Lao Cai protects environment to develop tourism

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.