Troubleshooting mechanisms to develop tourism in Tri An Lake

​Recently, Vinh Cuu district People's Committee has coordinated with relevant units to dismantle and enforce illegal tourist sites in the area along Tri An lake (Vinh Cuu district).

A camping tourist site along Tri An lake at Ma Da commune, Vinh Cuu district

However, developing forest and lake ecotourism is the development orientation of Vinh Cuu district and the practical needs of local people. Tourism establishments at the area along Tri An lake mainly invest in tents and temporary camps with little construction. Accordingly, people hope to be guided in investment and development of tourism models that both ensure the management and contribute to the socio-economic development of the locality.

Legitimate needs of the people

In the past few years, especially after the Covid-19 epidemic, localities such as Ma Da, Hieu Liem and Phu Ly communes (Vinh Cuu district) have strongly developed homestay tourism, camping tourism... along Tri An lake.

The above spontaneous eco-tourism sites have violated illegal construction, encroached on the bed of Tri An lake ... This is the reason why the People's Committee of Vinh Cuu district has organized the dismantling of spontaneous tourist facilities, operating illegally at the area along Tri An lake. According to the report of Vinh Cuu district People's Committee, through the review, the communes of Ma Da, Hieu Liem and Phu Ly have 52 spontaneous tourism establishments. The locality has handled 38 cases, of which 23 have been dismantled, the remaining cases will continue to be handled in the near future.

Accordingly, dozens of households doing spontaneous camping along Tri An lake at Ma Da commune have petitioned local departments and agencies to request the creation of conditions and instructions for people to develop the model on camping tourism to increase family income.

According to the petition, before exploiting lakeside camping tourism, most families had their main income from harvesting some fruit trees but their income was very low and erratic. Facing the tourism demands of tourism from everywhere flocking to Tri An Lake, the lakeside households have taken advantage to exploit tourism for high income, contributing to stabilizing the family economy. However, due to the lack of knowledge of the law and the lack of strict management from the locality, the households violated when exploiting tourism in the lakeside area, leading to a series of violating works being forced to dismantled recently. Facing these difficulties, households are waiting for the authorities to soon consider and guide people to effectively exploit tourism products to continue to stabilize their lives.

Mr. Than Van Linh, Director of Tri An Adventure Travel Experience Co., Ltd said that the business has brought many delegations to visit and experience eco-tourism in the forest and Tri An lake area. Each trip to bring visitors to visit, the business registers with the forest management unit. However, in the face of strong tourism demand today, households living near the lake have taken advantage of the location near the lake to do tourism business.

According to Mr. Linh, meeting the needs of the tourism market of the people is justified because it is based on actual needs and contributes to raising income and creating jobs for people. Local governments at all levels need to have policies and mechanisms to support people doing business in tourism in a methodical and prescribed manner in order to have coordination, minimize the unfortunate problems that can occur, affecting the beautiful image of a famous tourist destination of Dong Nai.

From the perspective of the local government directly managing, Chairman of the Ma Da Commune People's Committee Tran Duc Son shared, so far, the locality had dismantled most of the spontaneous tourism establishments with 3 remaining commitments for dismantling in the near future. After the spontaneous tourist facilities dismantled, many tourists still come to this area to camp, drowning accidents occurred. If there are tourist facilities operating here, this danger can be limited. Spontaneous tourism establishments mainly invest in tents and temporary camps with little construction. Proposing the Provincial People's Committee for a mechanism for people to invest, the local government promises to perform well the management of tourism activities.

Create a development mechanism

Tri An Lake has an area of more than 32,000 hectares, of which semi-flooded land is more than 11,000 hectares in the past time has been still "abandoned", waste resources. The view of the People's Committee of Vinh Cuu district, tourism establishments investing on land that people own and have residential land will be considered the level of construction works to partially solve the demands for eco-tourism in the area and temporarily the district has not directed the handling of these works. Vice Chairman of the Vinh Cuu district People's Committee Nguyen Cao Tai suggested that the People's Committee of Dong Nai province direct the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to guide the level of permitting temporary works so that people can both produce agriculture and develop ecological tourism. For people, to be considered for ecotourism activities, they must first be directly recipients of forest land or have been granted land use right. In addition, they must have business licenses, certificates of food safety and fire prevention and fighting and ensure security, order and environment...

Mr. Le Viet Dung, Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Forest Protection said that the people's demands for eco-tourism was very large. Scientific evidence showed that developing eco-tourism under the forest canopy did not have a great impact on the forest, even if the forest owners did well, they would create better environments, landscapes, and coverage, ensuring the goal of conservation or protection. Moreover, the semi-flooded area at Tri An lake was relatively large, if households cultivated agriculture here, the discharge of fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural products was also at high risk of creating pollution. If the locality developed eco-tourism with good control, it would not affect the environment much.

 With the same opinions, Director of the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Tien Sy said that Tri An lake had a geographical position near the urban center, there were many beautiful scenes around the lake , this was a great resource, convenient for tourism development. It was necessary to find a solution for this resource to promote its value, served the local economic development and meet the tourism needs of the people.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Vo Van Phi suggested that it was necessary to zone the semi-flooded land that can be used for tourism, associated with ecotourism planning points along the lake for management. Thus, the management would be less complicated, solving the current hot demands, but only temporary tents should be developed, planted flowers to create landscapes under the semi-flooded area. In particular, it was necessary to ensure that illegal construction of solid works was not allowed, controlled security and order problems and environment pollution.​​