A Luoi women prepare dishes to serve guests.

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More than 4 years ago, the "Policy to support the development of community tourism in Thua Thien Hue province until 2025" was approved by the Provincial People's Council in Resolution No. 05/2019/NQ-HDND dated July 9, 2019 and Decision No. 52/2019/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee issued on September 13, 2019, creating peace of mind and joy for localities, units and individuals working in tourism. Indeed, after four years of implementing the above Resolution and Decision, many positive signals have been clearly seen with community tourism in localities.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Director of the Department of Tourism, shared that currently, localities have formed new tourist routes on the basis of connecting existing tourist destinations. Support policies under Resolution 05 have focused on investing in tourism infrastructure and improving living conditions, bringing stable income to people working in community tourism in localities.

Up to now, localities have formed a community tourism brand and attracted many visitors to visit and experience. Typically, the number of tourists visiting and experiencing various types of tourism services in Nam Dong district averages 15,000 visitors/year, of which more than 5,000 visitors stay overnight, with an average revenue of over 5 billion VND/year; Phong Dien district attracts an average of about 120,000 visitors/year, with an average revenue of over 20 billion VND/year; The number of tourists visiting and experiencing various types of tourism services in Hue city is estimated at about 1.81 million visitors/year, with tourism revenue of over 2,800 billion VND/year...

From 2022 to present, Vinh Thanh, Vinh An, Phu An communes (Phu Vang district) with support for community tourism development according to Resolution 05, the number of visitors to homestays in Vinh Thanh and Phu An is estimated at about 765, with revenue of over 303 million VND. Quang Dien district has about 500 visitors staying at homestay facilities, with revenue of over 70 million VND.

Ms. Le Thi Them, Head of the Department of Culture and Information of A Luoi district, shared that the effectiveness of Resolution 05 has been clearly seen. In A Luoi, as of the first 6 months of 2023, there were a total of 30 accommodation services by 31 individual and collective owners, including 9 motels and 21 homestays (an increase of 3 homestays). The accommodation capacity of 100% reached 700 guests. It is expected that in 2023, there will be 5 new homestays. Community tourism in the area is operating well.

Focus on multiple solutions

At the conference to review the implementation of Resolution No. 05/2019/NQ-HDND dated July 9, 2019, recently organized by the Department of Tourism and localities, representatives of the Department of Tourism Planning and Development, Department of Tourism pointed out a number of existing problems. That is, tourism business activities of households are still limited, small-scale, have not created regular products but only stop exploiting when there are visitors coming to visit and experience. People have not really participated in providing services in a professional manner to form community tourism products, fully promoting the potential and strengths of the locality...

Through the implementation of Resolution 05, some difficulties and problems have arisen. In particular, the support capital from the provincial budget for tourism development is still low, not commensurate with the expectations and potential for tourism development of the province, households and localities do not have counterpart capital to implement. The expenditure level to support the items of the Resolution is still low, making it difficult to attract organizations and individuals to participate in investing in community tourism development.

During the implementation process, most business households, organizations and enterprises encountered difficulties and inadequacies in land use planning, master planning but no detailed zoning planning; investment licensing procedures, so it was very difficult to call for socialization and find investors to exploit tourism in the locality. Homestay service business households encountered difficulties and spent a lot of time completing documents and conditions to operate such as: fire prevention, fire fighting, ensuring security and order because the recognition procedures involved many agencies, departments and branches.

To promote potential advantages and overcome difficulties and shortcomings, it is necessary not only for the role of state management agencies on tourism and localities but also for the consensus and efforts of relevant departments, branches, and organizations, units, businesses and individuals working in tourism. Localities need to regularly disseminate policies and support documents of the province on service and tourism development to local people; train and improve the quality of tourism staff from local to grassroots levels.

According to the leaders of the Department of Tourism, to promote efficiency, the Department has also proposed the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee to have a specific mechanism for the use of agricultural land, production forest land combined with community tourism to serve tourism development according to the development orientation of the locality. All levels and sectors guide and orient the planning, construction and land use work to create favorable conditions for people to participate in tourism service business in localities in the province.

Article and photos: HUU PHUC