Research on state management for community-based tourism development in some Northwestern provinces of Vietnam

rticipants) and 2-3 small 
training classes for CBT households on 
average yearly. From 2016 to 2019, Son 
La organized 05 tourism skill training 
classes for CBT villages with a total of 75 
participants, Hoa Binh organized about 
10 classes, and Dien Bien had 5 classes. 
The training is primarily about technical 
skills such as reception, tour guiding; op-
erating small-sized tourism accommoda-
tions; housekeeping, food preparing, etc. 
Lecturing people are university faculties 
in the Northwest or from Hanoi and ex-
perts from other institutions. 
To improve capabilities of tourism 
state management offi cers, Northwestern 
provinces have actively integrated many 
forms of training (in-place training, short-
term training, conferences, seminars, etc.). 
All in all, for the past few years, 
Northwestern provinces have been pro-
active in training and fostering human re-
sources related to CBT development. The 
survey’s result with experts on training, 
fostering and developing CBT human re-
sources in Northwestern provinces is pre-
sented on table 3. Accordingly, the lowest 
one belongs to providing the statistics, 
and evaluating the quality of CBT human 
resources.
Table 3 - Training, fostering and develop-
ing CBT human resources in some North-
21Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
western provinces 
Source: Survey conducted by the author
- State management structure for CBT development
Like other localities across the 
country, for the last 15 years, state man-
agement structure for tourism of the 
Northwest has had certain fl uctuations. In 
2008, the provinces set up Departments 
of Culture, Sports, and Tourism on the 
basis of merging other departments and 
units. After the merger, the Departments 
of Culture, Sports, and Tourism became 
a multi-sector management and opera-
tion unit, with a united structure from the 
city level to the lower ones. By the year 
2017, The Department of Culture, Sports 
and Tourism had conducted innovation 
and rearrangement in its structure at all 
levels, in the direction of merging some 
departments and units. 
In all Northwestern Departments 
of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, tourism 
management offi ces act as consulting 
agencies, and all inspection tasks belong 
to Departments’ inspectors. Tourism man-
agement offi ces submit recommendations 
to the Department Director in state man-
agement for all kinds of tourism develop-
ment.
In terms of human resources, North-
western Tourism management offi ces have 
only 5-7 members, which is insuffi cient to 
cover all of the duties in challenging situ-
ations.
In general, as well as many other lo-
calities across the country, the instability 
in the tourism management structure has 
negatively infl uenced the development of 
tourism in general and CBT in particular. 
The state management on CBT is largely 
about statistics with limited long-term vi-
sions in tourism development. CBT devel-
opment is quite special, involving many 
factors, especially the empowerment of 
the community, so no matter how the state 
management is organized, the quality of 
tourism staff in these localities needs to be 
further strengthened.
The assessment from experts on 
the state management structure for CBT 
development is presented on table 4. Ac-
cordingly, the rated content is quite simi-
lar among 3 provinces. 
22 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
Table 4 - State management structure for CBT development in some Northwestern 
provinces 
Source: Survey conducted by the author
- General assessment of the state 
management for CBT development in 
some Northwestern provinces
In the past period, despite many 
diffi culties, the state management for 
CBT development in the Northwestern 
provinces has had considerable success. 
Awareness of tourism and CBT develop-
ment has been enhanced. The provinc-
es have actively organized the guidance 
on implementing legal documents of the 
state for CBT, directing and implementing 
quite eff ectively policies, schemes, and 
projects for CBT development. Tourism 
planning including CBT development has 
been paid with much intention. Despite 
some defects, the planning is generally 
consistent with local realities, which is the 
important element to attract investments 
and implement CBT projects. 
Provinces have tried to improve 
the capability of state structure ensuring 
the effi ciency and eff ectiveness of state 
management for tourism including CBT. 
Tourism human resources training has 
also been strengthened, facilitating local 
people to improve their skills in tourism.
However, to some extent, concret-
izing and issuing policies for CBT man-
agement are incomplete and not timely 
enough; Some policies are not suitable 
for the local conditions, making it less 
attractive for diff erent stakeholders to 
participate in CBT. Objectives and spe-
cifi c standards for CBT development are 
incomplete, leading to diffi culties in im-
plementation, evaluation, and statistics of 
CBT development, which act as the basis 
for planning and adjusting CBT develop-
ment policies. In addition, CBT human 
resources at all levels are weak in both 
quantity and quality. Domestic and for-
eign cooperation activities about CBT 
management and development are not 
very eff ective. Regarding inter-regional 
and inner-regional collaboration in tour-
ism, many regional provinces focus heav-
ily on the growth of the province itself, no 
clear linking and exploiting advantages of 
the whole region. 
There are probably many reasons, 
but from the provincial government, the 
key ones are: (1) Awareness of CBT de-
velopment, the role of provincial gov-
ernment in directing and operating CBT 
23Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
development is incomplete; (2) Coordi-
nation among sectors, agencies and de-
partments in localities in developing and 
managing projects, planning related to 
CBT; Developing and allocating invest-
ment resources; Checking and evaluating 
policies related to CBT development are 
not strict enough to utilize the strengths 
of each body in developing and imple-
menting CBT projects, and planning (3) 
The lack of eff ective coordination among 
Northwestern provincial governments in 
managing tourism and CBT development 
leads to overlapped investment, ineff ec-
tiveness and failure in promoting the 
strengths of each province.
4. Solutions to improve state man-
agement for CBT development in some 
Northwestern provinces of Vietnam
On the basis of Tourism Law 2017, 
Vietnam tourism development strategy to 
2030, Master plan for tourism develop-
ment in Vietnam to 2020 - vision to 2030, 
CBT and tourism development orienta-
tions, and real conditions in Northwestern 
provinces, the following solutions should 
be applied for those provinces to develop 
CBT, and gradually overcome the weak-
nesses in CBT and tourism state manage-
ment:
Firstly, in terms of viewpoints: 1) 
Improving state management for CBT 
development is associated with improv-
ing awareness and cognition on the role 
of CBT to local tourism development; 2) 
Improving state management for CBT de-
velopment is to optimally exploit tourism 
potential, promote CBT development sus-
tainably contributing to life improvement, 
poverty alleviation and socio-economy 
development of localities in particular and 
in the Northwest in general; 3) Improving 
state management for CBT development 
is to improve its eff ectiveness and effi -
ciency in view of the fact that Vietnam 
tourism is oriented to become a leading 
economic sector, and the industrial revo-
lution 4.0 is spreading; 4) Improving state 
management for CBT development must 
be based on experience in Vietnam and in 
the world.
Secondly, continuing to raise aware-
ness of all stakeholders in tourism activi-
ties, including the local community about 
CBT development; Emphasizing their 
awareness about CBT’s role in enhancing 
people’s lives, protecting the local cultural 
values from the negative impacts of tour-
ism.
Third ly, improving planning and 
proposals related to CBT development in 
association with changes in their content 
and implementation methods; Reviewing, 
developing or adjusting planning and pro-
posals must ensure the principles of CBT 
development, being in line with the mar-
ket’s demands, CBT development trend, 
and local features.
Fourthly, reviewing, and improv-
ing CBT development policies and regu-
lations in accordance with local realities, 
ensuring sustainable CBT development; 
Integrating CBT development regulations 
and policies with those on new rural de-
velopment and others; Focusing on as-
sessing the impact of CBT development 
assistance policies and regulations to 
make them suitable with local features.
Fifthly, strengthening tourism plan-
ning management, investing in tourism in-
24 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
frastructure; facilitating in terms of mech-
anism and policies to attract investment 
for CBT development in the province; 
Sixthly, focusing on investment in 
improving CBT service quality at CBT 
sites; Strictly managing tourism resources, 
developing detailed planning and plans, 
ensuring the formation and exploitation 
of tourism products (reasonable, unique), 
improving the value of CBT products to 
create the competitive advantage.
Seventhly, improving tourism pro-
motion, tied to the market, strengthening 
the connection among Northwest prov-
inces in promoting tourism generally and 
CBT particularly.
Eighthly, continuing to improve 
state management structure for tourism 
and CBT development in Northwest to 
strengthen its eff ectiveness and effi cien-
cy; Training human resources in tourism 
and CBT management responding to the 
new demand; Continuing reviewing and 
implementing policies related to training, 
fostering and developing CBT human re-
sources to improve its quality.
5. Conclusion
Improving state management for 
CBT development is an important re-
quirement to improve the effi ciency of 
CBT development in the market economy 
and international integration. The article 
analyzed the current status of state man-
agement for CBT development and pro-
posed a number of solutions to improve 
it in some provinces in the Northwestern 
region. Proposed solutions include: in-
novating strategic planning, tourism de-
velopment plan in general and CBT de-
velopment in particular; improving CBT 
development policies, and regulations; 
strengthening inspection, supervision and 
violations handling in CBT development, 
etc. These solutions need to be done in 
sync and divided into stages. CBT devel-
opment is considered to be suitable with 
social trends, meeting the needs of tour-
ists to explore the unique ethnic culture. 
However, for CBT development, besides 
strengthening the eff ectiveness and effi -
ciency of state management, the commu-
nity should be aware of its role and respon-
sibilities when participating in tourism 
activities. Apart from that, the community 
must be together with state management 
units protecting indigenous culture - the 
core values of the community, because if 
these values are not protected, we cannot 
develop CBT properly and sustainably.
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Author address: Faculty of Tourism - Hanoi 
Open University
Email : phuongtt@hou. edu.vn