Coastal roads create opportunities for the tourism industry. Photo: Nguyen Phong
Having the right perspective on the challenge
Traffic is one of three main areas of tourism, including travel, stay and transport. Traffic is "the rope" connecting all the activities of tourism. Like other economic sectors, convenient transportation is "a lever" for tourism to develop. Despite the attractiveness of one destination, if the transportation system is unfavorable and the connection is not good, there would be difficulties in attracting customers.
According to tourism professionals, among the six developmental stages of a destination life cycle, the first prioritized investment factor once the destination has been determined to be developed is the transport infrastructure. Therefore, it is easy to see the importance and role of traffic in destination development. There is a necessity to have a strategy and a worthy investment for traffic to promote the connectivity role.
At the recent conference named "Recovering and developing Hue tourism in a new normal state,", experts also pointed out that many of Hue's destinations are very beautiful, and the visitors really enjoyed them much, especially international ones; however, due to the inconvenient traffic, these places lose their attractions. The most specific example is the cluster of historical sites -Tiger Arena and the Temple of Trumpeting Elephants (the only remaining animal arena in Southeast Asia); cars can not move in, so the fact that visitors have to walk a few kilometers to visit is infeasible.
When it comes to Hue's current overall traffic infrastructure, leaders in the tourism sector firmly stated that there is a lack of infrastructure and technological facilities in several tourist attractions, which hasn't met the development demand.
If there is a proper investment, the infrastructure will promote Hue tourism to grow better.
According to the leaders of the Department of Tourism, the beaches in Hue are as clean and beautiful as those that are well exploited in the Central region. Still, the inconvenient traffic connection is the reason why the sea tourism development in Hue is not really suitable to its potential.
According to Mr. Le Huu Minh, Acting Director of the Department of Tourism, when the traffic is not favorable, it will be a hindrance; on the contrary, if it is advantageous, it will become the driving force for the development of Hue tourism industry. Being identified as the obstacle, therefore, transport infrastructure development is an essential solution for the tourism industry in the coming time.
A challenge becoming a motivation
Mr. Phan Ngoc Tho, Chairman of the People's Committee, affirmed that Thua Thien Hue aims to bring the tourism industry to become a spearhead economic sector, being a great tourist center of the whole country and the area during the construction progress of Hue to become a centrally-managed city. In the "bottlenecks" that must be removed, the transport infrastructure is the sector to be prioritized by the province for deploying the basic infrastructure synchronously to be ready for the future.
According to the head of the Provincial People's Committee, in the next five years, the coastal road connecting North-South will be constructed, of which Thua Thien Hue has a scale of about 270km . A large bridge with a length of about 1.5 km from Hai Duong (Huong Tra) to Thuan An (Phu Vang) will be constructed. This is an important highlight, connecting the coastal route from Phong Dien to Chan May - Lang Co Economic Zone, which is the motivation to develop marine economy and tourism economy priority.
Along with that, marine tourism cities will be formed, creating a great potential for tourism and marine ecological urban development in the near future.
Hue's largest "knot," which is the airway, is gradually removed. In addition to the terminal with 5 million passengers per year being constructed, the government has approved Thua Thien Hue to build more cargo terminals, extending the takeoff and landing runway. When the airport items are completed, it is expected that an international airport with a scale of 9 million passengers/year will promote the role of connecting and developing a key tourism economy.
Mr. Le Huu Minh informed that many infrastructures, technical tourism are on the way to be deployed, such as upgrading, expanding, and connecting roads to access tourist destinations such as the Phu My - Thuan An section (Tu Duc - Thuan An street); the projects on Tuy Loan - La Son, Cam Lo - La Son expressways; the remaining steps of Hai Van 2 road tunnel project has been being urgently completed to put into operation soon.
Besides, tourism infrastructure items on policies to support community tourism development in the locality will be deployed; fixed traffic points in Hue city to serve tourism are being invested with priority given to parking spots on Pham Ngu Lao, Chu Van An, Vo Thi Sau streets, etc.
Mr. Tran Trong Kien, Chairman of the National Tourism Advisory Council, said that the information on Hue's investment and development of transport infrastructure would be the premise for attracting the most prominent investors, especially in the tourism field. Destinations with good facilities and convenient traffic connections would attract investment much more than places that haven't had these yet, since investors always balance and analyze the time to take back the capital and make a profit.
With the projects being invested at "a century level", it is expected to have a new development stage for Hue's smokeless industry in the very near future.
Story and photos: Quang Sang