Representatives of travel agencies experience cycling and survey tourism products in Huong Thuy

Difficult to attract customers, why?

To study and evaluate the quality of tourism products, a common reality that many people acknowledge is tourism potential. Each district and town with its natural conditions, natural landscapes and cultural identity can build unique tourism products. Typically, the two mountainous districts of Nam Dong and A Luoi have many advantages to develop waterfall tourism and community ecotourism associated with the cultural identity of ethnic minorities. Phu Vang, Quang Dien, Phong Dien, Phu Loc districts... have advantages in developing sea and lagoon tourism. It is worth mentioning that attracting visitors, especially keeping visitors to stay, is not really good.

Ms. Cai Thi Duyen, Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Huong Thuy town, is concerned that the number of tourists to Huong Thuy has increased over the years, and the locality has also developed and implemented many tourism activities and products to attract visitors. Although Phu Bai International Airport is located in the area, considering the potential strengths that Huong Thuy has, attracting visitors to come and stay is not commensurate, especially tourists from other provinces and international visitors.

In Phu Loc district, retaining guests is also a difficult problem, although this is one of the localities with the richest tourism resources in Thua Thien Hue with streams, waterfalls, sea, lagoons, Lang Co Bay - one of the most beautiful bays in the world and many other conditions for tourism development. Mr. Pham Huu Chung, Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Phu Loc district shared that the locality has researched and implemented many solutions, including the formation of a night walking street. However, frankly speaking, Phu Loc still lacks many entertainment, shopping and entertainment venues, especially truly large-scale night entertainment venues.

According to Mr. Tran Minh Tan, Head of the Department of Planning and Tourism Development, Department of Tourism, an easily seen feature is that community tourism spots are located in localities far from the city center, but the issue that visitors are concerned about is what to do and play at night if they stay there? If there are no additional services, and if they cannot create many interesting experiences at night for visitors, visitors are still willing to leave the tourist spot to go to the city, or more regrettably, go to another locality.

Once, we witnessed a family after having fun and eating in the lagoon area in Quang Dien district, at around 8 pm, they booked a car to go to the city. When asked why they did not stay when they planned to return to watch the sunrise in Ngu My Thanh fishing village the next morning, someone answered: “It is quite sad here at night. Tourists want to spend as much time as possible experiencing and having fun. Therefore, we went to the city to play, and returned early tomorrow morning.”

Research & Upgrade

In 2023 - 2024, the tourism industry will coordinate with Nam Dong, Phong Dien, Quang Dien, Phu Vang districts, and Huong Thuy town to implement many programs to survey and evaluate the quality of typical tourism products and supporting services at destinations to have orientations for exploitation, promotion and development. In addition, the tourism industry will also evaluate a number of tours that have been and are being implemented by travel businesses in districts and towns to have solutions to improve quality and perfect tours suitable to the current situation.

According to the Department of Tourism, the survey team included representatives of travel agencies to update some tourism products, give comments and research to exploit the tour route. A representative of a travel agency in Hue City said that localities far from the city have many good places to exploit tourism, but the important thing is still communication and tourism methods to attract visitors. Just talking about shopping in craft villages in coastal areas, visitors really like to buy fish sauce. There is a demand for visitors, they like to shop and learn about traditional crafts, but how to improve the quality of local products, create more experiences for visitors, then tourism can be exploited.

Mr. Tan analyzed that to develop tourism, it is necessary to create highlights for tourism products. In addition to those highlights, there must also be supplementary services to serve the needs of tourists. This is something that localities and tourism workers need to research and call for appropriate investment. In addition, it is necessary to change from spontaneous methods to more professional, systematic and clear services, even though the tourism model may still be small in scale.

Linking in tourism development is an inevitable trend. It is not only the big links between countries, provinces and cities but also the links between localities in the same province, district and town to exploit potential factors, advantages, create diverse, interesting and new experiences to attract tourists.

Article and photos: HUU PHUC