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Visitors to Phong Nha – Ke Bang.
Nhan Dan- Although Phong Nha – Ke Bang
has been recognised as world natural heritage but to date,
the authorities of Quang Binh, where the site is located,
have not yet found a way for tourism development. Even an
official website on the heritage has not yet set up.
Since being
recognised as a world natural heritage, Quang Binh has made
efforts in preserving and restoring the site for the tourism
development. However, there are still problems.
Promotion of
advantages
The administration
has been successful in protecting the natural resource by
educating people living in the area to stop destroying the
forest or hunting. Around 56,000 people living in the
surrounding area of the Phong Nha – Ke Bang national park,
60% of which lived in poverty.
With investment from
at home and abroad, a project to preserve Phong Nha – Ke
Bang national park was set up. More attention has been paid
to tourism development. Dozen of billions of Vietnamese dong
has been invested to upgrade infrastructure and facilities
of the Phong Nha- Ke Bang Cave tourism centre to attract
more visitors. More than 300 tourist boats can meet the
demand of thousands of visitors per day.
A local man Nguyen
Van Son said “Since Phong Nha – Ke Bang has been recognised
as world natural heritage, thousands of people in the
commune and surrounding areas quit their forestry job to
work in tourism service, thus having stable income.”
Over the past five
years, Phong Nha - Ke Bang national park has welcomed 1.4
million of visitors, making up 50% of the total visitors to
the province. Of which, 33,000 people have come from Asian,
European and North American countries.
In the coming time,
Quang Binh will open more tours such as ecological tourism
and adventure tourism in the Phong Nha – Ke Bang Park to
lure more visitors.
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Phong Nha -
Ke Bang national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site
is located in the Bo Trach and Minh Ha districts of
central Quang Binh province, in north-central
Vietnam, about 500 km south of Hanoi capital. The
core zone of this national park covers 85,754
hectares and a buffer zone of 195,400 ha.
Phong Nha-Ke
Bang area is noted for its cave and grotto systems
as it is composed of 300 caves and grottos with a
total length of about 70 km.
Phong Nha
holds several world cave records, as it has the
longest underground river, as well as the largest
caverns and passageways.
The park
derives it name from Phong Nha cave, the most
beautiful of all, containing many fascinating rock
formations, and Ke Bang forest.
This
national park was listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage
Sites in 2003 for its geographical values as defined
in its criteria. |
Problems
Apart from results,
limited budget leads to poor infrastructure. To date, no
official website has been set up to popularise information.
Tour guides in the region are not professional.
Entertainment facilities are still of poor quality.
Therefore, not many visitors want to stay for a long time in
the area.
A strategy for
development of tourism in the area has not yet been set up
and the authorities could not attract projects of investment
for the area. Only one project which had an investment of
VND 300 billion from the Urban Civilisation Development
Company, CIVIDEC, started in 2004. However, to date, only
one item of the project has now been completed.
Vice chairman of the
Quang Binh People’s Committee Pham Thi Bich Lua said it’s
due to the lack of fund, so a master plan for Phong Nha – Ke
Bang National Park has yet to be set up. Therefore,
investors are hesitant in carrying out their project.
By Thanh Chau |
