TTLV: Developing craft village tourism in Ben Tre

MASTER'S THESIS INFORMATION

1. Student's full name: Vo Thi Ngoc Giau 2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: February 25, 1986

4. Place of birth: Tien Giang

5. Decision on recognition of students No: 2123/2011/QD-XHNV-SDH. Date: November 1, 2011 of the President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

6. Changes in training process: Extend training period from 2 years to 3 years

7. Thesis topic name:“Developing craft village tourism in Ben Tre”

8. Major: Tourism Code: (Pilot training program)

9. Scientific advisor: Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Van Anh

10. Summary of thesis results:

The thesis has systematized the theoretical basis of tourism, craft villages and craft village tourism, pointed out the importance of craft village tourism and the conditions to become a tourist craft village. The author has briefly outlined the situation of craft village tourism in Vietnam and referred to the experience of developing craft village tourism in some countries such as Japan, Thailand, India.

The natural, economic and social conditions in Ben Tre have created favorable conditions for Ben Tre tourism to develop. Ben Tre has a rich and diverse number of craft villages with many traditional craft villages, especially those with the potential to develop tourism such as Son Doc rice paper, Son Chau ornamental flower village, etc. The province has great potential to develop craft village tourism. However, the current situation of craft village tourism development in the province still has many issues of concern such as: craft village tourism products have reasonable prices but the quality and design are not highly appreciated; although the infrastructure has been upgraded and expanded, it still does not meet the transportation needs of tourists; the environment in general has not been seriously affected, but some craft villages are negatively affecting the environment; the human resources basically meet the production needs, but there is still a lack of experienced and highly skilled artisans; there are many development policies but many production households still lack investment capital; promotion and advertising work has not been widely disseminated; Tourists coming to craft villages are still few.

To develop craft village tourism in Ben Tre, the author has proposed a number of solutions such as: solutions on infrastructure and technical facilities; solutions on environment; solutions on human resource training, improving product quality; solutions on policies; solutions on market, promoting craft villages associated with tourism; solutions on tourism planning, linking and building tourist routes and destinations associated with craft villages; solutions on exploiting craft village services, diversifying craft village tourism services. In addition, the author also made a number of recommendations to relevant departments, agencies and units.

11. Practical application:

The thesis studies the potential and current status of craft village tourism development in Ben Tre, thereby proposing solutions to contribute to the effective development of craft village tourism here.

INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS

1. Full name: Vo Thi Ngoc Giau 2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: February 25, 1986 4. Place of birth: Tien Giang

5. Admission decision number: 2123/2011/QD-XHNV-SDH. Dated: November 1, 2011 of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University of Hanoi

6. Changes in academic process: Extend the training period from 2 years to 3 years course

7. Official thesis title:“Development of village tourism in Ben Tre”

8. Major: Tourism; 9. Code: (Experiment training program)

10. Supervisors: Professor Tran Van Anh

11. Summary of the findings of the thesis:

This thesis has codified the basis of tourism; village and village tourism raised the importance of village tourism and conditions to become a tourist village. The author briefly outlines the situation of village tourism in Vietnam and referred to the experience to develop village tourism in several countries such as Japan, Thailand, and India.

The natural, economic and social conditions in Ben Tre have facilitated the development of tourism in Ben Tre. Ben Tre where there are a number of rich and diverse villages with many traditional villages, especially the villages are likely to develop tourism such as Son Doc Glutinous Rice Chupatty village, Son Chau flower village, ... The province has an abundance of potential to develop village tourism. However, the real situation to develop village tourism of the province still has many problems to concern such as products of village tourism have reasonable price but the quality and designs are not appreciated; Although the infrastructure has been upgraded and expanded, it did not meet the transportation needs of tourists; environment generally has not been seriously affected but some villages are bad impacts on the environment; human resources meet basically the needs of production, but there are still lack of experienced artisans with high qualification; Although there are many developmental policies, many producers are still lacking of invested capital; the advertising has not been disseminated; there are fewer tourists to the village.

To develop village tourism in Ben Tre, the authors have proposed a number of solutions including to infrastructure and technical facilities; environmental solutions; solutions to train human resources, improve product quality; policy solutions; solutions to market, advertise tourism village; solutions to travel planning, link and build routes, destinations associated with the village; solutions to exploit village services, diversify tourism village. Besides, the author also provides some recommendations to the departments and units concerned.

12. Practical applicability, if any:

This thesis researches in potential and the situation developing village tourism in Ben Tre, which offers solutions to help development of village tourism effectively.