On October 19, the Department of Tourism and the Department of Culture and Sports of Binh Dinh province jointly organized the seminar entitled "Developing tourism products in ethnic minority and mountainous areas". The seminar was a tourism promotion activity aimed at preserving and promoting traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities in association with tourism development in the province.

The event was attended by representatives of relevant departments, agencies, mountainous districts of Binh Dinh, Binh Dinh Tourism Association, representatives of businesses and tourism business cooperatives in Binh Dinh province and a number of OCOP product manufacturing establishments, homestay establishments in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the districts of An Lao, Hoai An, Vinh Thanh, Van Canh, and Tay Son.

At the seminar, the Department of Culture and Sports and the Department of Tourism coordinated with departments, branches, and people's committees of An Lao, Hoai An, Tay Son, Vinh Thanh, and Van Canh districts to discuss the implementation of Project 6: "Preserving and promoting traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development" under the National Target Program for socio-economic development of ethnic minority areas and mountainous areas of Binh Dinh province in the period of 2021 - 2030.

From 2021 to July 31, 2023, Binh Dinh attracted 17 tourism projects with a total investment capital of about 49,747 billion VND. Particularly, the province lured 9 projects with a total investment capital of about 39,540 billion in 2021; 5 projects with a total investment capital of about 4,918 billion VND in 2022; 3 projects with a total investment capital of about 5,289 billion VND in the first half of 2023. However, the province could not call for investment in tourism projects in the districts of An Lao, Vinh Thanh, Van Canh, Hoai An and Tay Son.

Notably, the implementation of State-invested projects still faces many difficulties and obstacles, not suitable to the actual needs at the grassroots level. Therefore, it requires the involvement of agencies at all levels, branches and localities, timely adjustments to preserve and promote traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas in the province associated with successful tourism development.

Local officials, experts and researchers also exchanged and discussed the current status of the tasks of preservation and promotion of the cultural values of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development in Binh Dinh. From there, they made assessments on the potential for sustainable tourism development associated with preserving and promoting cultural values in the province, proposed tourism products, recommended policy mechanisms to promote diversification of tourism products, with a focus on cultural tourism and community tourism.

Binh Dinh has three mountainous districts of An Lao, Vinh Thanh and Van Canh. In addition, Tay Son and Hoai An districts have three mountainous communes which are home to ethnic minorities and Phu Cat district has one mountainous commune with ethnic minorities.

The whole province has 33 mountainous communes and towns that are home to 39 ethnic minorities with more than 41,000 people, accounting for more than 2% of the province's population. Among the 39 ethnic minorities, the Bana, Cham H'roi and H're ethnic groups are the largest, who live in 33 communes and towns in the 6 districts of An Lao, Vinh Thanh, Van Canh, Hoai An, Tay Son, and Phu Cat.

Khanh Vy