The "go ahead" is both joyful and worrying
From a certain perspective, the change from spontaneous tourism has not only helped local people sell agricultural products, have jobs to increase income, but also pushed up land prices here.
As in La Ngau commune, a remote area of Tanh Linh district, also home to ethnic minorities, after National Highway 55 passed through, connecting the region, there were changes. But it must be said that it has improved since there was a plan to implement rural tourism, since people voluntarily did tourism based on rivers and streams in village 2, so people's incomes have increased, land prices in the area have also increased. In addition, in Da Mi commune (Ham Thuan Bac), this year durian prices have been good, and there is also a tourist area, although spontaneous, it also helps tourists to hunt clouds, visit hydroelectric lakes... have a place to stop, eat and drink, when in this area with great tourism potential there is not a single tourist spot. The same is true in the ethnic minority areas of Phan Lam and Phan Son (Bac Binh district), especially on a long, deserted hilly road, the shops and rest stops here, in addition to helping tourists have a place to rest along the way, also contribute to rescue and provide information to the government. And in the past few months, the income of the people here has increased, thanks to working at the places, rest stops, and spontaneous restaurants. The owner of a rest stop on National Highway 28B said that he paid 6 workers, all of whom are ethnic minority children, 6 million VND/month in the past few months. As for Phu Quy island, it goes without saying that most of the people on the island have additional income thanks to working in tourism services...
All the things brought about by spontaneous tourism in recent times have made the authorities of these places worried, even though they have issued documents to stop operations and request self-dismantling. Like Tanh Linh, in Document No. 1517 issued on July 21, 2023, the Chairman of the District People's Committee has the opinion of assigning the People's Committee of La Ngau commune to notify the first and second times so that spontaneous tourism service businesses can self-dismantle and relocate temporary structures and SUP boats within the water source protection corridor. After that, if they do not comply, they will be forced. The document also strictly prohibits all forms of organizing activities such as bathing in rivers, streams, SUP rowing, temporary rafts to take tourists across rivers; forms of overnight accommodation... But at the same time, it also directs relevant departments and offices to review current legal regulations, advise the District People's Committee to take advantage of opinions from provincial departments and branches to guide investors and people to implement and develop. Meanwhile, the People's Committee of Ham Thuan Bac has established an inspection team to visit the spontaneously built tourist area on the surface of Da Mi Lake, draw up a working record, and request the enterprise to stop operations and dismantle it to restore the original state. Otherwise, it will be fined according to the law with an amount of 125 million VND and forced to do so. At the same time, it is also required that this private enterprise, if it continues to want to do business at the above location, carry out administrative procedures according to Decision No. 2190 of the Provincial People's Committee issued on October 18, 2022 on the announcement of the list of administrative procedures and internal procedures for handling administrative procedures for newly issued administrative procedures in the field of dam and hydropower reservoir safety under the management scope of the Department of Industry and Trade of Binh Thuan province.
Why is the government worried?
For Phu Quy, behind the joy of seeing the people's efforts to do community tourism in the early days is the concern about violating regulations on improper land use. At the working session with the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee at the end of July 2023 on the results of 2 and a half years of implementing the Resolution of the 14th Provincial Party Congress and the Resolution of the 11th District Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025, the District Party Committee Standing Committee proposed to the province 2 contents related to difficulties in developing tourism on the island. That is to pay attention to allowing households to raise seafood using cages at sea and combine food service business, contributing to the development of tourism in the district. At the same time, it is also important to allow people to do food and beverage business under the canopy of trees on agricultural land, but without changing the purpose of land use, contributing to creating jobs and improving the lives of people on the island.
That proposal of Phu Quy is also the wish of other districts. The problem is, anyone who is interested can understand, that the spirit of community tourism of the islanders and rural areas inland, which have tourism potential that has been exploited in the past few months, is on the rise. Even though it is going in the wrong direction, the authorities of these places are trying to guide people to carry out investment procedures to do business in accordance with the law, especially in places that have been included in the tourism development planning, serving tourism. For example, in La Ngau commune, specifically in the Ta My stream area, which is one of the two pilot models for building rural tourism by 2025 in Tanh Linh district. Or on National Highway 28B, from Song Binh commune to Phan Lam, Phan Son, there are also some places that have planned commercial service land. Then the Da Mi lake area in Ham Thuan Bac is only over 100 hectares wide (over 500 hectares in Tanh Linh area), but the district is also considering the needs of interested investors to plan the construction of a tourist area, especially in July, the planning of the construction of the Ham Thuan lake tourist area was approved. It is worth mentioning that while Ham Thuan hydroelectric lake has a water level fluctuation of up to 30 meters, Da Mi hydroelectric lake has a water level fluctuation of only 1 meter, at the highest it is only 3 meters. That is also a reason why private enterprises can quickly build a spontaneous tourist area on the lake to welcome tourists, and the reason given is that the business registration license includes mobile food service activities, ferrying visitors to visit Da Mi lake...
And after all, there are concerns about using land for the right purpose to develop tourism. For example, it is difficult to clearly determine whether commercial service land on agricultural land can be used to build huts, camps for tourists to rest or homestays... Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is developing a document guiding the development of tourism on agricultural land based on the tasks assigned by the Government in Resolution 82 on the main tasks and solutions to accelerate recovery and accelerate effective and sustainable tourism development. Therefore, the authorities of these districts are waiting for instructions to implement, which also opens the way for people to do rural tourism.
Mr. Bui The Nhan - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: "In the past 7 months, tourism activities in the province have been going well, with a high increase in the number of visitors, including the contribution of eco-tourism and agricultural tourism. It is worth noting that there have been no complaints from tourists, although in reality, spontaneous community tourism has exploded. In cases of self-construction in planned areas, choosing to develop tourism, in my personal opinion, the authorities in all places should stop the activities and guide people to carry out investment procedures according to regulations so that they can do business legally. That is a way to encourage people to do tourism to continue their efforts, especially when the facilities they have spontaneously built still exist, so as not to waste money and also protect tourism resources, creating tourist destinations for the province".
Lesson 1: The explosion of "guerrilla" tourism
Lesson 3: Don't miss a beat...
BICH NGHI - PHOTO BY N. LAN
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