Promoting the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in developing community tourism in Thanh Hoa

Community tourism is a type of tourism organized and managed by the local community, in which local people are the main subjects, directly participating in activities serving tourists such as guiding, providing accommodation services, cultural experiences... Community tourism brings practical economic benefits to people, while contributing to preserving cultural identity and protecting the ecological environment.

Landscape of Phu Luong, Thanh Hoa. Photo: TP

In particular, the Fatherland Front and socio- political organizations play an important role, because: The Fatherland Front is an organization representing the great national unity bloc, with the role of gathering, mobilizing, supervising and providing social criticism. In developing community tourism, the Fatherland Front plays a connecting role, orienting awareness, mobilizing people to participate in activities to preserve and develop culture - tourism. Socio-political organizations (including the Farmers' Association, Women's Union, Youth Union, Veterans' Association) all have a wide membership base, grasp the grassroots situation, contribute to organizing propaganda activities, training, vocational support, preserving national culture, contributing to the development of community tourism.

Thanh Hoa is a locality with many famous scenic spots such as Pu Luong, Cam Luong fish stream, Thanh Nha Ho, Sam Son beach, Ben En, along with a system of traditional craft villages and unique folk culture of the Thai, Muong, Dao, Kinh ethnic groups... Accordingly, the mountainous community of Thanh Hoa still preserves many indigenous cultural features, suitable for developing experiential tourism and cultural exploration.

In recent years, many community tourism models have been formed such as: community tourism in Hieu village (Ba Thuoc), Nang Cat village (Lang Chanh), Don village (Ba Thuoc), Ma village (Thuong Xuan)... People have begun to actively participate in tourism activities: renovating houses into homestays, learning English, participating in training courses for local tour guides. Some socio-political organizations have effectively implemented support activities: training tourism professions for women and youth members; coordinating the preservation of folk songs and traditional crafts. In particular, localities have promoted the role of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in the following aspects: (1) Promoting the role of propaganda and mobilization to raise awareness: The Fatherland Front at all levels coordinates with the government and specialized agencies to organize propaganda and disseminate policies and guidelines on community tourism to the people. Women's Union, Farmers' Association... integrate into the activities of the branches the contents of propaganda on environmental protection, preservation of traditional culture, building a civilized tourism lifestyle. (2) Organizing training and skills development: The Youth Union coordinates to organize basic English communication classes for young people at community tourism sites. The Women's Union organizes training on cooking skills, serving tourists, and doing homestay tourism. The Farmers' Association supports people in building agricultural models associated with tourism such as: organic vegetable gardens, beekeeping for honey, growing indigenous medicinal plants... (3) Participating in preserving and promoting cultural identity: The Veterans' Association, the Elderly Association coordinate to teach folk songs and traditional crafts to the younger generation. The Fatherland Front mobilizes the construction of "community cultural houses" as places for cultural and tourism activities. Organizing traditional festivals such as the full moon festival in March (Cam Luong), the new rice celebration (Thai villages), reenacting wedding customs and folk festivals to create unique tourism products. (4) Participating in monitoring, commenting and formulating policies: The Fatherland Front at all levels supervises the implementation of policies to support tourism development in the locality: land allocation, planning, infrastructure investment... Participating in commenting on projects and plans for community tourism development to ensure they are suitable for the interests of the people. Proposing preferential loan policies for households doing tourism, policies to preserve culture associated with livelihoods.

However, besides the achieved results, the development of community tourism in Thanh Hoa still has limitations such as: limited awareness of people in some localities about community tourism; lack of investment capital, infrastructure, poor service organization skills; coordination between organizations is not yet synchronous and lacks sustainability; coordination of some socio-political organizations is not yet highly effective; the role of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in developing community tourism has not been fully promoted...

The Provincial Political School organized a workshop on "Practices and experiences in promoting the role of people and businesses in developing community tourism in Thanh Hoa today".

Community tourism is becoming a sustainable development trend in many localities, including Thanh Hoa - a place with great potential in culture, nature and people. In that context, the role of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations is increasingly affirmed as a core force in mobilizing people's strength, organizing activities and monitoring the process of developing community tourism. To effectively promote this role, it is necessary to synchronously deploy groups of strategic and practical solutions.

First of all, raising people's awareness of community tourism is a prerequisite. The Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations need to innovate propaganda methods, using digital platforms such as social networks, short videos, infographics to convey information in a vivid and accessible way. In addition, integrating propaganda content into branch meetings, organizing competitions and creative forums will contribute to spreading the spirit of entrepreneurship and preserving indigenous culture in the community.

Next, training and developing human resources is the key solution. The Fatherland Front can coordinate with universities, colleges, and intermediate schools in and outside the province; and non-governmental organizations to organize training courses on homestay management, tour guide skills, communication and tourist services. Mobilizing experts, volunteers and organizing study tours to learn successful models will help people access practice and improve their capacity.

Another important solution is to build a “four-house” linkage model (State – Investors – Scientists – Farmers), in which the Fatherland Front plays a bridging role. The establishment of cooperative groups and community tourism cooperatives with socio-political organizations as the core will help effectively manage tourism services while ensuring community benefits. Socialized resources from enterprises and international organizations also need to be mobilized to invest in infrastructure and provide technical support.

The role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in monitoring and social criticism is indispensable. Monitoring policy implementation, criticizing community tourism development projects and recommending support policies such as preferential loans and cultural preservation associated with livelihoods are practical activities. This not only ensures transparency but also helps orient tourism development in accordance with the cultural and social characteristics of the locality.

Community tourism is the right direction, in line with the cultural and social characteristics of Thanh Hoa. Promoting the role of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations is not only an objective requirement but also a key condition for developing community tourism in a sustainable, inclusive and humane direction. In the coming time, the accompaniment of the Fatherland Front and organizations needs to be elevated and institutionalized by specific policies, in order to effectively mobilize the strength of the entire people in the cause of tourism development associated with preserving cultural identity and improving the quality of life of Thanh Hoa people.

MSc. Hoang Ngoc Binh

Thanh Hoa Provincial Political School

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/phat-huy-vai-tro-cua-mttq-va-cac-to-chuc-chinh-tri-xa-hoi-trong-phat-trien-du-lich-cong-dong-o-thanh-hoa-270609.htm