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Lao Cai is a province in the Northwestern mountainous region of
Viet Nam where is home to 27 ethnic groups with special traditional
characteristics. The province is also endowed with beautiful landscapes,
impressive caves and ancient rocks of over hundreds of thousands of years… thus
creating a huge tourism potential for provincial tourism development.
Specially, Sa Pa Town- a district of Lao Cai Province has beautiful scenes with
green forests alternating ancient European-style villas and churches. The town
is located at altitude of 1,500 m with an average annual temperature from 15 to
18°C, sometimes below 0º C with snow. To the west of Sa Pa Town lies Hoang Lien
National Park- one of four important special forests of Viet Nam having total
core area of 29,845 ha and buffer area of 38,724 ha including a high mountain
system of Hoang Lien Son range with the 3,143m Fansipan - the highest peak of
Indochina.
In the recent years, the number of tourists visiting Lao Cai has been increasing
with nearly one million tourists in 2011, up 9.1 % compared with 2010 and total
revenue reached VND 1,300 billion in 2011, up nearly 65% over the previous year.
In the first 6 months of 2012, the number of tourists visiting Lao Cai estimated
606,660 arrivals, including 265,980 int’l arrivals, up 26.6% over the same
period in 2011, with total revenue of VND 1,127 billions.
On the other hand, tourism environment is also facing pollution caused by the
limitation in environmental protecting awareness of some tourists and local
people. Environmental pollution has impacted scenic beauty, reduced quality of
local people living and limited their ability to welcome tourists.
Therefore, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the Lao Cai
Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Sa Pa People’s Committee have
recently launched a campaign on green - clean - beautiful environmental
protection with the message “Environment plays an important and significant role
in tourism development and environmental protection is the key of sustainable
tourism development”
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Deputy Director General of VNAT, Mrs. Hoang
Thi Diep said Lao Cai tourism had been developing significantly in recent years
contributing to the poverty-alleviation movement and daily living improvement
for local community. This is a chance to enhance people’s awareness on
environmental protection aiming to develop sustainable tourism for ethnic groups
in the province.
At the ceremony, volunteers, domestic and int’l tourists joined in to clean
environment at some tourist spots in Sa Pa. On this occasion, the VNAT has
awarded Sa Pa 40 rubbish bins to place at tourist attractions.
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