Community tourism - a new "breath" for the capital's tourism to attract visitors

– Hanoi has the advantage of a large suburb, rich in potential with a rich historical and cultural relic system and a unique culinary culture. In recent times, the capital's tourism has initially linked with localities to exploit community tourism. However, for this model to truly develop strongly, the tourism industry needs to promote connections and arouse the role of the people in the process of building tourism products.

Hanoi has rich potential for developing community tourism.

Community tourism is a form of tourism business based on natural resources and local cultural characteristics to develop tourism. This form emphasizes the indispensable role of local people in participating in the business process, promoting the image of the destination, and providing unique tourism services.

Hanoi is a locality with a rich culture and history and has 1,350 craft villages and villages with crafts. Promoting the strengths of history, culture and craft villages, in recent times, Hanoi's tourism industry has exploited community tourism, helping visitors easily experience the culture of the countryside.

In fact, in recent years, Duong Lam ancient village (Son Tay ward) has become a destination for domestic and international tourists. Head of Duong Lam ancient village management board Nguyen Dang Thao said that to attract visitors to the ancient village, about 10% of households in the area have implemented a community tourism model. Thereby, providing accommodation, food and beverage, sightseeing services... From there, helping visitors experience the feeling of "being a farmer".

Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, the owner of the ancient house in Duong Lam village, which was awarded the Asia- Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation by UNESCO, shared that since 2008, his family has started taking tourists to visit the ancient house, providing food and accommodation services, making traditional gifts such as Lam tea, Ban bean sauce, etc. This tourism model has helped the family have a fairly stable source of income.

In fact, in recent times, many communes have built other attractive community tourism destinations such as Bat Trang ceramic village (Bat Trang commune), Dao Thuc water puppet village (Thu Lam commune)... Recently, the Hanoi Department of Tourism has officially announced the community tourism destination of Mien village "Healing - Calming the mind and nurturing wisdom" of the Dao people in Hop Son village, Ba Vi commune.

Visitors to this community tourism spot will visit the medicinal herb garden of the Dao Quan Chet people in Ba Vi. Learn about the process of picking, processing, and making medicinal herbs. At the same time, experience skin and hair care services, medicinal baths, foot baths, full body care, and strengthening the neck and shoulders with traditional herbal remedies of the Dao people.

“Hanoi's development of community tourism has contributed to creating jobs, transforming the industry structure, improving people's lives, and at the same time promoting the value of historical and cultural heritage, craft village products, and local agricultural products,” said Tran Trung Hieu, Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism.

How to develop sustainably?

In recent years, Hanoi has promoted the development of community tourism, creating unique products rich in experiences. However, the development of this type of tourism has not really "taken off" when it is mainly done by the people themselves, so the quality of services is still limited.

According to Chairman of the Hanoi Tourism Association Phung Quang Thang, the biggest weakness of community tourism in the capital is the lack of accommodation facilities, so tourists can only experience it for the day.

Director of VietSense Travel Company Nguyen Van Tai said that community tourism in many places is operating in the direction of developing whatever is available, without consulting, management or quality supervision units. This leads to over-exploitation, distorting natural resources and indigenous culture, seriously affecting sustainable development.

Tourists visit Quang Phu Cau incense stick craft village (Ung Thien commune). Photo: Hoai Nam

To overcome the weaknesses in the process of exploiting this model, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Hong Long, Head of the Faculty of Tourism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Hanoi National University), said that developing community tourism and rural tourism requires a careful and thorough preparation process. In addition, creative thinking is needed to come up with new ideas that are suitable for local realities, helping tourists have new experiences and avoid duplication.

In addition, people in the process of developing community tourism need to learn how to behave civilly in communication. But to do this, besides investing in infrastructure, Hanoi tourism needs to make efforts to raise awareness, provide skills to the community through training sessions, guidance and combined with practical experience.

“In the coming time, the Hanoi Department of Tourism needs to increase support for suburban communes to develop community tourism, proactively integrating and cooperating internationally to attract investment capital in a way that respects nature, cultural identity and the community, avoiding fragmented, opportunistic investment that only cares about profits” – Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Hong Long emphasized.

"Proposing" for Hanoi to develop community tourism, Dr. Vu An Dan - Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi Open University stated that to limit spontaneous tourism, it is necessary to have policies to invest in people, improve the skills and abilities of the community in flexibly applying the knowledge learned to welcome and serve tourists.

The State needs to have appropriate investment and support policies to encourage the development of community tourism, towards restoring and developing traditional occupations, and supporting the construction of a linkage chain for the development of community tourism.

To develop community tourism sustainably, Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research Nguyen Anh Tuan said that each locality needs to develop a plan to select product types as development orientation.

“But to do this, specific research is needed in many areas such as the lives of local residents, culture, typical cuisine, customs, living habits, etc. From there, orient the core values ​​of the community, preserve and develop cultural spaces to nurture, conserve and promote those values. In addition, it is necessary to promote and develop community tourism” – Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan emphasized.

According to the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy to 2030, community tourism is one of the key areas that Hanoi City focuses on investing in to increase the attractiveness of tourism in the capital.

Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang said that in the coming time, the Department of Tourism will organize many survey teams with the participation of travel agencies. Thereby, helping localities build products suitable to the needs of tourists, exploit the strengths of community tourism, contributing to helping the capital's tourism develop more professionally and effectively.

Source: Economic & Urban Newspaper

Source: http://sodulich.hanoi.gov.vn/du-lich-cong-dong-lan-gio-moi-cho-du-lich-thu-do-hut-khach.html