VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has recently made a survey of tourism in three provinces of Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang and Bac Can with the participation of 25 businesses and six tourism management offices.

Ba Be Lake.

The delegation called at the historical site of the safe military zone in the anti-French resistance war and some eco-tourism sites of the three provinces.

The survey has shown the situation and difficulties of tourism sectors of the three provinces, particularly in Thai Nguyen province when the Thai Nguyen Tourism Year 2007 is coming.

The panorama

Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang and Bac Can are three out of six provinces belonging to the Viet Bac Military Base where the military safe zone with governmental offices, the Party Central Committee’s office and other offices were located during the anti-French war.

A system of historical and revolutionary sites remains in the triangle from Tan Trao safe military zone of Tuyen Quang province to Dinh Hoa safe military zone of Thai Nguyen province and Don Market of Bac Can province.

Apart from these sites, these provinces have great potential for developing eco-tourism with primeval forests, rivers, lakes, waterfalls and caves, for example, Na Hang forest, My Lam mineral water stream, Phuong Hoang cave, Mo Ga stream and Nui Coc lake. Particularly, the Ba Be National Park which has a very large fresh water lake on the mountain is a candidate for UNESCO’s natural heritage site.

From the potential, the provinces have made plans to develop tourism by exploiting natural resources to make ecological, cultural and historical products. However, in general, the tourism industry of the three provinces is still in the fledgling state.

“Tourism products are relatively monotonous and the quality is low. Investment in improving historical and revolutionary sites is not much. Tourism infrastructure is still poor and travelling is almost inaccessible,” said Vu The Binh, director of the travel department, the National Administration of Tourism.

Mr Binh said that the delegation has been to the Phuong Hoang cave which is really beautiful but roads leading to the cave are extremely full of obstacles and slopes. There are no services of health-care, insurance and tourist guide.

There is lack of co-ordination between localities in the region according to a general strategy. “For the time being, the provinces should not depend on much investment to attract tourists. With a modest amount of money, tours to revolutionary sites in combination with eco-tours and homestay tours to ethnic minority villages should be organised first,” suggested Truong Nam Thang, director of Hanoi-affiliated OSC Company.

Another weak point of the three provinces is that the contingent of tourism staff is still amateur and small. Travel businesses in the three provinces are not strong and still underdeveloped.

Destinations linking the region

The Prime Minister has approved the organising of Thai Nguyen Tourism Year 2007 on the occasion of Uncle Ho and the government travelling to the ATK (safe zone) to lead the resistance war (20 May 1947). This is viewed as an opportunity to develop and awaken tourism potential of Viet Bac provinces in general and Thai Nguyen province in particular.

“The tourism year will help promote tourism trademarks of Thai Nguyen and Viet Bac provinces, attracting investment sources, raising public awareness and educating residents on revolutionary tradition,” said Pham Tu, deputy general director of the National Administration of Tourism.

(Source: Nhan Dan)