On the morning of December 18, the People's Committee of Da Lat City (Lam Dong Province) coordinated with Tuoi Tre Newspaper to organize the Workshop "Da Lat develops green tourism and cultural industry from diverse natural resources and local culture". This is one of the programs within the framework of the 10th Da Lat Flower Festival in 2024.
Mr. Dang Quang Tu - Chairman of Da Lat City People's Committee, delivered the opening speech at the workshop.
The workshop attracted more than 160 delegates from Thailand, Singapore, leaders of central agencies, Lam Dong provincial authorities, experts, tourism and aviation service businesses, etc.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Mr. Dang Quang Tu, Chairman of the People's Committee of Da Lat City, said that in 2024, the city will welcome about 7.9 million visitors, an increase of 21% compared to 2023. The structure of the trade - tourism - service industry accounts for more than 69% of the city's economic structure. Da Lat is the only Flower Festival city in Vietnam, twice recognized as an "ASEAN Clean Tourist City" in 2020 and 2022, joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of music on October 31, 2023.
According to Mr. Dang Quang Tu, from multidimensional perspectives, multidisciplinary approaches, documents and scientific arguments discussed, the workshop will analyze and propose solutions to build Da Lat into a typical model of green growth and sustainable development through tourism and service development in harmony with preserving and promoting local ethnic cultural identity.
Speaking at the conference, Dr. Jackie Ong - Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management, RMIT University Vietnam, commented that the cultural industry is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy.
Dr Jackie Ong – Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management, RMIT University Vietnam
Dr. Ong cited examples of three countries in the Southeast Asian region, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, that have succeeded in developing green tourism that combines traditional culture with modern elements. While Singapore is a model of modernity and technology, Thailand shines with its traditional features combined with a new lifestyle; Malaysia takes advantage of cultural and natural diversity, connecting the international community through major international events.
“Three countries, three different strategies, but all aiming for the common goal of sustainable development and promoting cultural identity” – Dr. Jackie Ong shared.
Dr. Mai Minh Nhat, Vice Principal of Dalat University, said that thanks to the cultural industry, the value and image of the beauty of the locality and people are spread, bringing benefits and through that, cultural heritage also becomes a driving force.
According to this doctor, compared to other cities, Da Lat is still young with 130 years of development, but thanks to natural climate conditions and historical factors, this place has many valuable and unique heritages. Currently, Da Lat is most prominent with performing arts, cuisine, music, architecture - which will be the highlights of cultural heritage.
“This is a precious treasure that we need to join hands to preserve, develop tourism and improve people's lives, while positioning the name of Da Lat tourism on the world tourism map” – Dr. Minh Nhat suggested.
Contributing his opinion at the workshop, Mr. Do Quoc Thong, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association, stated that after more than 30 years of tourism development combined with urbanization and migration, the landscape and appearance of Da Lat have somewhat changed. This workshop will assess the current state of tourism development in the city in a more positive direction, because if it develops without direction and principles, it will have impacts, causing difficulties in management.
To develop tourism, Mr. Thong said that it is necessary to cooperate with many other localities to grow and develop tourism together such as Ho Chi Minh City - Phan Thiet - Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City - Nha Trang - Da Lat... so that a tourist route passing through many destinations has many quality, diverse and attractive tourism products.
The Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association realized that Da Lat currently has a large number of international tourists, so it is necessary to segment the tourism market from now on. That is, to create high-end products for domestic tourists, products for Southeast Asian tourists, Northeast Asian tourists, European and American tourists, etc. to create sustainable development.
“With the advantages and huge potential of Da Lat, the city needs to create high-quality tourism products and regularly organize regional events to attract tourists. How can Da Lat no longer be “seasonal” – having high tourist season and low tourist season – but always be full of tourists?” – Mr. Thong suggested.
Another important issue that Mr. Thong mentioned is the traffic infrastructure connecting Da Lat with surrounding areas, including the important tourist market bringing visitors to Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City.
Tourism needs to overcome “seasonality” – busy season and slow season.
The two localities are more than 300 km apart, but it takes 6-8 hours to travel by road, so visitors spend almost a day going there and a day coming back, so their stay in Da Lat is still very short. "I hope that the highway projects connecting Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh City and the Southeast will be formed to promote the development of Da Lat tourism," said Mr. Thong.
In addition, the Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association also hopes that Da Lat will develop tourism while still preserving its precious heritage of thousands of ancient villas with French architecture - a very precious heritage that only Da Lat has.
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