In the fourth stage, the development is stable, and tourism development positively impacts other industries. Finally, the fifth period is a recession one.
At the end of the fourth and fifth phase, there are many new demands, including expanding the market, adding new services to restructure, bringing the attraction return to the beginning stage of the next life cycle.
A new happening is that, due to the pandemic, the development strategy somewhat has to change to keep up with the trend. With Hue, tourism is generally in the last stage of the development cycle, but there are many Hue products and destinations only in the first stage of the process. Specifically, Tam Giang lagoon, the beaches, mountains, forests, etc., are importantly advantageous destinations since they do not need much reconstruction in destination development.
Bach Ma has many advantages for ecotourism development
There is an opinion that because these destinations have not been exploited yet, Hue is still "lucky" to retain its value, especially natural resources.
Leader of the Department of Tourism analyzed and stated that saying "it is a luck" is not correct since the orientation throughout Hue tourism development is sustainability. In the development process, environmental protection and traditional core values are always on the top priority.
It is true that having not been affected by humans is an advantage, but there is a fact requiring the tourism industry to "move" more by having plans to promote these destinations from tourism products. The most important thing is to promote existing values but still retain nature, the environment, and traditional cultural values.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Binh, Chairman of the Accommodation Association, analyzed that for destinations that haven't been exploited yet, they will definitely remain intact. But if not being exploited, in five or ten years, the destinations will not change and forever be in potential form. Therefore, it would be challenging for these to become destinations contributing to attracting tourists for Hue.
The determined orientation of Hue tourism in the next 2 years, in the period 2021 - 2022, is to focus on exploiting new destinations to attract more domestic tourists. This is an opportunity for these to give Hue transcendence and attraction.
Needing more detail
According to people in the tourism field, Hue's shortcomings in exploitation and attraction of tourism investment are plan making, detailed investment and exploitation conditions. Particularly, although the plan to develop the Tam Giang - Cau Hai lagoon system has been implemented many times, this destination is now still in potential form.
Mr. Vo Viet Hung, the owner of Con Toc restaurant (Quang Loi commune, Quang Dien district), could not hide his disappointment after wishing to invest in some sightseeing spots in Tam Giang lagoon. He has recently wanted to invest in a resort; however, due to the lack of a detailed plan on possible service investment destination and a specific list to call for investment, the investment process has met with some difficulties.
Exploiting tourism on Ngu Ha river is an issue that has been posed for a long time; but so far, it hasn't been able to become a new destination for Hue. The Department of Tourism stated that the stage of finding and selecting appropriate boat models to serve tourists is the reason why investors have to spend so much time.
If enterprises want to invest, they have to design a boat model ensuring the criteria of aesthetics, originality, noise, and safety. Despite many options suggested, they haven't been suitable for those criteria. Among these, the plan to use hand boats like in some parts of the world is not feasible because it is not safe, as Ngu Ha river is quite deep.
An enterprise once wanting to invest in services on Ngu Ha River expressed that if Hue wants to exploit services on the river, there should be a specific issue on boat models that has been accredited. And basing on these, enterprises will deploy to invest. If letting businesses "swim by themselves" and going to too many places to find out, it is really difficult to invest.
According to Mr. Le Ngoc Sanh, Chief of the Office of the Department of Tourism, for the investment principles, the more detailed the conditions are, the easier it is to attract investment, especially the large projects located in special locations such as border areas, national parks, city center, etc., which also increases the transparency of projects. And this is a limitation of many destinations being wanted to attract investment in Hue, which should be studied and overcome in the coming time.
By DUC QUANG