Page 446 - Ebook HTKH 2024

this is also a locality with great potential for tourism development. The province has
many nature reserves, resistance bases and historical - cultural relics, and a developed
agriculture (famous for rice and lotus). Dong Thap province is interested in developing
green and sustainable tourism, especially focusing on developing tourism associated
with agriculture and rural areas. Many positive solutions have been implemented by

Dong Thap such as developing community tourism; tourism associated with nature,
environmentally friendly; agricultural tourism associated with flower villages (Sa Dec),
lotus fields (Thap Muoi); eco-tourism in Tram Chim National Park (Tam Nong),... Dong
Thap is also one of the leading localities in launching a program to reduce plastic waste
in tourism activities. Tourist service establishments have used glass bottles with the lotus
symbol of Dong Thap tourism and many other items made of environmentally friendly
materials to replace plastic bags. Dong Thap’s efforts to build its image as a green,
environmentally friendly destination have made a good impression on tourists.

However, climate change is a common challenge for the Mekong Delta provinces and
Dong Thap in their efforts to develop green tourism.
4. Existential issues
Although Vietnam's tourism has achieved encouraging developments in recent
times, contributing positively to the socio-economic development of Vietnam,
especially in the trend of developing a green economy in Vietnam. However, there are
still many limitations and shortcomings. Some issues raised are:
a) The tourism development policy system in Vietnam is relatively complete,

however, there are no specific policies on green tourism development, especially
policies on green investment, green tourism product development, policies to encourage
and support businesses and communities to transform green tourism business models,
etc.
b) The concretization of policies and implementation of policies on green and
sustainable tourism development at both the industry and local levels still have many
limitations. Currently, the tourism industry has not yet developed an action plan or

action program on green and sustainable tourism development.
c) Green tourism development in Vietnam is not really unified and clear in both
theory and practice, both at the central and local levels. The tourism industry has not yet
developed a set of criteria (scale) to evaluate green tourism or develop tourism in the
direction of green growth, and there is no basis or regulation to recognize green tourism
destinations, green tourism businesses, and green tourism products.

d) The current status of Vietnam's tourism development from 2011 to present,
although experiencing many ups and downs due to the impact of subjective and
objective factors, has still achieved a fairly high growth rate in terms of the number of
visitors, total tourism revenue, and tourism's contribution to the GDP of the economy.
However, tourism growth in recent times has mainly focused on quantity, without
qualitative growth, and has not applied modern growth models such as green growth and
circular economy in the tourism sector. The growth process has given rise to many
consequences, causing certain pressure on resources and the environment.

e) The process of tourism development in Vietnam also raises many issues in
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