Nghe An: Leverage for green tourism to break through

Nghe An is considered a province with great potential for tourism development, especially green tourism. However, the development has long been considered not commensurate with the potential, the reason is that there are still many barriers that need to be studied, evaluated and cleared.

Land of great potential

According to the assessment of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nghe An province (Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nghe An), Nghe An has all the elements that can be compared to a "miniature Vietnam" for tourism development. Nghe An has plains, midlands, mountains, borders, seas and islands, with many majestic natural landscapes and diverse and rich natural ecosystems. The highlight is the primeval forest ecosystem in the western region of Nghe An, forming the largest world biosphere reserve in Southeast Asia recognized by UNESCO in 2007 with more than 1,300km2.

Along with that is a rich and unique cave system, in many of which archaeological relics of the life of ancient Vietnamese people hundreds of thousands of years ago have been discovered, such as: Tham Om cave, Bua cave (Quy Chau), Poong cave (Quy Hop), ...

Tea island in Thanh Chuong district - one of the destinations that many tourists enjoy.

Nghe An owns a coastline of over 82km, flat beaches, fine white sand, clear water, moderate salinity, fresh environment, many hours of sunshine, suitable for the development of resort tourism , sea bathing, medical treatment. Typical beaches are Cua Lo, Bai Lu, Quynh Phuong, Quynh Nghia...

Nghe An is also known as a land of outstanding people, with a rich culture and revolutionary tradition with a history of more than 990 years. There are many unique architectural works and traditional festivals. The system of historical and cultural relics of Nghe An province is rich in quantity and genre, the whole province currently has more than 2,600 relics and famous landscapes inventoried.

In particular, Nghe An has had a rich and unique indigenous culture from ancient times to the present, such as folk music, customs, practices, festivals, culinary culture, etc., notably the Nghe Tinh Vi and Giam folk songs, which have been recognized by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Nghe An is located on the trans-Vietnam railway and road route, with National Highway 1A and Ho Chi Minh Road passing through, an international airport and a seaport. At the same time, it is one of the important gateways of the East-West economic corridor connecting Myanmar - Thailand - Laos - Vietnam with the East Sea through the Nam Can and Cau Treo border gates (Ha Tinh) and the Thanh Thuy border gate in the future.

With these strengths, Nghe An has great potential to develop green tourism associated with characteristics such as: beach resort tourism; cultural - historical tourism; eco-tourism with destinations in primeval forests and conservation areas such as Pu Mat National Park, Western Nghe An World Biosphere Reserve; adventure tourism with mountain climbing tours, river crossing on Giang River cruise; Khe Kem waterfall - open natural - cultural museum, conquering Pu Xai Lai Leng peak (2,720m) ...

Identify barriers

Deputy Head of Tourism Management Department of Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Duc Chung said that although the resources for tourism in general, eco-tourism and green tourism in particular are very large, the current reality is that infrastructure and connections between localities in the province are still limited. Traffic, information and basic amenities at community tourism sites are still lacking.

The tourism human resources are lacking and weak, lacking workers with foreign language skills, professional service, lacking managers with sustainable tourism development mindset. The tourism management system from the provincial to communal level is still lacking and not synchronized. Tourism management at the local level is not effective. Typically, there is a lack of regional - industry coordination mechanism. The spontaneous situation, short-term exploitation of tourism resources without specific and clear planning. Lack of benefit sharing mechanism in the tourism development value chain.

“The role of enterprises and public-private partnership has not been promoted. Small enterprises have not invested deeply in sustainable models; the connection between “State - people - investors - scientists - journalists is not effective” - Deputy Head of Tourism Management Department of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism emphasized.

Unsynchronized development, lack of infrastructure, fragmented and unprofessional tourism, slow project progress... are barriers to tourism development in Nghe An.

According to Chairman of Nghi Tien Commune People's Committee (Nghi Loc) Nguyen Bang Phi, Bai Lu beach area has long been an attractive destination for many people for tourism, relaxation, and immersing themselves in the green space of the sea and mountains. However, over the past years, Bai Lu has been forced to stop operating due to new investments but slow progress. This has caused the locality to lose revenue from tourism activities, and many workers have no jobs to increase their income and improve their lives.

"The biggest difficulty of the locality at present is the legal procedures for exploiting tourism resources, the conversion of resource use purposes to tourism exploitation still has many difficulties. In addition, some tourism projects such as Tea Island, Song Ro Lake, ... are not implemented, or are implemented slowly, leading to the lack of conditions for service business activities to improve, the number of visitors is decreasing, causing a long-term waste of tourism resources", said Dang Van Hoa, Head of the Department of Culture, Science and Information of Thanh Chuong district.

Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district, Nguyen Viet Hung, said that the challenge for local tourism development is that Ky Son has a border of over 200 km with Laos, 11 border communes with some beautiful landscapes that can be exploited but are border areas and cannot be exploited. Investment procedures in the core areas of protective forests are difficult... so there should be specific regulations to exploit conveniently and effectively to unleash the potential.

Meanwhile, Head of the Department of Tourism Resources Development Management of Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Minh Thanh said that through a survey of community tourism models in Con Cuong, Quy Chau, Nghi Loc districts... it shows that although these places have potential in terms of landscape and ecology, the planning of tourist areas is still fragmented, fragmented, and spontaneous. There is no overall planning, infrastructure is not guaranteed, there is a lack of basic amenities such as toilets, parking lots, rest stops, and guide signs, causing inconvenience to tourists, and there is a lack of connection with other tourist destinations in the region.

Indigenous culture has not been exploited sustainably. Some places show signs of "commercialization" of national identity, losing its originality. Some tourism activities have caused impacts that do not ensure the natural environment...

Need investment, effective management

According to Mr. Hoang Minh Thanh, to promote the potential and strengths of eco-tourism and community tourism, attract tourists and develop sustainable tourism in the coming time, effective investment and management are needed.

In the immediate future, it is necessary to prioritize the development or combination of development of some types of tourism such as: cultural - historical tourism; ecological, agricultural, rural tourism; community tourism. In particular, for the types of community tourism and ecological tourism, there needs to be regular guidance and support from the management agency to avoid the phenomenon of people doing tourism spontaneously, unprofessionally and duplicating.

Focus on developing tourism human resources, especially tour guides at the site and local communities in terms of expertise, professionalism, and foreign language skills. Promote and raise awareness of tourism for local communities so that people can participate in tourism activities. Build awareness of tourism development combined with protecting, preserving and promoting national cultural identity.

Quickly remove obstacles so that tourism in Nghe An province can bring about efficiency and economic resources.

Strengthen digital transformation in propaganda, introduction and promotion on social networking platforms to introduce tourist destinations and tourism products of the province to tourists. In addition, it is necessary to build a database of information on destinations and coordinate with travel agencies to provide information on tourism products, tourism service facilities and attractions in the area.

Deputy Head of Tourism Management Department of Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Duc Chung added that green tourism cannot develop spontaneously, because that can easily lead to conflicts between exploitation and conservation, causing environmental overload or loss of local identity.

It is necessary to build green accommodation infrastructure such as homestays, farmstays, eco-lodges using natural materials, saving energy. Build an environmentally friendly, bilingual information and guidance system... Raise community awareness, train local people on sustainable tourism. Transform livelihood models, farmers become tour guides, provide experiential agricultural services.

Regarding the expected roadmap, from the period of 2025 - 2027, surveys and statistics of Nghe An tourism resources will be conducted, based on statistics of tourism resources to classify resources and propose appropriate exploitation and development of resources...

Green tourism is a form of tourism that emphasizes environmental protection, sustainable use of natural and cultural resources, and benefits to local communities. This is an important part of sustainable tourism, focusing on experiences close to nature, minimizing negative impacts on ecosystems and encouraging environmentally responsible lifestyles. Nghe An has advantages in developing tourism in general and green tourism in particular. Deputy Head of Tourism Management Department of Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Duc Chung

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/nghe-an-don-bay-cho-du-lich-xanh-but-pha-2025062014261618.htm