The northern mountainous province of Cao Bang has many special elements of culture, history, and landscape to develop tourism products with high economic value. The province is making efforts to advertise and promote its potential to attract tourists to the 'wonderland'.

The tourism promotion program entitled "Non Nuoc Cao Bang – the Wonderland" took place on December 8, as one of 13 activities within the framework of the Non Nuoc Cao Bang Tourism Festival, which was held on December 8-10 at Hoan Kiem Walking Street, Hanoi.

Great potential, modest investment

At the event, Mr. Hoang Xuan Anh, Chairman of the Cao Bang Provincial People's Committee, said that Cao Bang, 300km from Hanoi, is a disadvantaged province in terms of economic and social infrastructure. It has high rates of poor households and ethnic minorities, who account for up to 95% of its population, the highest rate compare to other provinces in Vietnam.

However, Cao Bang has special potential for tourism, with a history of more than 500 years and over 200 historical-cultural relics and scenic spots, 2 national treasures, and 7 cultural heritages at national level.

The province is home to famous landscapes, such as Non nuoc Cao Bang UNESCO Global Geopark, Ban Gioc waterfall, Nguom Ngao cave, Mountain God's Eye (Thong Khanh district), Thang Hen lake complex (Quang Hoa district) with an underground cave system of high value along with outstanding ecological values and many rare species. These are potential "treasures" for Cao Bang to develop various types of tourism.

Cao Bang recently focuses on typicial tourism products, for example historical, spiritual, cultural tourism, festivals, and indigenous cultural experiences; Sightseeing, research, exploration of caves, geological tourism; community-based tourism, agricultural ecology; mountain resort tourism; cross-border travel and night tourism.

Thanks to efforts in product development, tourism promotion and investment, the province's tourism industry marked significant achievements in the 2020-2023 period. The total number of visitors is estimated at over 4 million (135% of the set target), including 63,900 international visitors (21.3% of the target), over 3.9 million of domestic visitors (147% of target). Total tourism revenue is estimated at 2,400 billion VND.

However, Mr. Hoang Xuan Anh admitted that Cao Bang's investment resources for tourism are still modest and the province has not attracted strategic investors yet; tourism promotion work is still weak, incomprehensive, so many tourists do not know about Cao Bang.

Mr. Vi Tran Thuy, Deputy Director of Non Nuoc Cao Bang UNESCO Global Geopark, said that, although the quality of tourists and the number of tourists have begun to increase (previously tourists usually came to Cao Bang on holidays and weekends), but the current number of tourists and the revenue from tourism activities are still modest. Some businesses are interested in and investing in Cao Bang tourism, but most of them are business households. Tourism products are not yet diverse.

Cao Bang to develop sustainable tourism

Cao Bang has many favourable factors to form and develop a number of tourism products with high economic value such as cultural tourism associated with heritage, festivals, craft village tourism, community-based tourism, ecology combined with resort tourism.

In particular, the Ban Gioc (Vietnam) - Detian (China) waterfall landscape area, after the pilot implementation period (by the end of 2024), will operate officially to become a model tourist area on border tourism, green and sustainable tourism.

As the initiator and implementer of many sustainable tourism development projects at the UNESCO Non Nuoc Cao Bang Global Geopark, Mr. Vi Tran Thuy clearly sees the benefits from this direction.

He cited that in the handmade paper making village, people know how to make fans to sell them to tourists for 25,000 VND/piece and to export. In the tile making village of Lung Ri in Tu Do commune, Quang Hoa district, people used to sell tiles for 2,000 VND/unit, but now they sell tiles as souvenirs for up to 25,000-50,000 VND/unit.

According to Mr. Vi Tran Thuy, in addition to the value of goods that bring income to people, craft villages are also "living museums" of cultural traditions and history, where are home to secrets, lifestyle and customs associated with space and geography of unique and distinct values - an invaluable resource for developing cultural tourism.

To further attract tourists to the "wonderland", Cao Bang province requested that the Central Government prioritize allocating budget resources for investment in key infrastructure projects, national monuments, and major tourist attractions...

The province also wishes to host the 8th Network Geopark Conference of Asia – Pacific in September-October 2024. In addition, it asked for the government’s assistance for implementing large-scale tourism promotion activities domestically and internationally. In particular, Cao Bang are willing to welcome investors and businesses to survey and invest in infrastructure and tourism services; jointly promote and build unique tours and tourism products to attract tourists.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong asked the province to focus on promoting and renewing tourism products, programs, routes and tourist attractions and design quality tourism stimulus packages that are competitive compared to other destinations.

Deputy Minister Dong noted that in terms of tourism promotion, Cao Bang province should take tourism products associated with the title of UNESCO Non Nuoc Cao Bang Global Geopark as the key products to build a communication strategy.

Regarding digital transformation, it is necessary to improve the effectiveness of technology application in tourism management and cooperation. He also emphasized that attracting investment, developing transport infrastructure and facilities in key tourist areas and destinations, community-based tourism and connecting tourist destinations is the key task of Cao Bang’s tourism sector in the coming time.