Cham culture shines at festival

 

A special sports, culture and tourism festival featuring members of the Cham ethnic group is underway in the central province of Ninh Thuan. The three-day festival, kicked off on October 14, is taking place at the same time as the group's traditional Kate festival.

Various cultural activities like art shows, traditional costume shows, brocade weaving contests, a culinary fair and sports competitions will be organised in the province.

A conference on preserving and developing Cham ethnic culture in parallel with promoting tourism will be the key activity at the event, which will gather both scientists and cultural workers. 

The event is expected to attract Cham people from nine localities including Binh Thuan, Phu Yen, An Giang, Tay Ninh, HCM City and Dong Nai. 

The localities will take turns hosting the event, which will be held every three years. 

According to statistics from 2008, the Cham group was ranked 14th in population size when compared to all 54 ethnic groups in the country, with 145,000 members. 

Source: Vietnam+

 

Quang Ninh receives 1.8 million foreign visitors in 9 months

 

 

About 1.8 million foreign tourists visited Quang Ninh in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent, the Department of Culture Sports and Tourism reported.

Quang Ninh greeted nearly 346,000 visitors in September 2012, bringing the figure for the first nine months of the year to more than 5.41 million, a year-on-year increase of 7 percent.

Over the past nine months, the number of foreign tourists reached more than 1.78 million, showing a year-on-year rise of 6 percent.

The industry earned more than VND 3,2 billion in 9 months, up 16 percent compared with the same period last year.

Quang Ninh tourism sector has currently imposed lots of measures to increase the quality of the local business environment, implemented projects to protect Ha Long Bay’s environment and created more tourist products and tourist sites as well.

Especially, the Department of Culture Sports and Tourism has restored lots of billboards with hotline number for tourists in tourist attractions across the province. The hotline is manned by representatives of the Department of Culture Sports and Tourism who will assist solving any problems tourists might encounter online. The province also expects to receive critical comments on tourism services via these hotline numbers to have practical and effective solutions to all problems related to tourism service quality.

Source: QNP

 

Hoang Su Phi terraced fields - new national heritage

 

The terraced fields in Hoang Su Phi District in the northern province of Ha Giang, have been recognized as a national heritage site by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The province will hold a certification ceremony on September 16 which will feature traditional art and culture of ethnic people.

The terraces bear witness to centuries of wet rice cultivation by ethnic minorities in Hoang Su Phi, including the Dao, Nung and La Chi, and they have great cultural and historical value in addition to being aesthetically beautiful. The terraced fields cover six communes including Ban Luoc, San Sa Ho, Ban Phung, Ho Thau, Nam Ty and Thong Nguyen.

Local authorities will create projects to preserve the fields and promote their tourism potential.

Source: SGT

 

Awaking Ninh Thuan tourism

Ninh Thuan Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Director Pham Quoc Anh talked about the preparation of the second culture, sports and tourism festival of the Cham ethnic group in an interview with Vietnam Economic News' reporter Thanh Tam.
Which outstanding points will the 2012 culture, sports and tourism festival of Cham ethnic minority group create to attract tourists?
The festival will see provinces and cities where Cham people live, such as Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Phu Yen, Dong Nai, An Giang, HCMC, Quang Nam and Tay Ninh.
The festival will take place from October 14-16, 2012 at four locations. There are two outdoor locations, including the Po Klongirai Tower tourist area and the stadium in Huu Duc Village and two traditional villages, including My Nghiep brocade fabric village and Bau Truc pottery village in Phuoc Dan Town, Ninh Phuoc District, Ninh Thuan Province.
Exciting activities will be included in the festival, such as the opening ceremony associated with art and traditional costume performance programs of Cham people; introducing the Cham food culture; workshops on Cham cultural preservation and development; and promoting tourism in cultural heritages of Cham people.
The festival will be held before the Kate traditional ceremony of Cham people, with the participation of provinces and cities where Cham people live, Cham cultural researchers, artists and intellectuals. The festival continues to be the occasion to honor and promote culture, sport and tourism activities of Cham people to the country as well as visitors.
In addition to beautiful landscapes, Ninh Thuan also has unique Cham cultural treasures. Has Ninh Thuan exploited these potential assets for tourism development?
Nature has bestowed a diversity of natural landscapes on Ninh Thuan with famous beaches, such as Ninh Chu, Ca Na, Vinh Hy and Binh Tien and unique natural landscapes, such as Nam Cuong-Mui Dinh tourist area covering on an area of hundreds of hectares of natural sand dunes, Phuoc Binh National Park with 513 species of plants and 170 species of rare animals, Chua Mountain and South Central Sea. In addition, Ninh Thuan also has a community of architecture and rich cultural festivals of Cham people. However, much potential is still in the form of raw resources and have not been developed. Therefore, although the number of tourists to Ninh Thuan increases by the year, this figure only reached 820,000 in 2011.
The number of tourists to Ninh Thuan in 2011 was low. What is the reason of this limitation?
Ninh Thuan tourism has potential but local government has not paid much attention to the development of tourism. Plus poor infrastructure, inconvenient transportation, monotonous tourism products and limited investment capacity, Ninh Thuan tourism needs to be waken up.
What specific plans will Ninh Thuan implement?
According to socioeconomic development strategy of Ninh Thuan until 2020, with a vision to 2030, tourism is ranked second in the four economic pillars and six key economic sectors. This is a huge advantage. Ninh Thuan targets to reach 1.3-1.4 million of visitors until 2015, of which international visitors account for 14-15 percent; and by 2020 receiving 2.5-3 million of visitors, contributing 8 percent of GDP and solve employment for 10 percent of labor. To achieve these targets, tourism needs to be developed comprehensively to exploit advantages, including marine tourism, eco-tourism, and cultural tourism and travel services. Ninh Thuan tourism in the coming years will develop due to three directions. Firstly, it is necessary to construct and upgrade transport infrastructure connected to tourist areas and train professional human resources. Secondly, the construction of highly competitive and attractive tourist services and the mobilization of investment capital to build unique local products will be focused on. Thirdly, the construction of advanced forms of tourism, such as golf courses, hotels and resorts to attract high-income tourists will be developed.
In addition to three fundamental directions for sustainable tourism development, it is necessary to have the consensus of all involved sectors in the province to build brand for Ninh Thuan tourism. When advantages have been exploited, Ninh Thuan tourism will have opportunities to sustainable develop.
 
Source: VEN

It's boom time in Sa Pa's hills

As many as 10,000 visitors are expected to travel to the highlands of Sa Pa on the coming National Day holidays this weekend, said Lao Cai Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism director Tran Huu Son.
Situated in a picturesque part of the northern province of Lao Cai, Sa Pa was the site of a French resort during colonial times, and has since become one of the most popular travel destinations in the country, said Son.
He added that visitors to Sa Pa Township were increasing thanks to expanding homestay services; about 40 per cent of visitors had registered tours to Sa Pa's villages, a 20 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2010.
About 100,000 visitors came to the area during the first six months of the year, which is as high as the total number of visitors throughout 2008.
Son said nearly 100 households in Sa Pa were running homestay services which can serve a total of 1,000 guests.
Communes with homestay services include Ban Ho, Cat Cat, Ta Van and Ta Phin.
Nong Van San, who has been running a homestay service for three years, said visitors staying at his home had helped to increase his family's income. The service had actually brought the family more than incomes from other traditional jobs.
Communes in Bat Xat and Bac Ha districts located 20km and 70km from Sa Pa have recently developed homestay services and can serve up to 100 guests at a time.
According to Luc Xuan Thuong, a senior official of Bac Ha's Ta Van Chu Commune, running a homestay service is not difficult, and about 70 households in the commune are running the business.
"Traditional wooden houses which are equipped with mattresses, blankets, pillows and a clean toilette can be used for a homestay," said Thuong.
Lo Thi Mao, a tourguide from the Viettravelmate company, said many foreign tourists were also opting to stay at ethnic people's houses in villages to get an insight into rural life.
 
Source: VietNamNet/VNS

Hoang Su Phi terraced fields recognised as national heritage

 

According to Ha Giang provincial People’s Committee, the province will organize a ceremony on September 16th 2012 to receive the decision of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on recognizing Hoang Su Phi terraced fields as national heritage.
The ceremony will be broadcast live of VTV channel of the Vietnam Television. An exhibition on economic and cultural products in the district will be held on this occasion.
The event aims to preserve the fields and promote their tourism potential.
Hoang Su Phi terraced field is situated on six communes and established hundreds of year ago by labour force of the community and people of La Chi, Dao and Nung ethnic minority groups.
The fields were among the sites recently recongnised by the MoCST as significant parts of the nation’s heritage, including three other landscapes: the Trang An caves in Ninh Binh province, the Pusamcap cave system in Lai Chau province, and the Chua Tien caves in Hoa Binh province./.
 
Source: CPV
 

Int’l yacht festival to be held in Khanh Hoa

The International Yacht Festival intended to take place in the south central province of Khanh Hoa this year has been rescheduled for mid-2013, announced the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Festival on August 7.
Around 250 international and domestic yachts have registered to take part in the four-day event.
They will be on display at an exhibition and join in a parade around the Hon Tre island in Nha Trang Bay.
A series of activities, including a concert about Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago, a fund raising ceremony to support Vietnamese fishermen, and other cultural and sporting events will be held as part of the festival.

Source: VOV
 

Ha Long Bay future discussed

Entitled Developing and Promoting the Values of World’s Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay – New Vision, the event was hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The conference also noted disadvantages and challenges that strategists may face in seeking suitable solutions.

More than 150 researchers, and environmental and tourism experts attended the event.

Speaking at the conference, Cultural Minister Hoang Tuan Anh said the increasing number of tourists visiting Ha Long Bay created significant challenges in preserving and developing the country’s most famous tourist attraction.

“Any preservation solutions based on tourism development will be encouraged,” he said.

The provincial Party Committee’s Secretary Tran Minh Chinh said tourism development of Ha Long Bay was crucial to the province’s sustainable economy, thus the “development should connect tightly with environment protection,” he said.

The nation’s Development Strategy 2020 and Vision 2030 has identified Ha Long Bay as attracting millions of domestic and international tourists each year.

Therefore, Quang Ninh has set four main goals, including to locate the development of Ha Long Bay within a national and global context, to develop the tourism trademark of Ha Long Bay to keep it the No1 attraction, to promote it effectively in connection with environmental protection and to raise the awareness of local people and tourists of environmental protection.

Most of the participants shared the same opinion about the beauty of the World’s Natural Heritage site. However, how to develop tourism effectively without negative influences on the environment was a significant issue.

Many thought the awareness of the environment was limited in local people working in the tourism field; tourism and souvenir products lacked diversity; investment, preservation and development did not befit a World’s Natural Heritage site.

UNESCO chief representative in Viet Nam Katherine Muller-Marin suggested the authority urgently control the waste from ships on the bay, otherwise the pollution would affect the marine area and beaches of Cat Ba National Park.

To use a human force to collect rubbish on the bay was not an effective method to protect the environment, Muller-Marin said.

An average 2.5 million tourists, including 1 million foreigners, visited Ha Long Bay every year. Ha Long Bay and some other neighbouring areas in recent years had attracted more than 40 foreign investment projects with a total capital of more than $1 billion.

Significant capital had been invested by numerous domestic and foreign enterprises to develope Ha Long tourism products.

Ha Long Bay future discussed source:  VNS