Bao Loc City (Lam Dong) has a lot of potential and strengths to develop tourism , even becoming a tourist center not only of Lam Dong but also of the Southern Central Highlands as well as a part of the Southeast and the Central coastal provinces. However, up to now, for many different reasons, tourism in this land has not developed in accordance with its inherent potential and strengths.
DamB'ri Waterfall is one of the famous tourist attractions of Bao Loc.
Many advantages to develop the "smokeless industry"
B'Lao - another familiar name of Bao Loc city, is one of 12 districts and cities of Lam Dong province. Located on Di Linh plateau, with an average altitude of 800 - 1,000m.
Today, Bao Loc is an important traffic hub of Lam Dong connecting with the provinces of the Southeast and Central Coast; about 110km from Da Lat city, about 190km from Ho Chi Minh city, about 100km from Phan Thiet (Binh Thuan), 140km from Bien Hoa, 200km from Vung Tau city along National Highway 20.
Located in the Central Highlands, where there are strengths in natural resources and typical cultural values, Bao Loc City is identified as an auxiliary tourist destination of the Southeast tourist sub-region and is one of the three main tourist clusters of Lam Dong province, the cultural, commercial, service and tourism center of the region, a transit tourist destination of important significance to Lam Dong tourism.
This is also the largest silk region in the country.
For a long time, Bao Loc has been known as a region producing and processing traditional industrial products such as tea, coffee, mulberry cultivation, and silkworm raising. With the brands “B’Lao Tea” and “Bao Loc Silk”, it has affirmed its name and has a firm position in both domestic and foreign markets. This creates conditions for the development of agricultural tourism attractions, industry and profession tourism.
In addition, with the gifts of nature, the year-round cool climate, diverse natural resources, rich landscapes with beautiful waterfalls, lakes, streams such as DamB'ri waterfall, seven-storey waterfall, Nam Phuong lake, Da Ban stream, Bao Loc pass, Sa Pung mountain... also help the locality to develop specific types of tourism such as: eco-tourism, sightseeing, resort, sports, picnic...
This place also has unique historical and cultural values as the ancient land of the Ma people associated with the legend of B'Lao, home to 23 ethnic minorities, creating diversity in cultural identity.
The rolling tea hills are as beautiful as a painting.
Each ethnic group has its own unique culture formed long ago with traditional cultural values that create attractions for tourists such as: customs and practices; traditional festivals; folk cultural treasures (architecture, costumes); performing arts (folk songs, musical instruments); traditional crafts (bamboo and rattan weaving, brocade weaving); products and culinary culture... to form and develop tours and tourist routes to explore the cultural identity of the Central Highlands.
In addition, this is also the land associated with Trinh Cong Son - one of the most influential musicians in Vietnam. This talented artist taught in Bao Loc (from 1964 - 1967) before moving to Da Lat, this was an important period in forming the philosophy of life of a musician. Here, he created many love songs and had emotions that became the premise for his later compositions.
Recently, Lam Dong provincial government and Bao Loc city have had orientations to promote local tourism development.
Not commensurate with potential and strengths
Although it has all the elements to develop specific types of tourism, up to now Bao Loc has not been able to make a breakthrough in attracting tourists to the locality.
According to statistics, in 2023, the number of visitors registering to stay in the city is estimated at 145 thousand, of which about 143 thousand are domestic visitors and 1,800 are international visitors. This number is very modest compared to the 8.6 million visitors to Lam Dong in 2023.
In the first 6 months of 2024, the locality also only welcomed more than 54 thousand visitors (the whole province had more than 5 million visitors). The above number of visitors shows the locality's obscurity in the general tourism map of the whole province; especially compared to 2 localities that are very strong in attracting tourists, Da Lat city and Lac Duong district.
Many potentials for tourism development in Bao Loc (Lam Dong).
Regarding this issue, Mr. Tran Van Ngoc - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Bao Loc City said that currently, the planning and implementation of planning in general and tourism planning in particular have not achieved the expected results.
Investment resources for tourism development are not strong; many natural landscapes (lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, etc.) and cultural values have not been invested in and exploited officially and systematically. Tourism models are mainly small-scale, and there are no large-scale tourism projects invested in the area.
The development of new tourism products and connecting tours and routes has not been effective due to the lack of new, unique and attractive products; the number of visitors has increased but the length of stay is not long.
There is a lot of tourism potential but it has not been exploited by the locality.
“The above limitations have many causes: due to the inadequate awareness of a number of cadres, party members and people about the role of tourism in the economic structure; investment resources from the budget for infrastructure (including tourism infrastructure) are not much, while calling for and encouraging social resources to invest in tourism, promoting and encouraging the community to participate in developing tourism products have not achieved many results; the psychology of tourists determines that Bao Loc is only a stopover, not a destination like Da Lat city,” Mr. Ngoc added.
Identifying tourism as one of the strategic economic sectors to promote the local economy, in the coming time, local authorities have had orientations as well as implemented programs and plans on tourism development in the area.
Bao Loc in the near future will develop into a tourist center of Lam Dong province and the Central Highlands region.
Specifically, to orient the development of Bao Loc City, the Standing Committee of Lam Dong Provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No. 05-NQ/TU dated November 12, 2021, which clearly stated: Building and developing Bao Loc City into a service and tourism city with diverse, rich and modern types.
In addition, detailed issues for local tourism development were also mentioned such as: Identifying potential tourism products and services when building tourism models; Orienting tourism space development; Building solutions for tourism product development...
In addition, the Resolution of the 6th Bao Loc City Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025 also identified that developing tourism, high-quality services, planning and building comprehensive and ecological tourism areas is one of the city's development breakthroughs in the term 2020 - 2025.
Recently, Lam Dong provincial government and Bao Loc city have had orientations to promote local tourism development.
On that basis, from the beginning of 2021, the city has focused on directing propaganda activities to promote the image of Bao Loc - Lam Dong tourism, promote tourism, attract investment such as: building a resort, entertainment service area of Nam Phuong Lake I, II, 5-star hotel service complex with an area of over 10,000 m2 in the old market area, Loc Phat - Loc Thang Golf Course with an area of 200 hectares formed according to international standards, Service complex - eco-tourism, golf course, S'pung mountain cable car with an area of 300 hectares.
In addition, the local tourism industry has advised the city to issue a plan on developing high-quality tourism until 2025, with a vision to 2030; Coordinated consultation on research and development of a project to develop the night-time economy in Bao Loc city; coordinated consultation on implementing the socio-economic development cooperation program between Lam Dong province and Ho Chi Minh City in the fields of tourism and digital transformation...
With the right orientations and implementation of programs and plans to comprehensively develop the tourism industry in the area, it is hoped that in the near future Bao Loc will develop into a tourist center of Lam Dong province and the Central Highlands region.
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