Being one of five communes in the buffer zone of Xuan Thuy National Park, Giao Xuan has all characteristics of the region with a long coastal line, mangrove forests, large alluvial ground for aquaculture, mild climate, and hospitable people, and the unique culture of Red River delta. All these characteristics give Giao Xuan striking advantages to become a pilot site for development of the community-based ecotourism.
Taking these advantages, over the past years,
Xuan
Thuy
National Park has coordinated with many non-governmental organizations such as Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD), SJV Solidarités Jeunesses
Vietnam (SJ Vietnam), Volunteers for Peace Vietnam (VPV), the local government, and people to develop the community-based ecotourism. General awareness of local people about conservation and protection of the national park’s resources, the wetland ecosystem and the culture of their native land has also been improved. As attractive points of this tourism model one can consider the unique architecture of Boi houses, specific characteristics of the
Red River coastal area, the open-land culture, beautiful landscape, and wonderful traditional operetta (Cheo) tunes performed by “farmer artists”.
Fish sauce production, a visit site of the
Community-based tourism in Giao Xuan commune
Piloting tours were started in the middle of 2006, and the first visitors were often tourism agencies and researchers; gradually, the number of tourists who work in different fields has increased remarkably.
However, an adequate development of the community-based tourismsector in Xuan Thuy still meets certain difficulties. Firstly, this is a relatively new tourism model in
Vietnam. Secondly, the transportation condition to the national park is not sufficient and takes a lot of visitors’ time on the road. Besides that, tourism facilities and services are under the construction, thus failing to meet tourists’ demands. Especially, attractive destinations and other tourism activities such as visiting mangrove forests and watching birds have not been exploited.
Therefore,
Xuan
Thuy
National Park calls for supports of organizations to complete and expand the model of Giao Xuan community-based ecotourism to the whole region of Xuan Thuy, a Ramsar site and part of the world biosphere Red River Reserve’s core zone.
Tran Thi Trang
Vietnamese
Tiếng Anh
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