Comrades: Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine; Pham Quang Ngoc, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism; Tran Song Tung, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Bui Van Manh, Director of the Ninh Binh Department of Tourism co-chaired the discussion session.
Opening the discussion, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha emphasized the thematic and urgent nature of organizing the Workshop. Developing products for the souvenir and tourist gift market that are professional, unique, and characteristic of Ninh Binh is an issue that needs more attention and investment.
This is not only a factor in attracting visitors but also an important factor in introducing and promoting local culture and tourism in a practical way, bringing double value in preserving and bringing local tourist destinations closer to the domestic and international markets. Therefore, objective and comprehensive assessments of the gift and souvenir market in Ninh Binh will be the basis for proposing and building appropriate development solutions.
The gift and souvenir market is still modest, not commensurate with its potential and strengths.
Dr. Vu Huong Lan, Faculty of Tourism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi shared experiences in developing souvenirs in some countries around the world and Vietnam. Accordingly, many countries around the world such as China, Korea, Japan, India, some European countries and provinces and cities in the country such as: Hanoi, Dong Thap, Ben Tre have focused on building and successfully developing the gift and souvenir market with its own identity, value and brand.
Although the quantity and quality of souvenirs and tourist gifts of Ninh Binh have increased, the number of gifts is still quite modest, not commensurate with the potential and advantages of a land of "Spiritual land and talented people". On the other hand, tourist gifts with the characteristics of the province are still simple in design, poor in variety and have not created an impression or brand to attract tourists. Therefore, the number of tourists coming to Ninh Binh is very large but their spending here is still quite limited. The province needs to have measures to encourage the development of the tourist gift industry to promote the development of the tourism economy, increase people's income, and affirm the cultural identity of the homeland.
Need to build cultural stories for gift and souvenir products
Sharing Hanoi's experience in developing gift and souvenir products, Ms. Dang Huong Giang, Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism, said: With many similarities between Hanoi and Ninh Binh, especially the difficulties that Hanoi has experienced in developing the gift market, Ms. Dang Huong Giang hopes that the sharing at the Workshop will help Ninh Binh shorten the time and soon develop the gift and souvenir market professionally. In particular, Ninh Binh needs to focus on key factors to develop gift products. It is necessary to build a cultural story for tourist gift products, bringing the cultural and historical values of the ancient capital to souvenir products. This is the factor that helps increase the value and create a difference for the province's souvenir products.
At the same time, Ninh Binh needs to research the tourist market, connect cultural heritage values in souvenir product design to serve tourism development. Focus on surveying, evaluating, selecting craft villages to develop in combination with tourism, focusing on building brands for each craft village and artisan. Connecting historical and cultural stories, connecting inter-regional products, connecting businesses, travel agencies, production facilities, and destinations. For craft villages to develop, the province needs policies to support investment, promote products, handle the environment, plan long-term craft villages, and provide support services in tourist areas and spots.
Continuously improve product quality and market diversity
As an enterprise in the field of import and export, with a system of partners spanning nearly 50 countries around the world, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, Deputy General Director of Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company, believes that the Company's success comes from constantly improving the quality, design, and variety of products, meeting the standards of the most demanding markets in the world.
From these successes, businesses, cooperatives, and production units need to pay more attention to food hygiene and safety in the production process, expand markets, and diversify products.
For the Company, in addition to frozen fruit and vegetable products, fresh fruit juices, the Company also develops a number of tourist gift items, expands the production and processing of confectionery, focusing on exploiting the potential and stories of local pineapples. These products not only aim to increase revenue for the business but also contribute to creating a unique mark, spreading the image of Ninh Binh land and people to a large number of domestic and foreign tourists.
"Resolving" difficulties for cooperatives in developing and building products
Mr. Vu Trung Duc, Director of Sinh Duoc Cooperative (Gia Vien) shared the current situation of developing tourism gifts and souvenirs associated with local cultural and historical characteristics from the model of Sinh Duoc Cooperative. From there, he proposed a number of mechanisms, solutions and policies to develop the gift and souvenir market for the province.
Accordingly, the difficulty that prevents cooperatives, craft villages, units and production facilities from developing is that product design is costly and requires large investments. Cooperatives have not had full access to the database of local culture to exploit and integrate into the production and product communication process. In addition, competition with products with the same function but produced industrially, limited promotion and sales activities, etc. make it difficult for cooperatives to build and develop gift and souvenir products in a systematic and sustainable manner.
To overcome these difficulties, the province needs to organize competitions on tourism products and services; support professional product display locations at tourist destinations in the province; enhance tourism services; communicate through social media channels; invest in research and development of tourism products; provide financial support and preferential tax policies...
Make a difference in every gift product
After a long and difficult journey, up to now, Mr. Pham Van Vang, Director of Bo Bat Ceramics Preservation and Development Company Limited (Yen Mo) has successfully restored and developed the local ancient ceramic craft. The Company's products are constantly improving in design, style, and quality. In particular, the artisans here have created a difference in each product by introducing stories, cultural stories, history, and nature of the ancient capital. Thereby contributing to spreading the beauty of Ninh Binh land and people, becoming souvenirs, gifts with a different, unique, and distinctive character of Bo Bat ceramics compared to other ceramic products.
However, currently, due to lack of capital, lack of experience space for tourists, difficulties in transportation, promotion and introduction at booths and gathering areas, the products of the craft village have not reached many tourists, and have not developed in accordance with the potential, strengths, and cultural history of the craft village.
More support for craft villages and artisans in the province
It is believed that the market for souvenirs and tourist gifts of Ninh Binh province is quite diverse, however, according to the assessment of Dr. Nguyen Huy Chinh, Vice President of the Vietnam Craft Villages Association, gift products and souvenirs of Ninh Binh province still account for a small proportion compared to the total number of items displayed and introduced; designs are still monotonous and not diverse; souvenir products associated with the province's symbols and culture are still few.
Therefore, according to Dr. Nguyen Huy Chinh, it is necessary to pay attention to supporting and developing craft villages, from planning development, planning raw material areas to supporting the promotion and advertising of craft village products on e-commerce channels. In particular, there should be mechanisms and policies to support artisans of traditional craft villages. Thereby, creating motivation for the Ninh Binh gift market to develop sustainably, diversely, and with a stronger cultural identity.
Speaking at the first discussion session, Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Minh Huan, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Ninh Binh Provincial Party Committee expressed his wish to receive the attention of delegates, researchers and experts so that Ninh Binh can develop the market for gifts and souvenirs more, commensurate with the potential and strengths of the locality.
Affirming the unique cultural, historical and natural landscape values of the unique Ancient Capital Heritage, on that basis, he hopes that the subjects, artisans and designers will research products that are creative, attractive and imbued with cultural and historical identity. Enterprises and localities need to promote their role in connecting, consuming and promoting products to support communication, start-ups, innovation and creativity, focusing on solutions to preserve and promote the value of craft villages, support artisans and branded products. These are important suggestions for delegates to focus on discussing issues at the second session "Solutions for research, design of production models, development of Ninh Binh tourism gift products and promotion mechanisms and policies".
Minh Hai - Anh Tuan
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