Expanding Livelihoods in Global Geoparks

With its cultural and historical depth, Lang Son Geopark has strong potential and opportunities for tourism development. Photo: Minh Khieu

Promise of diversified livelihoods for people

Lang Son Geopark covers more than 4,800 km², including 38 geological heritage sites that are “unique, converging the pristine beauty of nature with the special cultural and historical depth of the Northeast region of Vietnam”, according to UNESCO.

For local people, this information opens up a potential direction, promising to diversify livelihoods and create more jobs from attracting tourism. Lang Son has identified tourism as a key economic sector, with the goal of welcoming 6 million tourists by 2030, including 1.4 million international visitors.

In Huu Lien commune, which includes part of the Geopark, many households have been switching from traditional agriculture and forestry to tourism-related occupations such as local guides, providing accommodation services (homestay), catering services, or selling local products. Ms. Hoang Thi Ha, a Nung ethnic, owner of the Goc Da homestay in Huu Lien shared: “In the past, my husband and I struggled to do all kinds of jobs, doing whatever people hired us to do... In recent years, the Tourism Promotion Center has organized training courses on community tourism, how to open a homestay, and how to cook to serve guests. Although business is still difficult, many households in the village are excited that Lang Son Geopark is known to many tourists.”

Developing services and tourism has also become a driving force for local people to produce specialty products to serve tourists. “Currently, when staying at the community tourism area, visitors can buy agricultural products, local cuisine or folk remedies of the Dao people...”, Ms. Ha added.

The number of tourists visiting Lang Son Geopark in the two communes of Huu Lung (old) and Huu Lien has grown significantly. In the first quarter of this year, Lang Son welcomed nearly 2 million visitors, of which Huu Lung reached more than 295 thousand, with more than 45 thousand visitors experiencing and staying at the community tourism villages of Huu Lien and Yen Thinh communes (old), bringing in a total revenue of an estimated 61 billion VND, up 7% over the same period.

Keep visitors

However, the development of tourism still faces many barriers, especially for individual businesses and small, medium and micro service businesses. Ms. Ha Thi Ly, who sells black banh chung in Huu Lien commune, said that when there are few orders, her family does not have enough income to maintain, but when there are too many orders, her family cannot keep up with the demand.

In the process of transforming livelihoods and forming community tourism cooperatives, local people often lack capital and experience to invest in facilities, upgrade homestay services or diversify products. Ms. Ha Thi Ly worries: “Customers also buy, but each person only buys a little, not significantly. Therefore, the consumption of local products is not high and uneven”. This shows that, although the products are diverse and of high quality, accessing the market and retaining tourists so that they consume more is still a problem that needs to be solved”.

According to a survey by Dr. Le Thi Viet Ha and Ma Xuan Khanh (Institute of Business Administration, Hanoi National University), up to 44% of tourists coming to Huu Lung want to experience diverse cultures, but cultural tourism in the locality still has many limitations. Exploiting cultural potential to retain guests and encourage them to spend also requires the locality to organize more professionally.

“Along with the UNESCO recognition, two expert delegations from the US National Cave Association and the Australian Business Association have just surveyed and worked in Lang Son on the orientation of exploitation and activities at the Geopark. This is a positive sign showing the potential for local tourism development.”
Mrs. Pham Thi Huong,
Department of Geopark Management,
Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Lang Son

VAN SON

Source: https://nhandan.vn/mo-rong-sinh-ke-noi-cong-vien-dia-chat-toan-cau-post892784.html