Helping Cao Bang tourism "take off"

As a mountainous border province with a long history of formation and development, Cao Bang is blessed by nature with many famous beautiful landscapes, along with rich cultural features imbued with national identity. Promoting the advantages of this abundant natural and human resources, Cao Bang has been making efforts step by step to affirm its position as a tourist center of the northern midland and mountainous region.

Visitors visit booths and shop for Cao Bang products at the Cao Bang Non Nuoc Tourism Festival in Hanoi in 2023. (Photo: MANH PHUC)

Mentioning Cao Bang is mentioning a land containing many geological and paleo-geomorphological heritages with diverse and rich ecosystems, natural landscapes still imbued with wildness, including many majestic scenic spots such as: Ban Gioc waterfall, Nguom Ngao cave, Mat Than mountain, Thang Hen lake complex, Phja Oac-Phja Den National Park...

Not only is Cao Bang home to the Tay, Nung, Mong, Dao, Lo Lo, San Chi, Kinh ethnic groups, but it is also the "cradle" of the Vietnamese revolution, the place where Uncle Ho chose to return to directly lead the revolution after more than 30 years of wandering to find a way to save the country. Therefore, Cao Bang is both a place to preserve and develop unique cultural activities and a place that owns many valuable historical-cultural relics.

Up to now, the province has more than 200 historical and cultural relics and scenic spots, of which 101 have been ranked, including: 3 special national relics, 26 national relics, 72 provincial relics; 2 national treasures; 7 national intangible cultural heritages. In 2018, UNESCO recognized Non Nuoc Cao Bang Geopark as a Global Geopark.

In 2019, the Then practice of the Tay, Nung, and Thai people in Vietnam was also officially recognized by UNESCO as a Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This can be considered a rich "gold mine" for Cao Bang to realize the goal of making tourism a spearhead economic sector of the province.

Constantly expanding the space for tourism development, creating highlights for the local green economy, in recent years, Cao Bang has promoted the exploitation of many types of tourism with strengths, such as: Cultural and historical tourism combined with experiencing indigenous culture, associated with the organization of festivals (Nang Hai Festival, Tranh Dau Phao Festival, Lo Lo Ethnic Cultural Festival...); community tourism, agricultural eco-tourism, such as at Khuoi Khon community tourism site (Bao Lac district), Hoai Khao community tourism site (Nguyen Binh district)...; source tourism; mountain resort tourism; adventure tourism.

In particular, with the type of sightseeing and cave exploration tourism, in addition to the 4 routes to experience Non Nuoc Cao Bang Geopark, the 5th tourist route connecting Dong Van Stone Plateau UNESCO Global Geopark (Ha Giang) - Non Nuoc Cao Bang UNESCO Global Geopark also continues to be built to create unique and unprecedented products to attract tourists.

With more than 333 km of border with China, Cao Bang is also making efforts to develop cross-border tourism. In September 2023, Cao Bang province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (China) held a pilot operation ceremony for tourists to cross the Ban Gioc Waterfall Scenic Area (Vietnam) - Detian (China). The landscape area is expected to become a model tourist area for border tourism, green and sustainable tourism.

In addition, Cao Bang is also focusing on developing night tourism products. In addition to the night market in Bao Lac town, Thong Nong town, and Kim Dong walking street, it has also put into operation a walking route along Bang river, contributing to attracting a large number of tourists.

In addition to efforts in diversifying tourism products, Cao Bang also pays special attention to advertising and promotion to spread the image of Cao Bang land and people to domestic and foreign tourists, thereby attracting investment.

Most recently, activities include: Cao Bang Province Culture, Sports and Tourism Week 2023, "Introducing Cao Bang" Conference 2023, Ban Gioc Waterfall Tourism Festival 2023 with the theme "Back to the mountains and rivers", Cao Bang Non Nuoc Tourism Festival in Hanoi 2023... Thanks to that, overcoming the challenges caused by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cao Bang welcomed about two million visitors in 2023, reaching 112% of the yearly plan, up 23% over the same period in 2019, of which international tourists reached 113.3% of the yearly plan, domestic tourists reached 112% of the yearly plan; total tourism revenue reached 121% of the yearly plan, up 178% over the same period in 2019.

However, according to Chairman of Cao Bang Provincial People's Committee Hoang Xuan Anh, besides advantages and opportunities, Cao Bang tourism industry is still facing many difficulties. The lack of synchronous socio-economic infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, has been and is a major "bottleneck" directly affecting socio-economic development, affecting investment calling activities and attracting tourists to Cao Bang. In addition, investment resources for tourism activities are still limited, not commensurate with demand and potential; have not attracted many strategic investors; technical facilities serving tourism are still limited in both quantity and quality; tourism human resources have not met the requirements in terms of quantity and capacity, especially the international tour guide force; Tourism promotion activities also lack long-term and effective strategies... Therefore, to develop Cao Bang tourism with focus and key points, the province will focus on strengthening the leadership of the Party Committee and the government to improve the effectiveness of state management, create new changes, contribute to improving the competitiveness and sustainable development of local tourism. The province will also study and propose the issuance of mechanisms and policies to support the development of branded, unique and different tourism types and products with high attraction and competitiveness; apply and implement preferential policies to attract investors inside and outside the province...

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong said that in terms of tourism products, in addition to promoting existing products, Cao Bang needs to innovate types and services based on exploiting potentials and competitive advantages, associated with promoting heritage values and national cultural identity; focusing on developing inter-district, inter-provincial, and cross-border product chains; building tourism stimulus packages with quality and competitiveness compared to other destinations. Regarding tourism promotion, Cao Bang needs to take tourism products as the core, associated with the title of UNESCO Non Nuoc Cao Bang Global Geopark, to build a suitable communication strategy and deploy them professionally and widely domestically and internationally. Regarding digital transformation, Cao Bang must focus on improving the effectiveness of technology application in tourism management and development linkage, coordinating with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism to build a database system and a connecting axis to connect information systems from the central to local levels; Proactively integrate data into the Vietnam Tourism application, the vietnam.travel digital platform and Vietnamese tourism social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube...; accompany the business community, support initiatives to apply new technology. Deputy Minister Ta Quang Dong also suggested that Cao Bang should pay more attention to the issue of attracting investment, developing traffic infrastructure, facilities in key tourist areas and spots, community tourism and connecting spots with potential for tourism development; at the same time, it is hoped that the expressway connecting Lang Son - Cao Bang after completion will bring many advantages in terms of travel time for tourists, thereby creating conditions for building tourism products connecting Cao Bang with other destinations in the localities.

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