Sustainable eco-tourism branched out in Quang Nam province

With support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), an agricultural cooperative offering tourism services was founded in the village with the participation of 25 local households.

Thanks to ILO and UNESCO training, locals’ daily activities such as gardening, fishing and farming now double up as tourism products for holiday-makers.

Visitors can see raw countryside as well as enjoy a local family atmosphere when staying in a local homestay in Triem Tay village. Along with making upgrades to farms and roads, local farmers also invested in repairing their houses to welcome tourists.

More than 3,000 visitors have arrived in Triem Tay tourism village in the first six months since tourism services were launched in the locality in September, 2015. The locality raked in nearly VND300 million (US$13,461) from tourism.

According to Le Van Thanh, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, sustainable tourism in Triem Tay village has improved livelihoods while ensuring sustainable use of cultural and environmental resources.

He highlighted that responsible and sustainable tourism should be integrated with public tourism, eco-tourism, farm tourism and craft tourism to encourage public involvement in preserving culture and the environment.

In his visit to Triem Tay, Cornelius Gregg, Skills Technical Specialist from ILO, said that to increase tourism revenue the village should enhance the capacity of tourism service providers, raise public awareness of sustainable tourism and develop more tourism products.

Tourism must preserve culture, which helps local people preserve the village’s identity during development, he said.