Tourism development in Sonla province = Phát triển du lịch Sơn La

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI
INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES




NGUYEN THI HANH




TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN SONLA PROVINCE


MASTER THESIS ON VIETNAMESE STUDIES



Major: VIETNAMESE STUDIES
Code: 60 31 60


Supervisor: Associate Professor Tran Duc Thanh




HANOI,12/2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale statment 1
2. Research objectives 2
3. Research tasks 2
4. Study objects 3
5. Scope of research 3
6. History of research problem 3
7. Research Methods 5
8. The structure of the thesis 6
Chapter 1: BACKGROUND ON THE CONDITIONS FOR TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND ON THE CONDITIONS
FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT 7
1.1. Some basic concepts 7
1.1.1. Tourism 7
1.1.2. Tourist 7
1.1.3. Tourism resources 7
1.1.4. Destination 7
1.1.5. Tourism accommodation establishments 8
1.2. The conditions for tourism development 8
1.2.1. Natural conditions and natural resources 8
1.2.1.1. Geographical location 8
1.2.1.2. Topography 9
1.2.1.3. Climate 9
1.2.1.4. Hydrology 10
1.2.1.5. Plant and animal 10
1.2.2. Socio-economic conditions and human tourism resources 11

1.2.2.1. The historical – cultural monuments 11
1.2.2.2. Festivals 12
1.2.2.3 The tourism objects associated with ethnography 13
1.2.2.4. Occupation and the traditional craft villages 13
1.2.2.5. The objects of culture, sports and other cognitive activities 13
1.2.3. Infrastructure for tourism 14
1.2.3.1. Transportation system 14
1.2.3.2. Communication system 14
1.2.3.3. Electrical system 15
1.2.3.4. Water drainage and supply system 15
1.2.4. Labor 15
1.3. Current situation of Vietnam tourism 16
Chapter summary 22
CHAPTER 2: REAL STATUS OF TOURISM ACTIVITY IN SONLA 23
2.1. Son La tourism resources 23
2.1.1. Natural tourism resources 23
2.1.1.1. Topography 23
2.1.1.2. Climate 24
2.1.1.3. Hydrology 26
2.1.1.4. Flora and fauna 27
2.1.2. Human tourism resources 28
2.1.2.1. Monuments 29
2.1.2.2. Contemporary works 31
2.1.2.3. The other ontological resources 33
2.1.2.4. Festival 35
2.1.2.5 Custom 38
2.1.2.6. Other intangible tourism resources 39

2.2. Material and technical facilities of tourism 42
2.2.1. Accommodation establishments 42
2.2.2. Catering establishments 44
2.3. Labour 45
2.4. The tourism products 47
2.4.1. Sightseeing tourism 48
2.4.2. Festival tourism 49
2.4.3. Ecotourism 50
2.4.4. Home-stay Tourism 54
2.4.5. Resting tourism 55
2.4.6. Cultural tourism 55
2.5. Results from the tourism activities 55
2.5.1 Tourists 55
2.5.1.1. International tourists: 56
2.5.1.2. Domestic tourists: 58
2.5.2. Revenue 58
2.5.2.1 The room occupancy Rate 59
2.5.2.2. Profit 60
Chapter summary 61
CHAPTER 3: SOME SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT IN SONLA PROVINCE 63
3.1. The basis to build solutions 63
3.1.1. Development orientations of Vietnam tourism sector 63
3.1.2. Orientation for socio-economic development of Son La province 63
3.2. Some measures to develop tourism in the provinces effectively and stably. 64
3.2.1. Solution on policies. 64
3.2.2. Solutions to tourism space development 65


3.2.3. Solutions to develop tourism products 65

3.2.4. Solutions to training, human resource development and improving the
community capacity 65
3.2.5. Solution to protect the environment and ensure sustainable tourism
development 66
3.2.6. Solutions to tourism promotion and development 66
Chapter summary 67
CONCLUSION 68
REFERENCES 71
APPENDIX 74


INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale statment
Sonla is third lagest pronvince in Vietnam (ranking after Nghean and Daklak
provinces) Over 60% of the province area is covered forest. Land for agriculture is very
limited, in average, it is about 0.2ha/capita. The majority of residents (993 thousand /1084
thousands) live in the rural areas, so the people here still faced many difficulties. The
province's GDP was only about VND 4600 billion, GDP per capita equvalent to 1/6 everage
GDP per capita of the country (about USD212 / USD 1,200 of the country - Data 2009).
To serve the national hydro power plant, thousands residents living in the planed area
have been moved to new place. Although the authorities actively support, but the lives of
many people disturbed . The shifting lines were difficult because unfamiliar with the new job,
due to weather, farming conditions, etc.
Son La has a favorable geographical position, fresh air, abundant natural resources and
tourist attractions. So this is the ideal destination for many tourists . Son La has many
attractions, including the typical tourist spots like Moc Chau Plateau, the plateau Na, cave
bats, hang thick, hydro Son La, Son La ancient prison The sights are great advantages to
Son La to promote investment in developing tourism activities.
Meanwhile, in Son La convergence of many cultures, unique traditions of 12 ethnic

groups, which are typical habits of ethnic Thai and H‟mong peoples. With that potential, Son
La will be very favorable for the development of cultural tourism, tourism homestay.
With convenient locations and potential tourism resources in abundance, Son La
tourism in recent years has seen a remarkable development, contribute to the development of
local economy and to the cause of tourism development in the country. However, the tourism
potential of the Son La has not effectively exploited, the tourism product is poor, investment
in tourism in the area is limited, the image of the Son La tourism have not created a clarity in
the relationship with Hanoi, the tourist center and with the other neighbouring provincesand
travel nationwide as well.
Number of tourists coming to Vietnam in general and Son La in particular is
increasing. Thus promoting tourism development in Son La is consistent with the trend of the
times, in accordance with the development strategy of Vietnam's tourism, especially strategic


socio-economic development of the province, in which tourism and services was identified as
an important economic sector.
Tourism development has special meaning for a local mountainous areas of Son La -
where the poverty rate remains high. The shifting economic structure from agriculture to
service sector will enable local people to increase their incomes and to reduce their poverty.
So study " Tourism development in Sonla province" has a practical significance meets
objectives of Vietnamese studies.
2. Research objectives
- Contributing to the process of economic transfomation in order to improve the living
standards of local communities.
- Determining the direction and solutions forsustainable exploitation of the Sonla
tourism resources, contributing for poverty alleviation
3. Research tasks
To achieve the research objectives set out, the thesis focuses on the following tasks:
- Collecting secondary data and overviewing theoretical concepts on sustanable
tourism development and overviewing the present situation of tourism in Son La

provincebyfield observations, interviews and questionare
- Analysising and evaluating the situations and concret conditions for tourism
development in SonLa.
- Proposing the orientations and solutions for Son La tourism development.
4. Study objects
The conditions for tourism development, tourism resources and tourism activities in Son
La.
5. Scope of research
- Content: Topics focused on Son La tourism activities.
- Spatial scale: The whole territory of Son La province, of the tourism resources, the
tourist spots, the toursin Sonlain relationship with the neighboring provinces and the North
West tourism sub-regiona.


- Time: Subject focuses on investigation, data collection, analysis and research mainly
in the period 2006 - 2011, proposing the solutions and directions tourism development in the
phase of from 2015 to 2020.
6. History of research problem
6.1. In the world
The scientific projects research on aspects of tourism such as tourism resources,
tourism planning and territorial organization had just appeared in the late nineteenth century
and flourished along with the trend of planning, socio-economic development planning and
tourism development from the thirty years of the twentieth century.
From 1980 onwards, China and other developing countries have considered tourism as
a key economic sector, so many theoretical and practical research works relating to tourism
planning and tourism resources are carried out by the scientists such as: "Development and
management of local tourism," by Ngo Tat Ho, 2000; "System of planning criteria" by Ngo
Vi Dan, 1979.
6.2. In Vietnam
Currently, there are tourism geographical research works in Vietnam on issues from

theoretical and practical bases of tourism development from provincial, regional scale to
national one. A number of scientific themes is involved such as: Tran Duc Thanh, Tourism
Geography, Vietnam National University Publisher, Hanoi, 1995; Nguyen Minh Tue, Vu
Tuan Canh, Le Thong, Pham Xuan Hau, Nguyen Kim Hong, Tourism Geography , Ho Chi
Minh City Publisher; People's Committee of Son La Province, Department of Son La Trade
and Tourism, general report on master planning for tourism development in Son La Province
in the period of 2007 - 2015 and vision to 2020, Son La 2007; Le Trong Binh, tourism current
State and territorial organization orientation in Vietnam. Scientific Yearbook: Vietnam socio-
economic territorial organization – Art to ensuring the successful development in the context
of international integration”. Ministry of Planning and Investment, Development Strategy
Institute, Hanoi 02-2007. Vu Tuan Canh (Editor), Vietnam tourism environment and the
problems given for the sake of sustainable environmental development. Synthesis Report; Vu
Tuan Canh: Vietnam Tourism at the threshold of twenty-first century, Journal of Tourism and
Development No. 01-1995, Hanoi; Handbook on sustainable tourism development, Vietnam
Tourism Bureau, the travel newsletter No. 1, 11-2005;
In addition, there are many other valuable research works like MA thesis. Dang Duy
Loi, 1995, "Assessing and exploiting the natural conditions in Ba Vi District, Ha Tay


province for tourism purpose." MA thesis. Tran Duc Thanh, 1995, "Scientific Basis for the
construction of maps for the purpose of provincial tourism in Vietnam - Ninh Binh province,
for instance", "Tourism Geography" chaired by Nguyen Minh Tue, 1994; General
Departmental theme "potentiality of tourism resources in Vietnam" implemented by Nguyen
Minh Tue, 1996.
In recent years, along with the development of the tourism industry throughout the
country, there have been articles and research works on Son La tourism. Typically, Do Thi
Mui author has a PhD topic "territorial organization of Son La tourism” that refers quite
sufficient for the tourism territory. This topic has showed the trend of tourism development in
the future and direction of sustainable tourism development through the rationally territorial
organization. The author has analyzed and clarified the main resources for the tourism

territorial organization in Son La. In that basis, the theme " Tourism development in Sonla
province " is the first synthetic and systematic research work relevant to potentiality, current
situation and solutions for tourism development in Son La province. These findings of the
research will contribute to the overall and detailed picture on tourism activities in the province
of Son La, as well as comparative advantages for tourism development with the provinces in
the sub-region of the Northwest tourism in particular and the northern tourism regions in
general. It; thereby, shall propose appropriate measures to enhance the effective exploitation
of regionally rich and diversified tourism potentiality.
7. Research Methods
In order to complete this theme, the author has used the methodologies:
- Investigation, field survey
- Sociological Investigation
- Analysis and evaluation
8. The structure of the thesis
A part from the introduction, conclusion, references and appendices, the content of the
thesis consists of 3 chapters:
Chapter 1: BACKGROUND ON THE CONDITIONS FOR TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 2: REAL STATUS OF TOURISM ACTIVITY IN SONLA
Chapter 3: SOME SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
IN SONLA PROVINCE




CHAPTER 1
BACKGROUND ON THE CONDITIONS FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

1.1. Some basic concepts
In fact of research on tourism, there are many terms understood in different ways.

However, this thesis is not a research debating on those terms. The basic terms used in this
theme are based on the concepts in the Tourism Law in 2005. Those concepts shall be as
follows:
1.1.1. Tourism
"Tourism is the activities related to travels of human outside frequent habitat to meet
the needs of visiting, learning, entertainment, and rest within a certain period of time."
[Article 4, Vietnam tourism law]
1.1.2. Tourist
"Tourist is the person who travels or combines travel, except for school, work or
practice to pay at destination". [Article 4, Vietnam tourism law]
1.1.3. Tourism resources
"Tourism resources are natural landscape, natural element, historical - cultural
monuments, works of labor and creativeness by man and the human values that can be used to
meet travel demand; are the basic elements to form the resorts, destinations, tourism routes,
tourism urban. "[Article 4, Vietnam tourism law]
1.1.4. Destination
"Destination is the place where has the attractive tourism resources, serving the needs
of visiting by tourists." [Article 4, Vietnam tourism law]
1.1.5. Tourism accommodation establishments
"Tourist accommodation establishment is the place where hires room, bed and
provides other services for guests, especially the hotel is primary tourism accommodation
establishment." [Article 4, Vietnam tourism law]


1.2. The conditions for tourism development
In order to develop tourism, it should possess sufficient conditions, including natural
conditions and natural resources, socio-economic conditions and human tourism resources,
infrastructure for tourism and labor resources.
1.2.1. Natural conditions and natural resources
The natural components are necessary condition for tourism activities. On the other

hand, in the specific cases, some properties of those components attract tourist and they, thus,
are directly exploited for the purpose of tourism business to become the natural tourism
resources. Those components include topography, climate, hydrology, plants and animals, etc.
1.2.1.1. Geographical location
1.2.1.2. Topography
1.2.1.3. Climate
1.2.1.4. Hydrology
1.2.1.5. Plant and animal
1.2.2. Socio-economic conditions and human tourism resources
Human tourism resources are objects, phenomenones created by humans during the
survival process and development; have cultural and spiritual values, and serve tourism
demand. Human tourism resources include: the historical - cultural monuments, festivals and
folklores; the tourism objects associated with ethnography; craft and traditional handicraft
villages and the other human resources.
1.2.2.1. The historical – cultural monuments
1.2.2.2. Festivals
1.2.2.3 The tourism objects associated with ethnography
1.2.2.4. Occupation and the traditional craft villages
1.2.2.5. The objects of culture, sports and other cognitive activities
1.2.3. Infrastructure for tourism
Infrastructure is not managed by the tourism industry, but they are built to generally
serve the national economy. The development and distribution of infrastructure
(transportation, communication, electricity, water drainage and supply system, etc.) and
performance of these sectors have a profound effect on the tourism activities.


1.2.3.1. Transportation system:
The types of traffic for tourism may involve: road, rail, waterway, seaway, airway and
vehicles manufactured and used for tourism demands like caravan, boat, yacht, special aircraft
and cable.

1.2.3.2. Communication system:
Communication is an important part of the infrastructure of tourism activities. It is a
necessary condition to ensure the exchange of domestic and international tourists.
Communication needs are the needs of the exchange of social information; satisfied by many
different types of information: satellite communication, internet, telephone, telegraph and
post, etc.
1.2.3.3. Electrical system:
It is a necessary condition to ensure the essential needs of travelers at tourism sites.
The power plants, grid structure, the capability of ensuring the local power for operation of
the points, areas, groups, tourism centers, the balance between supply capacity and demand
for electricity in the whole region, etc have great significance because their products directly
serve the traveler‟s rest and entertainment.

1.2.3.4. Water drainage and supply system:
It includes water plants for the daily needs and tourism services. Water supply should
be noted in the following aspects: availability of water supply, water quality and water supply
system to meet the needs of tourism development. As tourists usually have a high demand for
clean water in their trip, while many destinations are very far from large urban areas, so it
requires to have a clean water supply system with pipe network development to meet enough
the needs of tourists.
As a consequence, the complete infrastructure is a prerequisite and lever of economic
activities, including tourism activities
1.2.4. Labor
Labor is an important factor with the effect of promoting the tourism development.
The increase of population, population density, life expectancy, urban development and
urbanization lifestyle, etc, on the one hand, increases the labor force in manufacturing and
services, leading to increased demand for rest and tourism; on the other hand, population
growth contributes to labor supply in the tourism service industry, ensuring human resources
for tourism development.

1.3. Current situation of Vietnam tourism
Vietnam is a country with the special advantages of geography, economics and
politics. Located in the heart of Southeast Asia, Vietnam territory has both tied to the
continent and expanded the ocean; is located at a favorably international exchange on seaway,
waterway, railway, road and airway. This is a very important premise in the international
tourism expansion and development.
Our country has a stably political regime, with abundant human resources, the smart,
hard-working and hospitable Vietnamese that are important elements to ensure tourism
development.
Vietnam tourism resources enable to develop all three types: Tourism of mountain,
plain and sea.

Overally, Vietnam tourism resources have been not only relatively uniformly
distributed throughout the country, but also concentrated in each cluster near major urban
centers, important transport axes, convenient for organizing exploitation, forming tourism
routes to complement each other between the regions, with the value used for tourism
purposes and a great attraction for tourists.
After peace was restored in the north, due to the reception of domestic and
international delegates, the Government had issued Decree No. 26/CP dated 09/07/1960 on
"Establishment of Vietnam Tourism Company ", directly under the Ministry of Foreign Trade,
with the basic task as to serving the delegations of the Party and Government. On 16/03/1963,
Minister of Foreign Trade had decided to entrust Vietnam Tourism Company with tourism
business to earn foreign currency for the country. This decision had officially marked the birth
of Vietnam tourism industry. Although it was still young compared to many other economic
sectors, Vietnam tourism had gained a proud development, especially since the country
entered the economic innovation. Achievements of Vietnam tourism sector has been shown in
detail in the following aspects:
- Tourists and tourism revenue: The number of guests including international and
domestic ones had increased. As a result, revenue from the tourism industry had also grown

rapidly.
- Diversification of tourism products: In addition to the specifically traditional forms
of tourism such as sightseeing, entertainment, resort, medicinal tourism, historical cultural


tourism, marine tourism, mountainous tourism, etc, a number of new tourism forms are
formed such as adventure, mountaineering, ecological tourism, travel through Vietnam,
Indochina, commercial and duty tourism, etc in which have focused on exploiting the human
values of ethnically cultural richness to make up the unique and attractive tourism products.
- Investment in infrastructure, material and technical facilities for tourism: Along
with rapid growth in the number of international and domestic visitors, tourism infrastructure,
and material and technical facilities have been continuously improved and expanded. Thanks
to the rapid and strong development of the system of airports, seaports, road traffic, it has
created favorable conditions for international visitors to travel in Vietnam.
- Tourism human resources: Together with the rapid increase in tourists, the hotel
room and bed, and other tourism services, labor in tourism industry has developed rapidly in
both quantity and quality. They are largely young. However, the professional qualifications of
employees in the sector are still limited and should be more trained. Network system of
tourism training is being expanded to meet the needs of human resource development for
tourism.
- Socio-economic benefits: Tourism developed has contributed to promoting the socio-
economic development, increased the share of services in total national income; restored
many craft villages, many traditional festivals, etc.
Clearly, tourism is gradually becoming a driving force for developing the areas or
territories throughout the country.

Chapter summary
In summary, natural resources and environment are fundamental factors to create
tourism products. Tourism resources directly affect the territorial organization of the tourism
industry, the specialized formation of tourism areas and economic effect of tourism activities.

The combination of the tourism resources in the territory will be great significance in
combining different types of tourism, routes, and destinations to create unique tourism
products. Tourism activity scale of a region, a country is determined on the basis of tourism
resource mass. Tourism resources also play a decisive role to the seasonality in the tourism
business, rhythm of flow of tourists. Therefore, tourism resources can be assessed as one of
very important factors to decide the tourism area and tourism development of a country.


Besides, infrastructure, technical and material facilities, labor, the political and
economic factors have contributed to tourism development. If one of these factors is lack,
tourism activities can not achieve high efficiency.
Vietnam tourism activities in recent years have gained great achievements. The
number of tourists and revenue is growing over the years.
Thus, in order to more develop Vietnam tourism sector, the State should have incentive
policies to attract investors and focus on building unique tourism products; labor with the
service quality in tourism industry will attract more domestic and foreign tourists.

CHAPTER 2
REAL STATUS OF TOURISM ACTIVITY IN SONLA

2.1. Son La tourism resources
2.1.1. Natural tourism resources
2.1.1.1. Topography
Son La terrain is characterized by the average mountain chains inserted into river
valleys and the plateau surfaces. All mountain ranges, plateaus and river valleys are in the
northwest – southeast direction. The terrain is generally steep and fragmented. Therefore, Son
La is one of the advantageous areas to develop sports- adventure tourism (mountaineering,
cave exploration, etc.) In addition, Son La has Moc Chau Plateau (1,050m) and Na San
plateau (800m) with different ecological conditions that have created unique terrain to Son La
province.

2.1.1.2. Climate: Khí hậu Sơn La vừa mang tính chất nhiệt đới ẩm gió mùa,
vừa chịu ảnh hưởng của gió Lào khô nóng, với hai mùa rõ rệt: mùa mưa bắt đầu từ tháng 5
đến hết tháng 10 và mùa khô từ tháng 11 đến tháng 4 năm sau. Hàng năm, trên lãnh thổ của
tỉnh nhận được lượng bức xạ dồi dào, khoảng 130 – 135kcal/cm
2
. Về chế độ nhiệt, trên phạm
vi toàn tỉnh nhiệt độ trung bình năm là 21
0
C. Về chế độ mưa, lượng mưa trung bình năm của
tỉnh Sơn La là 1200 - 1600mm, có sự phân hóa rõ rệt theo thời gian. Độ ẩm không khí trung
bình năm là 81%.
Sự phân hóa mùa của khí hậu cũng tạo nên tính mùa trong hoạt động du lịch. Thời
gian thích hợp nhất cho các hoạt động du lịch là vào mùa khô. Lúc này thời tiết đẹp và du


khách có thể tận dụng được hầu hết thời gian trong ngày để thăm quan mọi thắng cảnh và
tham gia vào các hoạt động giải trí mà mình ưa thích.
Climate in Son La has both the nature of a tropical monsoon and have been affected
by hot and dry westerly wind, with two distinct seasons: the rainy season starting from May
to October and dry season from November to April of the following years.
Every year, there is an ample amount of radiation, about 130 - 135kcal/cm2 received
in the territory of the province. With regard to the thermal regime, annually average
temperature is 21
0
C in the whole province; As regards precipitation, annually average rainfall
in Son La province is 1200 - 1600mm, with clear differentiation over time. The average
humidity is 81% /year.
The seasonal differentiation also creates seasonality in tourism activities. The most
appropriate time for tourism activities is in the dry season. Now, the weather is fine and
tourists can take advantage of most daytime to go sightseeing and participate in favorite

recreational activities.
2.1.1.3. Hydrology
River systems in Son La are rather dense, outstandingly Da River and Ma River.
Along these rivers, they are the rapids and waterfalls with small height, but we can exploit
these characteristics to develop sport-adventure tourism to overcome the rapids and waterfalls
Mineral water, especially hot mineral water, is considered as the valuable tourism
resources that are being exploited to create attractive tourism products to tourists. Hot mineral
water in Son La is concentrated at the areas such as Mong Village, Hua La Commune (Son La
city), Ngoc Chien Commune (Muong La), Chieng Sai Commune, Chieng Yen (Moc Chau),
Chieng Dong (Yen Chau).
2.1.1.4. Flora and fauna
The flora in Son La has 161 groups, 645 genera and about 1,187 species, including
angiosperms and gymnosperms, tropical, subtropical and temperate plants. Son La has 101
mammal species, in 25 families, of the 8 sets; bird with 347 species, in 47 families, of 17 sets;
reptile with 64 species, in 15 families of two sets; amphibians with 28 species, in 5 families,
of one set. (Source: Department of Agriculture of Son La province in 2009)
In summary, abundant tourism natural resources in Son La will create premises to
boost tourism activities in the province, attract visitors from all parts of the country.


2.1.2. Human tourism resources
Human tourism resources in Son La can be divided into the following groups: The
historical works; contemporary works; the traditionally cultural values; festivals, musical
dance, crafts, food and customs.
2.1.2.1. Monuments
- Son La Prison:
- Le Thai Tong King temple:
- Co Noi Victory Monument:
- Muong Chanh revolutionary base area:
2.1.2.2. Contemporary works: Son La Hydropower

2.1.2.3. The other ontological resources
- Architecture:
- Traditional Crafts
+ Brocade weaving of Thai people:
+ Pottery of Thai people in Muong Chanh commune:
+ Flax planting and fabric weaving ooccupation of the Hmong:
+ Ironwork of the Hmong
2.1.2.4. Festival
- The Ban Flower Festival:
- The Nem Con festival:
- Muong Worship Ceremony:
- The new rice feast festival:
- The Kin Pang Then Festival:
2.1.2.5 Custom


Son La has many unique customs of 12 ethnic groups. In particular, the chignon
custom of the Black Thais and wife dragging custom of the Mongs are the most unique.
2.1.2.6. Other intangible tourism resources
In addition to the types of tangible culture, Son La has the rich potentialities of the
intangible culture such as love market, Xoe dance, bamboo pole dance, Xong chu xon xao
poetry.
In short, tourism resources in Son La are extremely rich and diverse involving natural
tourism resources and human tourism resources, which are favorable conditions for
development of Son La tourism types. However, these resources have not been efficiently and
invested and exploited, so most of these resources do not have a great attraction for tourists.
Thus, Son La should pay more attention to activities to promote the image of local tourism on
the mass media for many tourists inside and outside the country known provincial tourism
potentiality. At the same time, the province should also have policies to attract the investors,
pushing Son La to remarkably develop in the field of tourism and bring revenue to the

province.
2.2. Material and technical facilities of tourism
2.2.1. Accommodation establishments
In recent years, the system of accommodation establishments in Son La province has
had the growth in quantity and quality. Totally, accommodation establishment system in the
province is in the small and medium scale. Only meets the accommodation needs of tourists
at least and does not necessarily sufficient conditions and services, especially to meet the
needs of the foreign tourists. The weaknesses of the material and technical facilities in general
and tourism accommodation facilities in particular have a great influence on the status of local
tourism development. These eventfully cultural activities are capable of attracting tourists and
are a great form of extremely effective advertising for a destination. However, the localities
also need adequate and caring preparations for the facilities and the types of tourism to meet
the maximum demands of tourists, so tourism business is effective. Shortage of the
accommodation facilities results in the majority of tourists to Son La with a daytime trip visit
or short stay. Consequently, they only visit some certain places, their spending is not high,
and the tourism exploitation has not brought the desired economic effect.
2.2.2. Catering establishments


According to statistics, in the province of Son La, in 2011 it has had over 7,000 bases
and enterprises trading in the sectors of tourism, hotels and restaurants, attracting 13,390
workers with an average of 1.9 employees/facility. All business establishments and human
resources mentioned above are directly under local management, so it does not attract the
foreign investment.
2.3. Labour
In recent years, along with the increasing number of visitors, the development of the
material and technical infrastructure systems, etc, labor force in the Son La tourism industry
has developed rapidly in both quantity and quality.
Although the number of tourism workers in Son La province has increased over the
years, the quality of the labor resources are slowly improved.

Recently, Son La province has certain efforts in improving the quality of staff
management and workforce to enhance operational efficiency of the managers and workers to
improve the quality of the tourism products.
Assessment of the status of tourism human resources now has shown that tourism
labor in Son La is short, weak relevant to capacity and not professional; the work force quality
does not meet the requirements and development objectives of the local tourism. To overcome
this situation, the areas need to supplement and improve the quality of labor resources, to
make each attractive and professional tourism product and create the impression for visitors.
2.4. The tourism products
Son La tourism products include sightseeing, ecology, festival, home stay and resting
tourism.
2.4.1. Sightseeing tourism
2.4.2. Festival tourism
2.4.3. Ecotourism
2.4.4. Home-stay Tourism
2.4.5. Resting tourism
2.4.6. Cultural tourism
2.5. Results from the tourism activities
2.5.1 Tourists


2.5.1.1. International tourists
Beginning to attract international tourists since the late 90s of the twentieth century,
Statistics has shown that the number of international visitors to Son La through the years
rapidly increased, but the average number of staying days is not high, over the years, it tends
to be reduced. The number of low staying days means low spending of international tourists
to the area, so tourism business has not been really effective, which is also shown in the
infrastructure, material and technical facilities, the quality of tourism services in the area not
meeting the relatively high requirements of the international tourists.
2.5.1.2. Domestic tourists:

Domestic tourists have accounted for the majority of market share of tourists to Son
La. The number of domestic tourists plays a very important role in raising the total number of
tourists to Son La province on a par with many provinces with developed tourism industry.
The average number of stay of domestic tourists to Son La is generally low. In the period of
2006 - 2011, this indicator has barely budged and only achieved about 1.2 days.
The majority of domestic tourists to Son La have low spending limits, using the
popular services, so the ability to contribute to the total turnover of the industry is limited.
However, if there are the attractive tourism products, in accordance with the needs and
diverse the supporting services will overcome the above limitations. For own potentiality, if
there is proper development plan for high sustainability, Son La tourism will attract more
tourists and make business activities be more effective.
2.5.2. Revenue
Revenue from tourism is the values brought by the tourism activities through
accommodation, meals, transportation and other services (recreation, post office, insurance,
travel consultancy, advertising, shopping, etc.). Thus, tourism revenue depends on the length
of stay, number of tourists, and the diversity of tourism products used.
Recently, along with the development of tourism, the province's tourism revenue has
also increased significantly.
With the number of tourists accounting for only 1,1% of total tourists in the country,
business performance achieved by Son La province is relatively good. Son La has really had
very strong potentiality to bring tourism to further develop. With the turnover as above,
tourism industry has contributed 3,2% to GDP of the provincial service area, although the
number is low, it has gradually asserted the role of investment in developing the fledgling
tourism industry.


Structure of revenues of the Son La tourism is uneven among services:
Accommodation, transport of tourists, travel, food services, sales of goods and other
supporting services. Revenue structure of international and domestic tourists differs markedly.
2.5.2.1 The room occupancy Rate

According to survey results in the accommodation establishments, in 2011, the yearly
average room using rate of the system of accommodation establishments in Son La has gained
80%. However, this survey was only conducted in some large accommodation establishments,
with year-round stay, and collected data in some areas with very difficult infrastructure
conditions was inadequate. In fact, according to the basic data (number of visitors, the average
number of stay, number of rooms, number of beds ) by the Department of Culture, Sport
and Tourism, this capacity has reached 62,3%, if calculated according to the room (each room
with one tourist), even if the bed (all beds stayed by the tourists), it has been only 35,2%.
Thus, the yearly average room using rate in the system of accommodation
establishments in Son La is not really high. In the future, the province should have some
certain development strategies to attract more and more and the number of higher stay.
2.5.2.2. Profit
Tourism revenue of Son La Province in the period of 2006 - 2011 has increased
rapidly over the years. Revenues from Son La tourism services involve accommodation,
transport of passengers, travel, food services, sales of goods and other supporting services.
However, profit from this sector is still low compared to many other localities throughout the
country. Thus, in the next time, Son La should have specific strategies to gain the higher
profit from the tourism activities.
Chapter summary
Son La is a mountainous province with difficultly economic conditions compared to
many provinces, average income per capita is low ( the provincial GDP was only about VND
4,600 billion, Average GDP per capita was just over one sixth of average GDP per capita of
the country (about USD 212 / USD 1,200 of the country – Data in 2009). However, this place
has many great potentialities in tourism resources to develop the types of tourism representing
a type of ecotourism, cultural tourism and resort tourism. In recent years, Son La has
developed certain strategies to attract tourists and investors. However, revenue from tourism
activities in the province is low, namely:
The average number of stay of domestic tourists to Son La is generally low. In the
period of 2006 - 2011, this indicator has barely budged and been only about 1,2 days. As the

number of stay of tourists to Son La is low, so it leads to low spending showing that tourism
business travel is not really effective. Since that, we see that, infrastructure, and material and
technical facilities, the quality of the tourism products in the area are limited and can not meet
the maximum requirements of tourists. As a consequence, prolonged period of
accommodation, at the same time, creating quality of suitable tourism products, in accordance
with the interests of tourists are the problem that Son La tourism industry needs to pay more
attention.
In fact, the tourism potentiality of the Son La in particular and the North West tourism
sub-regions in general is very unique and distinct compared to other tourism areas in the
country. However, this uniqueness has not been effectively exploited by Son La tourism
industry; almost all the tourism destinations that tourists want to visit are in the state “ hidden
beauty”, with monotonous and poor tourism services. In orienting tourism development in the
following years, Son La needs to set out the measures to overcome the difficulties and
existing weaknesses to attract more tourists.

CHAPTER 3
SOME SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
IN SONLA PROVINCE

3.1. Basics for solutions’ proposition
3.1.1. Development orientations of Vietnam tourism sector
Vietnam is a country with many great potentialities in natural tourism resources and
human tourism resources. Therefore, a suitable development orientation is very important to
exploit them effectively. As a result, Vietnam Tourism sector has introduced the orientations
as follows: it should take effect on economics, culture, society and environment as an overall
goal of development; secondly, quality and trade name are the determinants; thirdly, the
enterprise is the leverage for development and fourthly, it should be decentralized in
management and deconcentrated in the space as the motto.
In the next period, the orientation of Vietnam Tourism development has focused on

tourism development towards quality, trade name, professionalism, modernity; mining


optimal resources and national advantage; promoting intersector, inter-region and dynamic
role socialization of the businesses.
3.1.2. Orientation for socio-economic development of Son La province
Son La province is rich of natural and cultural tourism resources, the economic life of
the people still faces many difficulties, income per capita is low, especially when Son La has
built hydropower plant, many households have migrated to new places, so their economic life
has many innumerable difficulties because of the job instability.
Therefore, for the socio-economic development strategy, People's Committee of Son
La Province has oriented development to promote the economic development, improve the
quality of life for local people and transfer concentrative economic structure into the service
sector, namely:
- Stabilizing the life and production life of the resettlement households in the
hydropower projects, ensuring social security, linked to sustainable poverty reduction,
improving the quality of health care, ensuring spiritual and cultural life of the people.
- Tourism development must be linked to the preservation and promotion of nationally
cultural character, preservation of landscape values.
- Development of tourist interest in the benefits of community.
3.2. Some measures to develop tourism in the provinces effectively and stably
3.2.1. Solution on policies
3.2.2. Solutions to tourism space development
3.2.3. Solutions to develop tourism products
3.2.4. Solutions to training, human resource development and improving the
community capacity
3.2.5. Solution to protect the environment and ensure sustainable tourism
development
3.2.6. Solutions to tourism promotion and development
Chapter summary

Starting from the goal of socio-economic development by the Son La provincial
People‟s Committee is to promote tourism development in order to promote the traditional
cultural values, the cultural historical monuments, contributing to economic restructuring
transfer, raising the awareness, creating jobs, reducing poverty, expanding foreign relations
and international cooperation, strengthening cultural exchanges, establishing the cultural
relationships with the surrounding localities and the whole country. Therefore, it must have
the appropriate solutions to help Son La exploit the potentialities of natural conditions and
natural resources for tourism development. The author has proposed some solutions: Solution
to policy mechanism, tourism space development; tourism product development, training,
human resource development and raising community capacity, environmental protection,
ensuring sustainable tourism development; solutions to the market, promotion, tourism
development; solution to policy mechanism. These solutions aim to make Son La tourism
have better conditions for development, contributing to increasing the income for the people.
In the process of implementation organization, it must coordinate among the solutions
rhythmically and synchronously, no solution taken lightly. Deploying Son La tourism
development, therefore, has reached its full effectiveness.
CONCLUSION

The theme "Tourism development in Son La province" has significance in theory and practice. The
theme has summarized the argumentative problems about the tourism development as a basis
for research, analysis, evaluation and setting out the own directions, and solutions for local
tourism development. Following the research results achieved based on the theme; the author
has the following conclusions:
1. Son La as a center of economics, politics, culture and society of the northwest tourism sub-region,
now, has become an ideal destination for tourists at home and abroad, in which the Moc Chau
plateau has become the well-known famous tourism brand.
The biggest advantage for tourism development in Son La is the very diverse and rich tourism
resources, can develop many different types of tourism. Son La has possessed many beautiful

natural landscapes like Dai Yem waterfall, bat cave, Chi Day cave and Ngu Dong in the On
village. The historical cultural tourism destinations involve Son La prison, Son La museum
and Le Thai Tong King temple. Festival tourism in Son La includes the new rice celebration,
Xen ban Xen muong festival, boat racing festival and the Kin Pang Then festival. Son La, as a
province with convenient traffic conditions, is one of the tourist welcoming places throughout
the country, especially the tours from Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang,etc. Investing in the exploitation


of tourism potentialities will contribute significantly to the socio - economic development of
the province.
Although the system of infrastructure and material and technical facilities for tourism in Son La
have existed many weaknesses, and still not met the tourism development requirements, they
has been interested in and invested in upgrading and building with many feasibly big projects,
creating new advantages for tourism development in the area.
2. In recent years, tourism activities in Son La province have developed well, tourists to the province
have increased. The systems of tourism service, accommodation establishments, hotels and
restaurants have developed rapidly. However, the synthetic exploitation of the advantages to
develop tourism in Son La has not really achieved economic efficiency. The programs, tours,
tourism products at the points, lines, tourism clusters are very monotonous, so tourists usually
focus on visiting only the destinations in the city of Son La, Moc Chau Plateau with short
staying time and rare return. In order to contribute to tourism development in Son La in the
following years and ensure Son La rational and effective tourism planning, integrated
assessment of the potentiality, operational situation of Son La tourism in the past time is the
necessary tasks.
3. Based on the reality of Son La tourism operational efficiency in recent years, the author has
identified tourism space in order to link the points, clusters and routes to build the programs,
products, tours more efficiently.
4 In order to exploit the potentialities for tourism development in the Son La province and overcome
the existing weaknesses, the author has proposed some solutions. The solutions are
synchronous, including: Human resource training and development; tourism space

development; tourism product development; enhancing community capacity, environmental
protection to ensure the sustainable tourism development; solutions to the market, promotion,
tourism development promotion; Solutions to policy mechanism. Among these solutions, the
solution to human resource training and development is the most significant for tourism
development, rational exploitation of natural resources.
5. In addition to these findings, the thesis should be supplemented because the sources
and data are not synchronized and not updated to the time of the study. Many judgments,
therefore, are the subjectivity of the author.