Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [376]
Environmental issues |
Sustainable tourism
There’s a growing awareness among tourists and travel companies of the negative impact tourism can have on the environment and local culture – the very things most people come to see. All too often the terms eco-tourism and sustainable tourism are reduced to mere marketing gimmicks, but behind them lies a serious desire, albeit ambitious, to find a new model of small-scale tourism that contributes to the long-term development of the local community without destroying its traditional social and economic structures or the often fragile environment.
Mass tourism didn’t really get going in Vietnam until the mid-1990s. From just ten thousand in 1993, the number of foreign visitors (including business trips) topped four million in 2008, while the number of domestic holidaymakers currently stands at around fifteen million, and is growing even faster. Not surprisingly, the Vietnamese government is eager to promote tourism as a key revenue-earner and is gradually easing visa regulations, among other things, in the hope of attracting more foreign visitors. This sudden influx of sightseers, coupled with a lack of effective planning or control, is putting pressure on some of the country’s most famous beauty spots.
In response, the government has gradually introduced a number of laws and initiatives placing greater emphasis on the conservation of the nation’s natural – and cultural – heritage. Local authorities in Hoi An have banned cars from the centre and put a block on further hotel construction in addition to introducing restrictive pricing to control the flow of tourists. Some of this revenue is being ploughed back into improving the townscape – for example, renovating the old houses, hiding television aerials and burying cables. In Ha Long Bay, the problems of notoriously haphazard hotel development are exacerbated by pollution from tourist boats, fish farms and nearby coalfields, and by the presence of a major port. Concern over the future of this World Heritage Site, however, means that the issues are at least being discussed, and various measures, such as more effective management of the caves, have been put in place. One or two more remote islands are also being developed as eco-tourism destinations.
Perhaps the key areas, however, are the uplands of north and central Vietnam. These are increasingly popular destinations, both for their outstanding natural beauty and their communities of ethnic minority people. In the honey-pot market town of Sa Pa, for example, the number of hotels and guesthouses has mushroomed over the last decade – from none before 1991 to 150 in 2009 – and the famous weekend market attracts more tourists than minority people. Some of these people, disturbed by the unwanted attention and intrusive cameras, now shy away from Sa Pa completely, in favour of more inaccessible markets. Naturally, the tourists have also started to look elsewhere, seeking out ever more remote villages. Most of the “minority crafts” on sale are actually shipped up from Hanoi and, though they are the major attraction, the minority people themselves receive very little economic benefit from tourism; most goes to Kinh Vietnamese or foreign travel companies. There are even signs of an emerging sex industry in Sa Pa and the beginnings of both child prostitution and drug-related crime.
Sa Pa’s superb setting and trekking opportunities will continue to make it a popular destination, and it’s likely that the surrounding area will be developed further. The challenge is how to achieve this in a way that contributes to the long-term development of the local community while also preserving