First education-community sustainable tourism deals inked in central Việt Nam

Members of community-based tourism cooperatives from Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi and Đà Nẵng join the signing ceremony on sustainable tourism, education and scientific researches and the University of Science and Education-Đà Nẵng University. Photo courtesy of Đà Nẵng University of Science and Education

ĐÀ NẴNG — Cooperation deals for sustainable tourism, education and scientific researches have been inked by community-based tourism co-operatives in Hội An, Quảng Ngãi and Đà Nẵng and the centre of students support and business relations, under the University of Science and Education-Đà Nẵng University.

These deals will help boost biodiversity conservation, enhance community-based sustainable tourism, research and traditional cultural preservation, while improving community capability in natural resources management and local values.

It’s also a positive progress step in partnerships between the university and communities including Kim Bồng carpentry community-based tourism and experience Group in Hội An, Hòa Bắc communal eco-tour and farming cooperative in Đà Nẵng City, the Sa Huỳnh traditional salt production and tourism and Bàu Cá Cái wetland forest tourism group in Quảng Ngãi Province.

Students from Đà Nẵng University visit farmers in Nam Yên village of Hòa Bắc commune for a field study and education experience course. VNS Photo Công Thành

The community-based tourism sites will be used as field study locations for scientific researchers and students from the university, while the centre will see business partners and investors for promoting community-based tourism at a local level.

Natural conservation programmes and researches initiated by the university will help improve basic knowledge and nature management and protection capacity for local communities through scientific studies.

It’s the first ever sustainable development and nature conservation cooperation programme between an university and community in central Việt Nam.

The University of Science and Education has provided courses for thousands of students to help explore natural heritage, from rural mountainous to coastal areas in central Việt Nam, as well as offshore islands, since 2014.

School children study salt making at Sa Huỳnh salt field in Đức Phổ Town of Quảng Ngãi Province. The salt field has become a favourite community-based tour site and an education experience. Photo courtesy of SAHU

Lecturers at the university have helped produce healthy products made from spirulina, a type of blue-green algae, in a joint-venture with the Vạn Tường high-tech agricultural cooperative in Quảng Ngãi Province and in boosting organic salt production as an OCOP (One-Commune One-Product) – a sustainable tourism brand – off the coast of Sa Huỳnh.

Visitors take a boat travel in Bàu Cá Cái wetland forest in Bình Sơn district of Quảng Ngãi Province. The site has developed community-based tourism as a sustainable solution to boost nature conservation. Photo courtesy of Trần Lan Anh

The field education programme, initiated by the university, has been working with villages of An Định, Lộc Mỹ, Tà Lang and Giàn Bí, Yên Retreat in create a complex of crafts, farm tours and community education in Hòa Bắc commune, a rural area in Đà Nẵng City.

Kim Bồng carpentry village in Hội An has been listed as an education and traditional craft experience tours in field education programmes at the university. VNS