School of Hospitality and Tourism
The second tourism training program took place in Ho Chi Minh City from 11th to 14th December 2018, under the framework of ERASMUS+ program. The full project title is “Competence centers for the development of sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies to increase the positive impact of local tourism in Thailand and Vietnam”. The purpose of the training course is to improve the knowledge and skills about sustainable tourism development for nearly 40 tourism experts from institutes from Vietnam and Thailand.
On behalf of the Hue University Board of Directors, there was the participation of Dr. Do Thi Xuan Dung – Vice Director of Hue University. Participating in the training, there were Dr. Tran Thi Ngoc Lien, Head of hospitality Management Department; MSc. Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, lecturer of Travel and Tour Operations Department and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Van, lecturer of ICT Department.
The Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities was the main collaboration with the ERAMUS + project to organize activities in this training course. The training course includes the following contents:
- Follow-up: TOURIST Pledge actions, successes, challenges
- Sustainable destination planning and management: theoretical framework, case studies.
- Sustainability indicators for tourism development (destination and company levels, CSR)
- Sustainability indicators for tourism development: case studies
- Stakeholder communication of sustainable tourism in different cultural contexts
- Communication: destination brand image communication (external and internal stakeholders)
- Field trip: Sustainable Ho Chi Minh City Experience, Visit to Cu Chi Tunnel
- Follow-up from the field trip and auto-ethnographic study
- Planning the next steps with TOURIST Pledge
- Feedback and lessons learnt
Trainers organized classes with various activities in order to create high academic effectiveness. Teamwork was the main teaching method; the groups are randomly selected so that trainees from different university can work together and do their presentations in groups.
The Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities organized a field trip at Cu Chi tunnels and Thanh Tai cricket farm. The word-famous Cu Chi tunnel is an underground defense system made up of secret tunnels that linked one village to another during the war. This was not only a haven for guerrillas, but also a center of community life during the Vietnam War. Listed as one of the most attractive underground attractions in the world by CNN, Cu Chi tunnels is not to be missed for anyone visiting Vietnam.
Cu Chi Tunnels welcomes many tourists while the capacity of tunnels is limited, which leads to the negative impact on sustainable tourism development. However, there are activities showing the contribution to sustainable tourism development, especially social dimension. We could see how the local people make a rice paper. Moreover, we had a chance to taste Cu Chi Cassava, which was a special local food. It was very impressive when the local people made a rubber sandal from the car tires. It shows that tourist can communicate with local community and use the local product. We had lunch at a local restaurant which features local specialties. Afterward, we visited Thanh Tai cricket farm, learned the process of farming crickets and termites. As scientists have stated that insects will soon become an alternative protein source based on its rich nutrition, we tried the fried crickets. It was an amazing experience.
The final session of the training course included summaries of key points made during the five sessions and the field trip. Six groups presented their reports after the field trip and made commitments to develop sustainable tourism. In addition, the tourism experts shared their expectations and suggestions for the next training course in Thailand.
Msc. Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga
Travel and Tour Operations Department
