Indigenous culture - the "key" to promoting sustainable tourism (Part 2): Why are products still monotonous and repetitive?!

Thanh Hoa is known as a locality with rich potential for tourism development, with a variety of attractive products, meeting the needs of tourists. However, up to now, tourism products in some localities in the province are still repetitive and monotonous...

Pu Luong Community Ecotourism Area (Ba Thuoc) attracts visitors with its green space and unique indigenous cultural elements. Photo: HA

From "boring" experience...

Pu Luong community tourism (Ba Thuoc) began to develop from around 2009, until 2016 when Pu Luong Retreat resort (Don village, Thanh Lam commune) was formed and put into operation, the number of visitors to Pu Luong increased. From here, Pu Luong community ecotourism "made its mark" on the tourism map of the province and the whole country.

Many people still consider Pu Luong Retreat as a “bait” project, because just a few years after the resort was established, in Thanh Lam and Thanh Son communes, there were many more “similar” resorts. However, it is worth noting that whether it is a luxury resort or a small homestay, they are all designed to be environmentally friendly, preserving the natural landscape to the maximum, bringing visitors a “green destination” with interesting “green experiences”. After about 15 years of development, Pu Luong community tourism is now referred to by tourists as “paradise in the middle of the jungle” or “symphony of heaven and earth”.

With its proven appeal, Pu Luong Community Ecotourism Area is considered a “model” to be expanded to other mountainous districts of the province. There would be nothing to say if other community tourism areas and destinations offered visitors different experiences than Pu Luong.

In fact, many tourists who have experienced community ecotourism in Thuong Xuan, Lang Chanh, Quan Son or Quan Hoa... all believe that there are similar and overlapping experiential activities here. Like Ba Thuoc, in addition to accommodation activities, the destinations still have familiar cultural and culinary experiences such as: exploring the village on foot; enjoying bamboo rice, bitter soup, wild vegetables, grilled fish...; exchanging bamboo dance performances; visiting brocade weaving households... Although the overview still has its own unique features in each destination, based on terrain, climate, natural landscape... it is clear that the "main" experiential activities here are overlapping, easily boring for tourists.

Community tourism expert Duong Minh Binh (who contributed to the foundation of Pu Luong Retreat resort and many typical community tourism models in the country) commented: “Community ecotourism in Thanh Hoa province has a lot of room for strong development. However, after a period of development, many localities are having repetition in building and developing products, making tourists feel bored”. At the same time, it is pointed out: “If so, either the destination that does not meet the development trend will automatically go off the “track” or tourists will prioritize the destination with the most unique cultural experiences, the most convenient, the most developed, with a diverse ecosystem. However, in the same locality, the construction of this product does not necessarily have to be different, unique, but the cultural factors, customs, natural landscapes... in each locality are certainly different. Therefore, it is necessary to rely on this to ensure the development of community tourism in the direction of rich identity, brand and sustainability”.

...to "borrow" ideas

In reality, the orientation of tourism product development in some mountainous districts has only focused on what they have, but has not really paid attention to the needs of tourists and development trends. According to the assessment of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (DOCST), most community tourism models only meet the basic needs of tourists for sightseeing and dining; they have not met the needs of experience. Although community tourism products are developing well, they are still poor, monotonous, lacking in uniqueness, and prone to duplication. In particular, many localities have not focused on spatial planning, lacked orientation on traditional cultural identity, which led to "borrowing" ideas from other localities.

When participating in the survey to connect the province's community tourism areas and spots, many businesses complained about the similarity in space and experience of the destinations. "Even between the destinations in the same community tourism product, if there is no difference, there is certainly no reason for customers to experience things that are not new. As for travel agencies, they need to choose suitable destinations, with attractive values ​​for customers to maintain their reputation and brand. This is also the reason why over the years, customers with high spending ability or large groups of tourists from Hanoi in particular, the northern provinces in general, will mostly choose Pu Luong instead of other destinations" - Mr. Bui Nghiem, Head of the Travel Department, Hoan Kiem District Tourism Association, Director of Go Asia Travel Company (Hanoi), shared.

It can be said that the attractiveness of each destination is the difference and uniqueness of the tourism product. However, for a long time, the development strategy of community tourism in mountainous districts has not been innovative, lacking the connection and exchange between locality - locality and locality - enterprise. Therefore, the landscape and check-in areas in many community tourism villages are still "borrowed", copied... causing confusion about the cultural image of the destination. As a result, there are destinations that have been formed but have not attracted visitors, and tourism promotion has not brought about the expected results.

Mr. Pham Nguyen Hong, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, admitted: “Community tourism in mountainous areas has had certain developments in recent years, but it is still monotonous and repetitive in experiential activities and destination spaces. Meanwhile, the State has not yet issued specific and unified standards for the community tourism model, causing difficulties in management. For experiential activities such as: visiting villages, sightseeing, bathing in waterfalls, visiting caves, enjoying cuisine... if there is no creativity and innovation, it will easily cause boredom for tourists. Therefore, in the coming time, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will launch the movement "Each locality has a unique community tourism destination". In which, each destination needs to pay attention to the criteria for building a destination associated with its own product story on the basis of exploiting and promoting the intelligence and traditional cultural identity of the locality".

Hoai Anh - Nguyen Dat

Final article: “Bottlenecks” need to be “unblocked”.

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/van-hoa-ban-dia-chia-khoa-thuc-day-du-lich-ben-vung-bai-2-vi-sao-san-pham-con-don-dieu-trung-lap-220218.htm