International Consultant for Dong Van Karst Plateau Global Geo-Park Planning, Ha Giang Province Until 2030

Appraisal, Initial Orientation, and Preliminary Recommendations

Dr. James H. Spencer President and Founder: Third Rock Development, LLC Professor of City & Regional Planning, Clemson University [email protected]

Dr. Robert B. Powell Associate Professor of Parks, Recreation and Development Director, Clemson University Institute for Parks Clemson University

Dr. Mai T. Nguyen Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dr. Timothy F. Green Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning, Clemson University

1

Task #1: Provide International Experiences and Lessons About Sustainable Exploitation to Develop the Global GeoParks, Especially those Parks of Cultural Geology, Geological Science, and Bio-Geology ______

Introduction

Designated in 2009, Dong Van Karst Plateau International Geopark is located in northern Vietnam in the Ha Giang province. Currently an extensive planning process is being undertaken to ensure the long-term protection of the Dong Van Karst Plateau International Geopark while also developing opportunities for sustained regional economic development through tourism.

A Geopark is a geographical area intended to integrate the preservation of geological heritage, , and cultural resources with a strategy for regional sustainable socio- economic and cultural development through tourism. According to the Global Geopark Network (GGN), Geoparks that are part of the GGN:

1) Preserve geological heritage for present and future generations 2) Educate the broad public about issues in geological sciences and their relation with environmental matters 3) Ensure sustainable socio-economic and cultural development 4) Foster multi-cultural bridges for heritage and conservation and the maintenance of geological and cultural diversity, using participatory schemes and co-partnership 5) Stimulate research 6) Contribute actively to the life of the Network through joint collaborative initiatives (e.g. communication, publications, exchange of information, twinning, participation in meetings, common projects) 7) Contribute articles to the GGN Newsletters, books and other publications. (GGN website)

Every 4 years, member Geoparks must conduct an internal review to assess performance and achievement of the GGN criteria. This review is based on a progress report prepared by the designated management body of the Geopark as well as an external review performed by an UNESCO expert review team. If the complete review meets the GGN standards the Geopark will maintain membership for 4 additional years. If the criteria are not met, the Geopark has 2 years to address deficiencies or it may be removed from Global Geopark Membership.

Vision The vision for the Dong Van Karst Plateau International Geopark master planning efforts is to preserve, improve, and promote the values associated with the area while promoting regional economic development. In particular, the objectives of the plan are to:

2

1. Conserve, improve and maintain the geological, biological, and cultural assets and values associated with Dong Van Karst Plateau International Geopark. 2. Develop the Geopark so it may support development and act as a permanent engine for regional economic development. 3. Promote scientific research, education, and preservation focused on the interdependence of geological, cultural, and historical values (assets), and biological diversity.

Sustainable Development:

The United Nations Commission on suggests that sustainable development is composed of four broad themes inspired by the Brundtland definition of sustainable development. The themes of Social Capacity, Environmental Health, Economic Development and Growth, and Effective Governance are thought to be interrelated, interdependent, and all necessary to achieve sustainable development (United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, 1996, p.21). Below is a list of the four themes of sustainable development and their abbreviated definition.

1 Environmental Health: Ecological Function and Aesthetic (natural and built environment) 2 Social Capacity and Equity: Education and access to participate in the economy 3 Effective Governance: Efficient and transparent governmental framework (policies, laws, regulations, and enforcement) to support environmental health, social capacity, and a healthy economy. 4 Economic Health: An economy that provides intergenerational opportunities and benefits

3

Resilience:

Although the concept of sustainable development acknowledges complexity and interconnectedness, there is no mention of the dynamism of any park, community, ecosystem, or economy. Because change should be thought of as inevitable, all systems must therefore be resilient, or in other words be robust enough to adapt or resist things such as , drought, the price of oil, etc. if they are to provide sustainable benefits. Resilience, which is often applied to the study of disasters, is defined as “the capacity of a system, community, society, [institution, or environment] to adapt, [change, or resist when exposed to external forces] in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of function and structure”(United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2004). The amount of resilience a system contains is determined by the degree to which a system is capable of re-organizing itself by learning and adapting to meet current and future chronic or acute events and challenges.

When attempting to improve the resilience of a park/community/region, four interrelated themes again must be addressed: economic health, environment health, social capacity, and governance. Similar to the conceptualization of sustainable development, the interrelationship and reliance on each of these themes fully functioning must be recognized, embraced, and further strengthened if a park or community is to be resilient to inevitable external and internal forces. Recent park and protected area research suggest that each theme of resilience can be supported by the following actions (e.g., Powell, et. al. 2009):

1 Economic Health: Diversify (products and markets), Innovate, Plan, Partner 2 Environmental Health: Protect diversity; Improve health and function; Mitigate impacts; Manage development; and Improve flows of traffic, energy, and resources. 3 Social Capacity: Educate and Train the for future opportunities. 4 Effective Governance: Promote partnerships and collaboration, Build capacity, Share power, Efficiently enforce, Communicate, and Foster learning within organizations

Assumptions underlying Geopark management and tourism:

If a Geopark is going to produce sustained economic benefits through tourism, then management and policies must preserve and conserve the geological, biological, and cultural assets, which originally made the area suitable for designation as well as a vibrant tourism destination. It should be noted that tourism is a service industry comprised of transportation, hospitality, and support services. The tourism industry also sells more intangible elements, or in other words, the promise of certain benefits such as: rest and relaxation, culture, escape, adventure, and exotic experiences.

1. Tangible elements: - The attraction—, architecture, and activities - Transport systems

4

- Hospitality services—accommodation, food and beverages, tours, souvenirs - Support services—banking, insurance, and safety and security.

2. Intangible elements: - The characteristics and benefits: rest and relaxation, culture, escape, adventure, new and different experiences.

Tourism is reliant on, and in fact sells, an attractive, healthy natural and built environment and a diverse local culture with the capacity to participate in the economy. However, as a tourism destination becomes successful, the associated development and impacts of tourism have the potential of destroying what originally made a destination attractive without effective and visionary management. Butler in his article The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution (1980) explains the concept of tourism destination development as a process of six stages (Figure 1). The cycle begins with the exploration stage characterized by small numbers of tourists and few social or environmental impacts (Butler, 1980). The cycle progresses through involvement, development, consolidation, and then stagnation denoted by overdevelopment, resource degradation and a subsequent decline in tourism (Butler, 1980) without active management of tourism/park resources. Dong Van Global GeoPark is now in the involvement phase of development and with the employment of effective urban and regional planning combined with protected area management principles it is believed that Dong Van Global GeoPark will be an economic engine for the next 100 years.

Destination Lifecycle

“Tourist attractions are not infinite and timeless, but should be viewed and treated as finite and possibly nonrenewable resources” (Butler, 1980, p.11).

In an effort to highlight these protected area management principles that will support the long-term of Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark and assist in the meeting of the 5

Global Geopark Network criteria, the following section will highlight Best Management Practices organized by GGN principles/criteria. It is believed that following these best practices will support the achievement of GGN recertification, long-term resource protection, and sustainable economic development through tourism.

1. Best Practice: Identify and assess geological, natural, and cultural resources. Identifying and then assessing the qualities of geological, natural, and cultural resources provides the relevant background and information needed to plan and implement management. In particular, for management to be effective, it is necessary to identify resources that are sensitive, unique, endangered, or highly valuable in order to establish policies and programs that will protect these assets. Without understanding the context by identifying and then assessing the values and important qualities of geological, natural, and cultural resources, it is impossible to develop plans or effectively manage a GeoPark to ensure their protection and sustainable use. However it is admittedly a challenging task to fully identify the full suite of values and assets that a protected area such as Dong Van Geopark currently conserves and protects (Table 1).

Table 1: Examples of Values and Resources Associated with Protected Areas Ecological Socio-economic and cultural Ecosystem services/ functions Cultural • Watershed management and • Spiritual – e.g. sacred sites water supply • Indigenous heritage • • Historical (Buildings, sites, • Climate and disaster mitigation , battlefields, etc.) • Clean air/pollution mitigation • Aesthetic/artistic Biodiversity Social • Ecosystem level • Recreation • Species level (rare and • Green space threatened, indicator species, • Scenic • popular species, economically or • Social connectivity socially important • Sense of place • species etc) Health • Local population level • Physical health • Genetic level • Mental health and geological Economic • Evidence of geological processes • Tourism • Fossils • Adjacent land values • Special geological formations and • Sustainable resource harvesting landscape features • Agriculture • Water bodies and wetlands Research and education • Research • Formal education • Interpretation Adapted from Hockings, M., Stolton, S., Leverington, F., Dudley, N., & Courrau, J. (2006). Evaluating effectiveness:

6

A framework for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas. (Vol. 2nd edition.). Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. P.14.

Historically, the responsibility for inventorying the wide array of resources and assets within a park has rested with the managing organization. However, in an environment of scarce resources and high need for this information, innovative solutions and programs have emerged. These innovative solutions include developing partnerships with Scientists, Universities, Museums, Schools, Non-profits, Tour operators (science-tourism), and corporations to conduct systematic assessments of biological, historical, geological, and other important resources. Example programs include “citizen science” efforts where volunteers and students are trained by experts to systematically collect data in a park. Other unique and innovative programs include partnering with tour agencies that offer science-tourism. These programs often are led by scientists and the tourists are trained as field assistants to collect valuable data (see www.fieldstudies.org ) ; other innovative examples include birding tours, which could rapidly assess the number of species in an area (for examples see www.ventbird.com; www.birdtreks.com; www.wingsbirds.com).

Best Practice: Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM), a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Reserve, is located in the Eastern United States and straddles Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. Established in 1934, GRSM covers over 200,000 hectares and is the most visited national park in the U.S., with over nine million annual visitors (NPS, 2012). Set aside for its natural and cultural resources, the park is thought to be one of the most biodiverse areas in the world due to its highly variable elevations (from 250m-2000m) and prodigious rainfall.

Through partnerships with the US National Park Service, museums, universities, schools, non-profit organizations, and corporations, the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), a project of Discover Life in America (DLIA), seeks to inventory the estimated 100,000 species of living organisms in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The ATBI program has developed an array of events and activities to systematically catalogue the range of species occurring within the park. These include citizen science programs, where students, volunteers, and other enthusiasts may join trained scientists in assisting the effort to collect valuable data. In fact these partnerships and citizen-science efforts have been instrumental to achieving not only the scientific goals of the project but also key to involving a wider audience in not only science but also GRSM management. To date the ATBI project has identified over 18,500 species, including over 8000, which were new to the GRSM, and 951 that are new to science. In addition, in an effort to communicate the results more broadly, the ATBI program has published checklists, reports, maps, databases, and over 14 peer reviewed journal articles. For more information see www.dlia.org and the publication Fifteen Years of Discovery.

7

Best Practice: Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

In 2011, 2012, and 2013, Charleston, SC was ranked as the top US tourist destination by Conde Nast Traveler magazine. Tourism contributed over $US3.5 Billion to the economy with 4.8 million tourists visiting annually. What makes the city so attractive? According to tourists, the unique historic architecture, southern hospitality and culture, combined with the aesthetic and pleasant natural environment make this one of the world’s most inviting tourism destinations (see We’re No. 1! Charleston named top tourist destination in US for third consecutive year. Post and Courier, Oct. 15, 2013). Through strategic partnerships with Universities, the US National Park Service, museums, and other non-profit organizations, the city has identified the important historic structures and assets and established policies for their protection. These policies include the formation of an architectural review board and the formation of historic districts that protect the aesthetic and design vernacular of Charleston.

2. Best Practice: Establishment of zones, overlays, and buffers to protect resources and visitor experiences.

One of the principal reasons for the establishment of a UNESCO Geopark is the protection

8 and preservation of cultural, geological, and other natural resources and assets for future generations and to support sustainable development through tourism visitation. Although there are many policies and management considerations that influence the effectiveness of resource protection, at the planning level, one practice in particular appears instrumental. This is the development of zones and overlays that are used to dictate the land-use, tourism, and resource extraction policies within a specific geographical area that have specific values and important and sensitive geological, cultural, or ecological resources. Zones are generally established to limit or at least dictate appropriate human activities that protect the resources and desired conditions within the geographic area.

These areas may be identified by ecological principles such as the area and habitat conditions required to maintain a viable population of a particular endangered species (often a larger mammal). This is often referred to as using an umbrella species to designate the location, size, and conditions of a protected area (see Groom, M. J., Meffe, G., & Carroll, C. (2006). Principles of . Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc. for a further explanation). Other ecological principles used for establishing protected areas include protecting an area that encompasses and represents the full array of species and ecosystems within a region (representativeness); protecting key ecosystem services such as drinking water (ie, protecting a full watershed to secure drinking water for human ); or protecting particular sensitive ecosystems (e.g., Groom, et. al, 2006).

Other protected zones may be established to protect particular cultural and historical resources and these types of zones will also establish clear conditions and values that are to be protected as well as guidelines regarding appropriate human activities and development. Examples include historic building zones where unique architecture and building styles have been utilized often by minority cultural groups. Zones have also been established to protect particular traditional land use practices such as styles of farming and grazing so that a region maintains a historical aesthetic and cultural practices are maintained and rewarded.

Lastly one other form of zoning is to protect and ensure the delivery of particular types of touristic experiences. For example, if an area is designated and managed to deliver a particular type of cultural or historical experience, for example trekking to visit a cultural village, then building a casino in the immediate location of this cultural village will erode or even preclude the intended visitor experience and associated benefits. Other examples of inappropriate practices that erode cultural integrity include building a monument or other structures in the immediate view-shed of particular natural attractions such as a scenic vista, waterfall, or river gorge. This form of zoning is actually considered a form of tourism destination management and is instrumental to ensuring sustainable quality tourism experiences and an industry that will thrive into the future.

For zones containing highly sensitive ecological, geological, and cultural resources, the establishment of buffer zones, or areas where human activities are limited or excluded to ensure the protection and viability of the core/highly protected zone and its primary values is also considered necessary and a best practice. Examples of buffer zones can be found in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves around the world (e.g., Batisse, 1982), protected 9 areas with wilderness or other highly protected zones surrounded by less strictly managed zones, and in countries that have established ecological corridors to maintain connectivity between protected areas and intact habitat patches to maintain species viability and the provision of ecological services. In fact this final example of buffer zones is considered the cutting edge best practice and has been employed by countries such as Bhutan (see Case Study below) and environmental organizations and national protected area agencies such as the US National Park Service.

Best Practice: Bhutan and Landscape Scale Conservation Planning to ensure Ecological Connectivity and Function (Ecosystem Services)

• Developed Corridors, which are zones that limit development and human activities to maintain intact forest that connect protected areas together. • Developed new nature reserves to protect endangered species. • Developed Buffer Zones around nature reserves for appropriate human use. • Developed Cultural Zones where cultural and traditional land uses are protected. • Each Zone is tied to particular types of tourism.

10

Best Practice: Zoning to protect historic, cultural, and natural resources AND specific tourist experiences.

Tourism should be thought of as a system that is comprised of physical assets such as the infrastructure and the elements of a destination (such as a historic palace or a landscape) that are the “attraction.” Tourism is also comprised of intangible elements that include particular attributes of a destination such as solitude, cleanliness, etc., as well as the promise of delivering particular benefits, such as relaxation, adventure, etc. These tangible and intangible elements can be actively managed to ensure the delivery of desired benefits and for the sustainability of a destination. The US Forest Service, Australia National Parks, and other park agencies use systems such as the “Recreation Opportunity Spectrum” to assist in the zoning of areas and linking management policies and actions to the delivery of particular types of touristic experiences. • For each zone and location develop Objectives, Standards, and Indicators. • Allows for clear management policies that are designed to protect particular types of experiences and achieve specific goals in a location.

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum

11

Social Carrying Capacity: Protecting Desired Tourism Experiences

How many people detract from a tourist’s experience?

Identify the desired qualities of the experience. Establish indicators. Monitor and manage when outside of desired conditions.

12

Best Practice: Protect historic districts through the use of zoning and overlays

Overlays refer to distinct areas of a city that have a large concentration of historic buildings and where policies are implemented to protect the distinct architecture and characteristics of the “zone”. These policies include developing clear design guidelines for all new construction that embody the traditional form and the formation of a local design review board that approves all designs/plans and monitors new construction. Examples include Charleston, South Carolina, USA and Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

3. Best Practice: Integrated and Coordinated Management. Many national parks across the world are managed by a single governmental agency, which has the authority to implement policies and take action to meet their mission. However, Dong Van Global Geopark covers over 2.35 million hectares that encompasses 4 Districts, (Yen Minh, Quan Ba, Meo Vac, and Dong Van), and 63 communes. At the provincial, district, and commune level the People’s Committee guides the management of this area along with input from local, regional and national administrative agencies and ministries. To facilitate the management of the Dong Van Global Geopark, the Ha Giang Provincial People’s Committee established a Steering Committee with 23 members that represent leaders of different provincial departments, district authorities, forest rangers and social organizations as well as a Geopark management board that manages daily operations of the Geopark and the 4 visitor centers. In addition, the Dong Van Geopark contains two Nature Reserves, which are managed by two additional management boards, which report to the Provincial Peoples Committee. Geoparks, such as Dong Van Geopark, often contain multiple overlapping and competing agencies and institutions with different mandates and laws, that manage interdependent and inter-related activities and resources that all affect the Geopark’s health, biological diversity, productivity, and resilience. Without a central authority, coordinating management of a Geopark across local, district, provincial, and national institutions (vertical fragementation) and/or across multiple institutions across one level of governance (horizontal fragmentation) is generally very difficult (Powell, et. al, 2009). Research investigating collaborative management structures (where multiple agencies and organizations are represented to make decisions regarding a GeoPark) such

13 as the Dong Van Geopark Steering Committee and the Dong Van Geopark Management Board suggests that there are particular conditions and best practices that facilitate more effective management (see Table 2 for list of steps and conditions). Ultimately, a Geopark will protect valuable resources, educate locals and tourists, and generate sustainable economic development ONLY if the organization that is tasked with establishing policies, managing, and enforcing guidelines performs effectively. Most critical to this effective performance appears to be the establishment of: effective leadership, mechanisms for evaluation and accountability, regular planning processes to revisit goals and objectives, action plans to ensure performance, and monitoring and adaption (see next best practice).

Table 2: Steps Necessary for Development of Effective Collaborative Institutions (Powell, 2010). 1. Communicate importance of goal/overarching issue(s) 2. Develop a sense of interdependence 3. Ensure acceptance of convener/facilitator 4. Attract organizational membership that is representative of “functional-action space” 5. Provide regular informal and formal meetings 6. Identify and develop effective leadership 7. Institute collaborative and consensus driven internal processes 8. Develop mechanisms for evaluation and accountability 9. Add new members to ensure representativeness and to perform specific tasks 10. Undertake planning processes to identify (a) the goals and objectives of the group, (b) the major problems and issues, and (c) the actions necessary for meeting these goals and objectives. 11. Assign responsibility for actions to individual members or groups of members 12. Form informal partnerships to accomplish action items based on resources, expertise, jurisdictions, and geography 13. Identify and monitor indicators of success 14. Adapt and learn by following adaptive management cycle 15.Commit to long-term involvement

14

Best Practice: Hikkaduwa National Park, Sri Lanka. Developing a Collaborative Institution to Coordinate Management

• Oldest and First Park in Sri Lanka • Major Tourism Destination since 1979 • Governance: District, City, 97 Villages, 11 National level Ministries • Collaborative Multisectoral-multilevel Management Team Complements National Park Agency focused on: - Destination and tourism management - Environmental Management - Transportation - Water and sewage management - Solid - Soil Protection (buffers and riparian zones)

4. Best Practice: Adaptive Management

Another challenge to managing a large geographic area such as a GeoPark is the complexity, uncertainty, and changing environmental, economic, and social conditions. This complexity and changing conditions mean that decision-making will be difficult and programs and projects that were once successful may no longer perform optimally over time. Instead managers of large complex parks now employ Adaptive Management or in other words, systematic “trial and error” to ensure that one learns from successes and mistakes. This approach requires that managers of parks regularly and systematically monitor the conditions of the park, which will include collecting environmental, social, and economic data/indicators that reflect the desired conditions within each of the zones of the park. This information will inform decision-making and will link current conditions to goals while also acknowledging complexity, uncertainty, and the likelihood of “failure.” It is argued

15

that if adaptive management is embraced by leaders of an organization, then the organization will move from a mentality of accountability to a culture of learning and constant improvement. The adaptive management cycle is a continual and iterative process of assessing, planning and designing, implementing, monitoring (to see how well the project is performing), evaluation (to see if meeting goals and desired conditions), and if not, adjusting the project to better meet the current conditions and realities on the ground.

Best Practice: Adaptive Management Cycle

5. Best Practice: Education (integrated approach using multiple delivery strategies).

The Global Geopark Network places high value and importance on providing education for both tourists and the residents of a Geopark pertaining to the importance of geological, cultural, and historic values and biodiversity within the park. Protected Area managers in partnership with tour operators and their guides have the potential to provide education about a protected area’s natural and human history in order to improve the tourism product and to facilitate deeper understanding and connection (Powell & Ham, 2008). For education in nature-based tourism settings such as a Geopark, Ham (2013; 1992) developed a framework for effective communication. Based on cognition theories, Ham suggests four key components of successful education efforts: it must be enjoyable, relevant, organized, and thematic (EROT). The EROT model of interpretation was specifically developed for non captive audiences who can leave or “tune out” if the message is not enjoyable or entertaining; relevant to the interests or activities of the audience;

16 organized so that the audience can understand and follow the communication; and thematic, which refers to communicating a moral of the story or message that promotes intellectual and emotional connections rather than relating individual and isolated facts and figures (Ham, 1992).

Visitor education is also frequently part of a multi-pronged strategy of resource protection within Geoparks, national parks, and wilderness areas. Visitors to a park or protected area operate in a state of continual interaction with the environment that surrounds them. This interaction can sustain, degrade, or have no impact on the natural and social environment. Examples of negative behaviors include poor solid waste management, inappropriate human/wildlife interaction, visitor-to-visitor interaction, and off-trail hiking. Behaviors that sustain or have zero impact on the environment are of little concern to managers. Conversely, behaviors that negatively affect the natural and/or social environment are of great concern. However, this problem of managing visitor behaviors is difficult as predicting visitor behaviors is complex and recent empirical investigations indicate that even nominal use in certain environments can accentuate resource degradation and cumulative impacts can be substantial.

Education provides a light-handed and positive approach for assisting the park or protected area manager in promoting conservation/ behaviors by raising awareness, mitigating negative behaviors, enhancing the visitor experience, and raising support for larger conservation efforts. However, the task of effectively educating tourists regarding appropriate behaviors can be difficult for park and land managers. Challenges include non-captive audiences, limited contact time between park personnel and the public, amongst others. To assist in overcoming these challenges many parks and protected areas have implemented and adopted the Leave No Trace Environmental Education and Ethics Program (e.g., Vagias and Powell, 2010).

Leave No Trace (LNT) is an educational initiative/tool designed to promote minimum- impact camping ethics and practices for tourists visiting parks and protected areas such as Geoparks. The LNT message acknowledges that effective educational efforts need to address both ecological and sociological environments and that human’s play an integral role in preserving and protecting the resource. The initiative is built upon sound scientific research that presents a broad conceptual framework suitable for application in a multitude of environmental settings. Currently the LNT message consists of the seven principles depicted below as well as a set of corresponding specific recommended behaviors(see www.lnt.org for more information).

17

Case Study: Antarctica and Visitor Education and Guidelines to Minimize Resource Impacts (www.iaato.org)

In addition to managing tourists, today’s park and protected area land managers face a plethora of difficult and diverse challenges including incompatible adjacent land use, , climate change, and improper human behavior, amongst many other challenges. Geoparks seek to balance long-term protection of valuable geological, cultural, and natural resources with sustainable development through tourism. One obstacle to sustaining the long-term protection of resources of Geoparks and other protected areas involves effective management of human behaviors including that of local residents. Again managers of protected areas worldwide use education and outreach in an effort to

18 education local residents regarding appropriate behaviors that support long-term resource protection and sustainable tourism. These efforts are often persuasive in nature and seek to change or alter behaviors. The general steps for developing a persuasive message include:

- Identifying salient beliefs held by the target audience related to the behavior (i.e., salient behavioral, normative and control beliefs); - Determining which of these salient beliefs are most different between compliers and non-compliers - Developing and delivering strongly relevant messages that target these selected beliefs (whether to change them, reinforce them, or to create them anew in a person’s mind); - Providing an opportunity in the immediate to short-term time frame for people to act on these beliefs. (see Ham, et. al 2007;Powell and Ham, 2008)

Case Study: Persuasive Communication Aimed at Eliminating Vandalism and Illegal Shooting

Finally, all members of the Global Geopark Network are expected to develop museums/visitor centers to provide education for tourists. Currently Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark has 4 visitor centers with plans for future development of a museum. Examples of other visitor centers and museums can be found in the case study of Lesvos Geopark.

19

6. Best Practice: Regional Economic Development and Sustainable Tourism Management.

As outlined earlier, Geoparks must be managed if they are expected to deliver sustainable economic benefits through tourism. Similarly, if tourism development is expected to reduce poverty and provide economic benefits to local residents, then there are particular activities and actions that are necessary. These include providing training and capacity building for local residents so that they have the skills necessary to participate in the tourism economy. These skills include entrepreneurial skills including book keeping, budgets, marketing, contracting, computer, and partnership skills as well as hospitality skills such as food preparation, customer service, product development, visitor management, interpretation and education, etc. Tourism is a sophisticated industry and without this training, local residents often do not benefit from the tourism economy and most revenue goes to regional, national, and international tour companies.

Examples of policies that are necessary for the protection of local residents so they are assured of economic benefits from tourism include requiring all guides to be local residents and certifying them after an extensive training program. This accomplishes multiple desired outcomes. First it ensures participation of locals in the tourism economy. Second it formalizes the training program and enhances the value of the service provided by the certified individuals. And third, by training and certifying guides or other tourism workers such as homestays, this protects the quality of the product and produces satisfied customers. Examples of these types of programs exist around the world including nature and cultural guide training and

20

certification programs in Galapagos National Park, Monte Verde Private Reserve, Nepal, and Bhutan.

A similar program also exists for certifying homestays, local tour operators, and guiding services in many parks and Geoparks around the world. This policy ensures that only local residents provide the services to tourists, thereby ensuring access to the tourism economy and eliminating most forms of leakage. These certification schemes also seek to protect brand quality.

Another best practice associated with regional economic development and tourism management in association with Geoparks includes developing a consistent appearance (aka, “Brand”) in all products and facilities associated with the Geopark. In addition visitor centers and museums associated with the Geopark can serve as a booking office for all community level tourism opportunities thereby supporting locally certified tourism providers and homestays and equitably distributing tourism revenue.

21

Summary of Recommendations and Best Practices

1. Identification of Sensitive Resources and Assets – Partner with Universities, Tour Operators, Museums and others. 2. Resource Protection – Landscape Scale Planning for Connectivity and Function – Zoning 3. Coordinated Planning/Management – Overarching Management Organization 4. Adaptive Management 5. Education – Tourists • Orientation (maps and location) • Information (Stories and Facts) • Appropriate Behaviors that Minimize Impacts • Cultural Sensitivity – Local People • Purpose of Geopark • Appropriate behaviors and guidelines that protect Geopark Values 6. Regional Economic Development – Local Involvement and Capacity Building – Guide and Tour Operator Training and Certifications – Branding and Quality

Illustrative International Examples of Tourism Development Relevant to Dong Van Geo-Park

Several international experiences of tourism development are particularly relevant to Dong Van GeoPark, given what the 3rd Rock Team has discovered through its initial research visit during which we found that the in Dong Van, the “sum is greater than the parts.” Unlike Angkor Wat in Cambodia or the Grand Canyon in the United States, there is no SINGLE world-class asset in Dong Van. However, the combination of natural and cultural assets, dispersed across a very large landscape is globally unique, and particular care need be taken in conveying the large number of small assets into a compelling and authentic story.

Challenge 1: Cultural experiences in Dong Van GeoPark are currently not well developed, leading to a very thin experience in cultural villages and in homestays. The case of Bali homestays has demonstrated that the interesting, yet small experiences tourists gain during homestays can be packaged and combined into a compelling and memorable experience holding much greater value to the visitors than the current organization of homestays in Dong Van.

22

International Example of Tourism Planning Best Practice: Diversify tourism experience in cultural villages

Example: In Bali, homestay programs offer more than a bed and a meal. They are nodes of tourism services that provide room, board, classes in cooking, coffee cultivation, meditation, traditional crafts, and a chance to work in and learn about rice cultivation. Results: Homestays in Bali can charge visitors $175 USD per person for a 3 day / 2 night visit that includes room, board, cultural experiences, and transportation to and from the airport. This is compared with $10 - $20 per person for 2 nights in a homestay in Dong Van Recommendation: Provide business and tourism skills, as well as small capital loans, to people in cultural villages to allow them start additional businesses in tourism services.

Challenge 2: Local alcohol is one of the main ways that the local population socializes and shares its values and experiences with visitors. Moreover, each of the numerous villages in the park has a particular way of producing alcohol that reflects their families and cultures. As with the homestay, there is no particular village or producer that visitor “must see” – rather, it is the combination of all of them that makes a visit to Dong Van memorable. The relevant tourist sites are dispersed across an array of villages that take time to access. Similar challenges of dispersed tourist assets have been overcome in France with the “Route-du-Vin,” and California, with the Napa and Sonoma Valley winery circuits. Perhaps the most relevant example for turning such a dispersed asset into a manageable tourist experience is the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

23

International Example of Tourism Planning Best Practice: Leverage the production of unique, high value local goods to capture tourism revenue

Opportunity: The Dong Van region is already well known for its corn wine, such as that made in Thanh Van village in Quan Ba. While there is a co-op that people can visit in the village, the region could do more to leverage the manufacture of corn wine to provide a unique experience for visitors. This would raise the value of the visitor experience while at the same time supporting manufacturing activity and marketing the Dong Van brand.

Example: The US state of Kentucky, the home of bourbon distilling, has created the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. There are nine distilleries in a mostly rural area roughly the size of Dong Van, and visitors can get a “passport” that gets stamped at each one they visit. Support is mostly through the internet and a smartphone app. The trail began with six larger distilleries but now has begun to include smaller, craft distilleries as well. Visitors are treated to bourbon tasting, tours and educational materials, and the chance to purchase the product.

International Example of Tourism Planning Best Practice: Leverage the production of unique, high value local goods to capture tourism revenue

Results: The Kentucky Bourbon Trail had 633,399 visitors in 2013 many of whom stayed for several days. This resulted in over $2 million USD in earnings for the region.

Recommendation: Create an organization of corn wine producers tasked with identifying major high quality producers around the region. Develop adequate support for tourists to come and visit multiple producers, either on their own or with a guide. Prepare marketing materials and promote with tour operators in Ha Giang and Ha Noi.

24

Task #2: Forecast and orient Development of Tourism and Economic Sectors, Sustainably Conserve and Exploit Values in Dong Van Karst Plateau

1 Introduction The four districts that comprise the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark (DVKPG) present a considerable development challenge. The area is rich in cultural diversity and natural beauty, relatively poor in human capital, and one of the more isolated parts of Viet Nam. This set of attributes has led many to the conclusion that tourism development is the best strategy to bring income to the people of the region. Certainly the success of nearby regions like Sapa suggests that similar development may be an attainable goal in Dong Van, but tourism development is not a panacea. Its benefits are often far lesser, and its costs far greater, than the claims of its more ardent proponents. Furthermore, a single-minded focus on tourism can blind policymakers to other development opportunities, and to the real opportunity costs that projects impose in a world of limited financial and operational resources. This report addresses these and related concerns in the context of Dong Van and Ha Giang Province. The report is organized as follows. The next section reviews the current thinking on the relationship between tourism development and economic development, especially in isolated places like the DVKPG. Section three outlines the preliminary findings from the initial visit of the research team in March 2015. Section four includes a set of international lessons applicable to the case of the DVKGP. Section five includes a set of preliminary recommendations for economic development in the region. Section six outlines recommendations for a research program to be undertaken in the second half of 2015, the findings from which will be used to refine and finalize the recommendations.

2 Tourism sector development and its connections to economic development In their quest for economic development, poor, isolated, rural regions with low human capital face a complex set of challenges, the crux of which is that it is nearly impossible to produce goods and services of sufficiently high quality that they can fetch a competitive price in what are by definition distant markets. Such regions lack both the human and financial capital to produce high value-added goods, and so are usually limited to the production of simple commodities: minerals, timber, and agricultural products. Unfortunately their isolation, and the high transportation costs it imposes, virtually guarantees that these goods will be priced too high for national and international markets. As a result, such regions often remain economic backwaters for generations, a state made worse by the fact that industrious residents seeking economic prospects are often lured away by the promise of greater opportunity in distant places. When such regions have the good fortune to possess stunning natural or cultural resources, such as those of the DVKPG, the prospect of tourist development can seem like a perfect solution. Rather than having to ship goods to distant markets, tourism brings the customer to the region itself. The consumers in such a scheme may even find the travel distance part of the value of the experience, flipping the region’s isolation from a detriment to an amenity. As a service industry, tourism requires little of the technical know-how necessary for the production of traditional high value-added goods and services. It is a

25 service that rural regions with low human capital and unique natural amenities can provide at a competitive cost. The result, in the minds of many, will be income that raises the standard of living and sets the region on a path toward continuous development.

2.1 Benefits of growth in tourism In reality, the results of tourism development are more complicated. Growth of the sector has been shown to have a mix of positive and negative effects, which are addressed in turn here. As an export, the tourism sector can be an important source of income from outside the region. This provides for a more favorable balance of trade (Sinclair 1998). The resulting capital is an important resource for long-run economic growth. It can contribute to capital deepening through investment in the region, including the improvement of basic infrastructure like roads and the adoption of newer technologies that improve worker productivity and thus income. Both are important drivers of long-run economic growth (Romer 1986). In particular, this capital can be used to invest in sectors other than the tourism industry. The resulting diversity can insulate the region from volatility in the tourism sector, and provide for additional opportunities for investors and workers in the reason. Finally, regional income increases result in higher tax revenue for local government which can increase its capacity to address problems in the region. Because the different economic sectors are linked through inter-industry trade and the spending induced by wage increases, the aggregate effects mentioned above are not restricted to the tourism sector. Research using input-output (IO) and applied general equilibrium (AGE) models has shown that changes in the size of the tourism sector have effects on other sectors in the region (Sinclair 1998; Wattanakuljarus and Coxhead 2008). These effects are usually greater in sectors that are closely related to tourism such as accommodation and transportation, but changes in tourism can affect more “distant” sectors like manufacturing as well (Zhou et al. 1997). The specific size of these multiplier effects is determined by the structure of the economy in question, but can be estimated if the necessary regional data are available. In addition to its aggregate effects, tourism-based economic development has potential to bring increased income to workers. The benefits of this income can raise the standard of living, and allow for individuals to invest in their own education. The specific size and distribution of these wage effects has been the subject of debate. Because a large portion of the tourism sector consists of industries such as restaurants and hotels that are associated with low-skill, low-wage jobs, the income effects may be smaller than those that would result from growth in other sectors. There is some reason to believe that this view might not reflect all experiences. Research on the tourism sector in the Philippines found that the workforce was comprised of only 16% low-skilled workers, with the remaining 84% semi-skilled, skilled, or managerial (Pye and Lin 1983). The particular skills involved range from multilingual capability to small-business management skills to a range of others. Additional support for the reliance of the tourism sector on semi-skilled and skilled labor comes from studies that have attributed slow-growing or declining tourism in particular settings to a lack of skilled labor (Liu and Wall 2006). The desirability of any particular wage rate will vary from place to place depending on the jobs and wages currently available there.

26

The specific nature of wage effect from tourism growth depends on several factors. The first of these is the nature of the tourism industry itself. If the tourism sector caters to visitors who spend little and demand few services, the resulting wages will be low. The provision of higher-value experiences through investment in and regulation of the sector, as seen in the Bhutanese tourism sector, yields higher wages (Nyaupane and Timothy 2010). The nature of the tourism industry in a particular place is thus the result of conscious policies as much as market forces. Tourist worker training programs that cater exclusively to the staffing needs of multinational tourism companies often overproduce low- or mid- skilled workers since such corporations import outside labor for high-skilled and managerial positions (Liu and Wall 2006). Providing training in small business skills, on the other hand, may allow for the growth of small companies that employ local workers exclusively. Even in the absence of multinational companies, tourism development may involve significant amounts of imported labor in higher-skilled occupations. This is not necessarily bad in the long run, since it can provide an opportunity for knowledge transfer, but in the short run it can result in a significant share of tourism related income leaving the region. An example of this is tour operators, who are normally high-skilled individuals with a wide variety of skills including marketing, event planning, and languages. Requiring operators to be licensed or to pay a concession fee allows for control over their behavior (Wattanakuljarus and Coxhead 2008). Local ownership requirements could be included in these policies as well. So long as they still provide for sufficient service quality, these requirements may channel a greater share of tourism benefits to the local area. A final consideration about the benefits of tourism sector growth is the distributional effects. Somewhat perversely, the very skills that lead to higher wages in tourism sector jobs may keep those jobs out of reach of those who most need them. Marginalized groups, women, and those engaged in subsistence agriculture may not be able to acquire tourism-related skills. As a result, members of these groups will fill only the lower wage jobs, or will be shut out of the sector entirely, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities. Here again, there is room for the public sector to share the nature of development. Workforce training and small business capital can be targeted to those most in need of it, and marginalized groups can be included in tourism planning (Liu and Wall 2006). A comparison of the experiences in different countries indicates that the creation of organizational mechanisms for capturing and dispensing the benefits of tourism at the community level, for example through a community development fund, can help distribute the benefits of tourism growth more evenly. Though not a cost, the income from tourism can be inconsistent over time. In the short term, many of the jobs associated with tourism are seasonal in nature (Sinclair 1998; ESCAP 2005). Estimates of the employment benefits of tourism must take account of this to avoid overestimation. This seasonality is not always a disadvantage. If tourism high seasons are different from growing seasons, then seasonal tourism jobs may allow households engaged in agriculture to earn additional income without abandoning their agricultural activities.

2.2 Costs of growth in tourism Growth of the tourism sector can result in adverse effects, including actual costs, as well as benefits. While these are not entirely avoidable, some may be lessened through

27 policy choices. Opportunity costs, defined as foregone benefits that would have resulted from unrealized choices at decision points, are an inherent feature of economic development policy decisions wherever resources are limited. The most obvious costs in tourism growth are those necessary to support the sector itself such as investment in physical infrastructure, particularly transportation and communications networks. Investment in human infrastructure, which is an important means of securing the benefits of tourism growth, imposes costs as well. Finally, there are likely costs in building the public sector’s ability to govern a growing tourism economy effectively. These include the creation of new positions and administrative units, educations, and the cost of technical expertise. In the case of natural and cultural resource-based tourism industries, such as that in the DVKPG, one of the biggest potential costs of tourism development is degradation of the natural and cultural amenities that are the core of the tourism “product” being sold to visitors. If visitors are allowed to come in very large numbers, or allowed to behave in ways that damage natural or cultural amenities, then the benefits of tourism may be short- lived. Examples of are fairly common, from Niagara Falls in the United States and Canada to Tibet to Sapa in northern Vietnam (Thanh Nien News 2015; VietNamNet 2013; Xiangling 2010). Overconsumption is common because natural and cultural resources are normally public goods with common ownership (Sinclair 1998). As such they tend to be under-priced by tourism vendors who are in a position to sell the experience without directly covering the costs of providing that experience. Policies that allow for some control over the number and behavior of visitors can help reduce overconsumption, as can financial mechanisms that impose a cost on the transaction. The latter technique reduces demand by increasing the price, and provides a revenue stream that can be used to maintain natural and cultural amenities. In addition to these direct effects of tourism growth, an increase in visitors may raise prices in the region (Wattanakuljarus and Coxhead 2008; Benjamin, Devarajan, and Weiner 1989). This tourism induced inflation can adversely affect both residents and non- tourism industries in the region. Households, particularly low-income households, may experience lower quality of through increasing costs of necessary goods like food and household necessities. Support for low-income households, along with a commitment to grow more slowly, may reduce some of the worst impact of inflation (ESCAP 2005). Non-tourism exporting industries in the region may see reduced competitiveness in the face of outside rivals due to localized price increases for basic factor inputs (Sinclair 1998). Tourism development may also crowd out other types of development by drawing investment away from them, and by actively or passively focusing government policies toward the benefit of tourism at the expense of other industries. These latter effects are possible through conscious policies as well as everyday decisions. In order to avoid sole dependence upon tourism, some support for other industries in the region, such as below- market financing, may also be beneficial. One important aspect of crowding out takes place at the household rather than the firm level. If residents see tourism as the only way to earn a living, then they may avoid investment into skills that are not directly related to income from tourism. This is even true for existing skills, such as those necessary for agricultural production and the production of cultural goods. Given the cyclical nature of tourism demand, this loss (or

28 failure to obtain) other skills may hamper long term growth or recovery from a decline in tourism. The combination of available tourism revenue and underinvestment in other types of skills, combined with neglect of other industries, can lead to dependence on tourism for revenue. This can result in local residents, particularly those without access to the better tourism jobs, resorting to begging or otherwise pursuing visitors. In its most negative form, the presence of potential for revenue from visitors can fuel illicit activity, sex tourism, and human trafficking (Truong, Hall, and Garry 2014). Even if these dire consequences do not occur, the loss of traditional skills degrades the visitor experience and can shorten the local lifespan of the tourism industry itself.

2.3 The net effect of tourism growth In conclusion, the net effects of growth in the tourism sector depend on the relative magnitude of the positive and negative effects mentioned above. Both have the potential to be quite large. They also can vary considerably over time. Short-term revenue can easily be outweighed by long-term costs. Too much tourism too soon can shorten the lifespan of the industry by degrading the very amenities that make it possible. A failure to support a diverse economy through investment in physical and human capital can expose the region to volatility in the tourism sector and leave it with few options in the face of sustained tourism decline. Finally, the benefits from tourism are not equally shared, but are more likely to accrue to those in a privileged position culturally, financially, or politically. The policy choices made by the public sector can have a large effect on the costs and benefits from tourism, as well as their distributional effects. In the long run, economic development depends on productivity gains, technological advances, and connectivity to markets and trade, and not simply the attraction of tourists to a region.

3 Preliminary findings on tourism and economic development in Ha Giang and DVKPG A review of previous reports and an initial visit to the region yielded some preliminary findings on the status of tourism development and economic development in DVKPG and Ha Giang province. These are presented here in the form of in informal economic base study that addresses the current conditions in the region. Because of a lack of current, scientifically collected socioeconomic data, a more formal analysis was not possible at this time. The findings included should be considered preliminary pending the analysis of such data. This caveat notwithstanding, the initial site visit did allow the research team visit all four districts included in the DVKPG and the city of Ha Giang. Along the way, the team met with representatives of Peoples’ Committees of the province, all four districts, and a number of communes. Over seven days, the team traveled hundreds of kilometers, visited each of the four main towns, more than ten cultural villages, and notable sites including Cột cờ Lũng Cú, Ma Pi Leng cliff, the palace of the Hmong king, nature preserves, and the border with China. The team visited homestays, hotels, restaurants, and interviewed owners and operators of over a dozen of them. Though not systematic, the visit produced a great deal of information which is summarized below.

3.1 Location and physical conditions The most important aspect of the DVKPG is its remoteness. Travel from Hanoi to Ha Giang is 6-8 hours by car, and from there the city of Dong Van is another 4-5 hours. As 29 mentioned in the introduction, such regions face huge transportation costs in bringing their products to markets. In most cases, this prevents the development of industries that produce commodities or goods that are easily purchased elsewhere. Dong Van is no exception. The region is not likely to develop many large scale exporting industries except for tourism and those few examples of unique local agricultural goods.

3.2 General socioeconomic conditions Ha Giang is one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam. Data from the 2006 Agriculture Census and the 2009 Population and Housing Census show that the four districts of the DVKPG are poorer and have lower literacy than the rest of the province (Figures 1 and 2). Over 90% of Figure 1 – Prosperity of households in Figure 2 – Literacy rates in Ha Giang Ha Giang province province Motorbikes per household, Source: 2006 Source: 2009 Population and Housing Agricultural Census, Vietnam GSO Census, Vietnam GSO

the population of the DVKPG belongs to one of 17 different minority ethnic groups (Martini 2011). The four districts in the DVKPG have very little manufacturing or industry, except for mining, an activity that must be phased out in order to satisfy the requirements of the Geopark designation (Martini 2011). Most of the population is engaged in agriculture, the emerging tourist economy, or in the provision of goods and services for local consumption. The region does produce some agricultural goods for export as well.

3.3 The tourism sector The tourism sector in the DVKPG is relatively undeveloped at this time. Tourists were common, but usually in small numbers. Tourists from outside of East Asia were rare. The most common visitors were Vietnamese, many of whom came on organized tours from Hanoi. Those from China and Korea were somewhat common. This was not during the fall and winter when wildflowers attract Vietnamese visitors in larger numbers, so they may not be representative. Accurate numbers of tourists in the region are difficult to obtain. The Vietnam General Statistics Office (GSO) provides visitor counts for Ha Giang province by year, but no one has yet collected data on visits to the DVKPG. Visits to the province were reported at over 200,000 in 2010, but these include visits by Chinese citizens traveling to Ha Giang city for business among others (Martini 2011). Several interviewees 30 mentioned the Khau Vai Love Market, which happens once a year in late February in the Meo Vac district, as an event with potential to attract tourists. One report cites a figure of 5000 attendees to it in 2011, though the figure may not be reliable (Martini 2011). A survey that same year found that more than 95% of Love Market visitors were Vietnamese (Martini 2011). This popularity mirrors a similar event in Sapa that one study claims attracts primarily Vietnamese men despite being touted in international guidebooks (Michaud and Turner 2006). Even if current figures are unavailable, the DVKPG has real potential to grow as a destination. Tourism revenue in Vietnam totaled over eight billion dollars in 2014 (World Travel and Tourism Council 2014). Ha Giang province has been featured in travel articles in several publications in the United States in the past year. The New York Times referred to the region as a “holy grail, far from the country’s deeply trodden tourist track” (Bleyer 2010). The popular website TripAdvisor has pages dedicated to both Ha Giang and Dong Van specifically that include several hundred posts (TripAdvisor 2015b; TripAdvisor 2015a).

3.3.1 Hotels The two main types of accommodation available in the region are smaller hotels and homestays. The hotels appear to have an average of 20-25 rooms, though a much larger one was currently under construction in the city of Dong Van. Along with restaurants, hotels are one of the core services provided by the tourism sector. That combined with their relatively small size make them the focus of local entrepreneurs. The research team spoke with several hotel owners, one of whom agreed to share how he put together the financing necessary to open his hotel (Table 1).

Table 1 – Financial resources necessary to start a hotel Financing Source Amount (US Percent (%) Dollars) Bank Loan $33,500 20 Borrowed from $16,500 10 family Personal wealth $116,500 70 TOTAL $166,500 100

Though only a single case that may not be representative of other entrepreneurs in sector, the example in Table 1 suggests several preliminary findings. First, the money necessary to start a hotel is significant. $166,500 is a considerable amount of personal wealth that remains out of reach of that vast majority of Dong van residents. The 20% of financing that came through a bank came with strict conditions including the requirement that payments be deducted automatically from earnings. The inclusion of these requirements on such a small (as a share of the total project) loan indicates that the local financial sector is either extremely cautious or lacking in competition. Whatever the cause, financing appears to be available but difficult to secure.

31

On a more positive note, the price for a room for international visitors was between ten and twenty U.S. dollars per night. Using the higher figure and assuming a 60% occupancy rate for a twenty room hotel, yields annual revenue of $85,440.1 This figure does not include operating costs, but even if these were as high as 80% of revenue it would be possible to repay the loan principal in two or three years. Actual operating costs are likely much lower since food and labor are inexpensive in DVKPG. In short, this hotel has a solid business plan that could be replicated, though only by those with significant savings, access to financing, or both. 3.3.2 Homestays Homestays were the other type of accommodation that was widely available. Many of the homestays encountered by the research team were in smaller cultural villages though some were in cities, particularly the historic quarter of Dong Van. The quality of homestays varied considerably. On the lower end, one found extremely modest ones that were little more than an unimproved side room in an unremarkable house. On the higher end were those which had been extensively renovated, often in traditional styles. Many of the cultural villages had numerous homestays, many of which were quite new, and many which had yet to welcome a single visitor. Though many visitors to Vietnam and elsewhere stay in homestays, the widespread enthusiasm for developing them in DVKPG might be misplaced. There are two main concerns about homestays in the DVKPG. First, the cost of renovating the more impressive ones was significant. In one case, renovations cost over $80,000 US. Even basic construction materials are extremely expensive in the DVKPG. Wood for construction must be imported as great cost. A cubic meter of sand is ten times more expensive in Dong Van than in Ha Giang. All of these conspire to raise the cost of construction such that one interviewee claimed that construction of a three story house in Dong Van was as expensive as that of a six or seven story house in Ha Giang. Many interview subjects noted the high cost of building in traditional styles. Given that most homestays charged only a few US dollars per night, they might not be a safe investment. Added to this, the great number of homestays that are about to open may result in oversupply for the foreseeable future. Finally, the absence of additional tourist services in some villages raised the possibility that visitors might avid some of them (and thus the homestays within them) entirely.

3.3.3 Tour operators Many visitors to DVKPG were part of organized tours. A conference attended by the research team was also attended by a dozen or so tour operators, nearly all of whom were from Hanoi. While connection to the Hanoi marketplace is important, the lack of local tour operators was cause for concern. Tour operators capture a large share of tourism revenue in less-developed regions (Wattanakuljarus and Coxhead 2008). If that case, the benefits of an increase in visits to DVKPG might flow to Hanoi rather than remain in the region to be reinvested. Furthermore, prices in DVKPG seemed lower than the market would bear. Because they control access to tourist revenue through decisions about where to stay, where to eat, and whom to hire as a local guide, tour operators may be able to play local businesses against each other to drive down prices and extract rents.

1 20 (rooms) x 365 (nights) x 60% (occupancy rate) x $20 (nightly room rate) = $85,440 32

3.4 Tourism supporting sectors In addition to the core tourism and accommodation services mentioned above, the DVKPG contains a number of sectors that have the potential to provide income to the region and support the tourism sector at the same time. For the most part, these are locally unique value-added agricultural products such as the Meo Vac mint honey, medicinal native plants, the “golden” cows, and corn wine. These sectors have multiple advantages for the region. One, their products are or could be exported, which improves the regional balance of trade, brings additional income, and diversifies the regional economy beyond just tourism. This diversification is critical, since it insulated the regional economy to volatile tourism demand. Additionally, the development of local production and exporting forms requires and supports the cultivation of a distinct set of skills that are applicable to a range of manufacturing industries such as marketing, logistics, sales, etc. A second advantage of these value-added agricultural sectors is that they reinforce the regional brand of the DVKPG. Currently, the region is mostly known for its remoteness, natural beauty, and cultural diversity as well as one or two specific landmarks like Cột cờ Lũng Cú. By developing and marketing local products throughout Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the reputation of the DVKPG grows and becomes more compelling. The local culture is not simply that of northern minority groups, but a place with unique knowledge, products, and experiences, distinct from other northern tourist areas like Sapa. This type of marketing and brand development will increase visitors to the area. The third advantage of such productive sectors is that they provide the raw material for the development of unique attractions in the region. If in the future visitors are drawn to the region not only to see things like Ma Pi Leng but also because their favorite type of corn wine is produced there, then those visitors will likely pay a premium for experiences like tours of corn wine villages and demonstrations of how the wine is made. The same holds true for other local products. Medicinal plants provide a similar example, but one where the types of services that might be offered are even more varied. Health spas, retreats, and classes in traditional medicine are all likely. The research team encountered at least one resident who was still well-versed in the identification, gathering, preparation, and use of local medicinal herbs. One positive effort that should be supported and replicated is the recent intellectual property protection granted to the Meo Vac mint honey industry. If local products are to have sustained value, then they must be protected. This includes the development of a distinct trademark that can be placed on the packaging of certified products to prevent those from outside the region from falsely using the DVKPG name. It also includes the development of standards of production for those within the region so that second rate producers do not flood the market with poor quality products and diminish the value of the brand. There is a great deal of interest in the traditional handicrafts of ethnic minorities in Vietnam, and several reports on the DVKPG have suggested that they can provide a source of income from tourists in DVKPG (Martini 2011). While this may have been the case historically, the research team saw very few examples of high quality local handicrafts. Markets were filled with brightly colored fabrics in “traditional” style, and many the people of the region could be seen wearing them, but most of them were imported from China rather than made locally. One exception to this is the women’s weaving co-op in Quan Ba 33 district, where visitors can watch the manufacture of textiles in person, and then purchase finished products on site. Another is a silversmith in the Dong Van district, but he was only a single person. There is certainly interest in local handcrafts, but at present the region does not seem to produce them in sufficient quantity or quality. One final tourism-supporting industry that might go unnoticed is subsistence agriculture itself. City dwellers from large cities like Hanoi, along with international visitors, are likely to see the agricultural practices in the DVKPG as an interesting cultural practice. Visitors would likely pay to experience and learn about agricultural practices and techniques. There were not yet obvious examples of this type of tourism amenity.

3.5 Connections to adjacent areas One final finding concerns the strength and type of relationships between the DVKPG and the surrounding regions. The main adjacent region is the provincial capital of Ha Giang. It is the largest city located near the DVKPG, and serves as an important resource for the residents of the DVKPG by providing the following: • A center of jobs and employment for those looking for work close to their home; • A larger market that includes a wider range of goods and services than those available within the DVKPG; • A market for the goods produced in the DVKPG; and • A connection to the wider world through the transportation links present in the city.

In addition to these, the city of Ha Giang could play the role of the gateway community to the DVKPG. It is relatively large with finer hotels and restaurants than those available in the DVKPG. In addition, its location in an attractive mountain valley along a river makes Ha Giang a potential destination in its own right, though redesign and redevelopment of the riverfront would make this much more likely. The other region with obvious connections to the DVKGP is China, which is only a few kilometers away from many of the cities and towns in the region. Several interviewees mentioned that it was common for Vietnamese workers to cross the border illegally in search of work. Once in China, these workers are often at the mercy of unscrupulous bosses who withhold pay and otherwise abuse them. In their attempts to return to Vietnam, the workers are at the mercy of border guards who may extract bribes. Despite these dangers, one interviewee reported that work in china was still attractive to many because workers could earn more than twice the 5-6 dollars per day that they could earn in Vietnam.

4 International lessons This section contains a set of examples of tourism and other economic development in areas with similarities to the DVKPG 4.1 Yosemite National Park, California, United States Yosemite national park is arguably the oldest National Park in the United States. Even older than the National Park Service (NPS) itself, the park was created in 1864 by an act of the U.S. Congress who ceded the land to the State of California for use as a public park. The first National Park in Yellowstone, Wyoming, was established in 1872. Yosemite was elevated to the status of the third national park in 1890 (Greene 1987). Management of

34 the park has been in the hands of the National park Service since it was created in 1916. The park today is over 3,000 km2 in size and it had over 4 million visitors in 2014 (National Park Service 2015). Though there are clearly differences between Yosemite and the DVKPG, the two areas share a great deal. They are both somewhat remote. Until the recent growth of towns in California’s Central Valley, the closest population center to Yosemite was the San Francisco Bay Area. From there it is 3-4 hours by car to Yosemite. The roads to Yosemite are small and winding, and subject to frequent closure due to weather and rockslides (Figure 3). One of the main roads through the park is routinely closed to traffic from October through May due to heavy snow. Despite their relative isolation, both areas draw visitors to their unique natural beauty (Figure 4). Figure 3 – Rockslide near Yosemite Figure 4 – Yosemite Valley and Half Dome

Photo copyright: Frank Alcazar, Creative Commons License Photo copyright: National Park Service https://www.flickr.com/photos/sisterdimension/4764945 http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm 80

35

Though preservation of the natural environment has always been a main concern in Yosemite, opinions on the appropriateness of activities has changed over time. Two examples of activities that were once major tourist draws that have since been prohibited are bear feeding and the Glacier Point “firefall”. Feeding wild bears was popular in the early days of the park, and a garbage dump was purposefully left open to bears so that they would gather there to eat discarded food to the delight of the visitors who sat in viewing stands constructed for that purpose (Greene 1987; National Park Service 2015). The Glacier Point firefall was an event where a pile of burning coals was pushed over the edge of cliff almost a thousand meters high. Viewers in the valley below were treated to a glowing “firefall” that mimicked the many waterfalls in the valley (Greene 1987; National Park Service 2015). Both activities were prohibited in the middle of the last century. Bear feeding was seen to make bears dependent on humans for food, and thus degrade the natural environment. The firefall was thought to be an un-natural distraction that distracted visitors from the abundant natural beauty of the place. Despite their absence, visitor numbers have risen over time. There are several important lessons to be drawn from the Yosemite case for the DVKPG. First, it shows that places with unique natural beauty can draw large numbers of visitors. Second, it shows that while visitors will consume and enjoy attractions and spectacles that are harmful to the natural environment, prohibiting such spectacles does not necessarily reduce tourism numbers. By making protection of the natural environment the central goal of its mission, the National Park Service has been able to attract millions of visitors per year to the park and still preserve the natural environment for over a century. Studies of the economic impact of the park also provide important lessons for the DVKPG. Visitor spending in 2009 generated an estimated $408 million in sales in and around the park. As in the case of the DVKPG and the city of Ha Giang, there are several gateway cities just outside of Yosemite that provide places for visitors to stay when park accommodations are full along with a range of activities not available within the park. In 2009, 53% of visitor spending occurred outside of the park itself (Cook 2011). This findings shows that the DVKPG has the potential to be a major source of revenue not just for the four districts within it but also for the city of Ha Giang itself along with the rest of the province.

4.2 Homestays in Bali, Indonesia The cultural villages and homestays in the DVKPG are mostly modest accommodations. Visitors pay a small fee for food and lodging and the experience of sleeping in the house in a traditional village. The rustic atmosphere is an attraction for some, but it represents only one fairly low revenue model of a homestay. A contrasting example can be found in the homestays offered in Bali in Indonesia. Bali is certainly different from Dong Van, in that it is more widely known and is associated with peace and a high quality of life more than wildness and rustic living. Despite those differences, the homestays in Bali are an important contrast to those in the DVKPG in several ways. First, they offer a range of service levels, including some that offer service comparable to that found in hotels. Visitors are

36 offered a range of services including classes in cooking, coffee cultivation, meditation, traditional crafts, and a chance to work in and learn about rice cultivation (Bali Homestay 2015). These allow homestays in Bali to charge $175 for a three day, two night stay. This is more than ten times the revenue of homestays in the DVKPG. One key aspect of the Bali homestay model is that they offer visitors a wide range of activities, each of which carries its own charge. In an isolated village, this model could support a larger number of small enterprises, each of which was mutually reinforcing and contributing to the overall product. Not every homestay in the DVKPG could follow this model, but some can, and nearly every cultural village would benefit from expanding the services provided by residents.

4.3 Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky, United States The US state of Kentucky is home to the production of bourbon, distilled alcohol made from at least 51% corn. Though the bourbon market is still dominated by brands like Jim Beam, in the past several decades the popularity of smaller distilleries has increased (Ridley 2014). To capitalize on the growing interest in bourbon, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association created the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 1999 (Kentucky Distillers’ Association 2015). The trail is essentially a network of bourbon distilleries that tourists can visit to learn about the history of bourbon, how it is made, and to taste and purchase different types. The trail includes nine distilleries in a mostly rural area roughly the size of Dong Van. Visitors can print a “passport” that gets stamped at each one they visit. Visitor support is mostly through the internet and a smartphone app, so there is very little physical infrastructure associated with the project (Figure 5). Figure 5 – Images from the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Webpage (http://kybourbontrail.com)

In the sixteen years since it was founded, the bourbon trail has grown considerably. Yearly visitor numbers are difficult to obtain, but more than 60,000 people have visited all nine distilleries over the lifetime of the trail, and over 700,000 visitors toured at least one Kentucky distillery in 2013 (Kornstein and Luckett 2014). Total economic impact estimates are not available for the trail since no single agency collects data on expenditures for all types of visitors. A survey of visitors who signed up for a Bourbon Trail Passport, a small fraction of total visitors, yielded an estimated impact of over two million in wages across the state in 2012 (Kornstein and Luckett 2014).

37

The lesson from the Kentucky Bourbon Trail is that even widely dispersed production facilities can serve as the foundation of a successful tourist attraction with some investment on the part of each and organization and marketing efforts. The Bourbon Trail supports the image and brand of Kentucky, and attracts visitors to the state. At the same time, it is an important marketing tool for one of the state’s largest exports. This model of mutually reinforcing production and tourist sectors is one that could be replicated in the DVKPG with corn wine.

4.4 Minnesota Agricultural Extension Program, Minnesota, United States The University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in Chanhassen, Minnesota, opened in 1908 with about 35 hectares of land. It currently employs five research scientists and a team of assistants. Researchers at the center developed the popular Honeycrisp apple and received intellectual property protection for it in the early 1990s. Over the 20 years from 1991-2011, licensing revenue totaled over $10 million dollars, making it the second or third most valuable product ever developed by the university (Seabrook 2011). Though development of the apple took many years, it was mostly the result of traditional breeding methods rather than those that rely on high technology. It is thus an example of how research into agricultural products in a rural area can lead to the significant discoveries that result in significant revenue. The lessons for the DVKPG are that the production of high value-added agricultural goods can be a significant source of revenue, and that public support for such industries may be beneficial in places that lack significant capital resources. This is particularly the case in a place with a separate dominant industry. As mentioned above, tourism development has the potential to crowd out other sectors, of which agricultural production is one. Without public support, research on existing and potential agricultural products may languish. Taken together with the example of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, one can see how the development of unique agricultural products for export can support tourism directly rather than compete with it.

5 Preliminary recommendations – economic and tourism development Together with the current understanding of the economics of tourism development covered in section two, the preliminary findings and international lessons suggest several strategies for tourism and economic development in the DVKPG. These are not final recommendations, but rather preliminary ones that will be further refined using the results of the further research addressed in the final section of the report. 5.1 Recommendations for general tourism and economic development • Develop a greater variety of services for tourists including a wider variety of services in cultural villages. • Where possible, use the presence of other sectors like value-added agriculture to develop tourist amenities. • Where the development of new industries would benefit the tourism sector, support the creation of those industries. One example of this would be to 38

support the production of low-cost construction materials that maintain the character of traditional building styles. This would provide jobs and income, but would also lower the cost of providing a high quality visitor experience by increasing the number and appeal of restored and new buildings. • Develop and enforce a program to keep tourism revenue in the region, such as by requiring licenses for tour operators in the DVKPG. This might require partnerships between local and outside tour operators if the latter possess necessary expertise, but the licensing process offers an opportunity to enforce a more beneficial division of revenues.

5.2 Recommendations for financing and investment in economic development • Provide responsible but obtainable financing for small- and medium-sized enterprises that would improve the tourism sector or those sectors closely related to it. • Provide a mechanism for local communities to distribute tourism revenues, such as through community development funds. • Encourage the public sector to identify alternatives to homestays for investment in cultural and other villages. Doing so could provide the seed capital for the SMEs mentioned above, and will avoid the overproduction of homestays before the actual demand for their services can be determined through market mechanisms.

5.3 Recommendations for households and workers • Provide the necessary skills training to workers interested in the tourism sector including language proficiency but also small business skills. Where possible, target this training toward those most in need of jobs and income, such as the poor and those in traditionally marginalized groups. • Provide for training in handicrafts production. This could be traditional handicrafts, perhaps from those who still possess such knowledge if it exists in the region. It could also include the development of new handicraft skills, since the interest in local production seems to be fairly broad. • Work with Chinese authorities to develop a guest worker program between the DVKPG and neighboring Chinese regions. The Chinese economy clearly demands workers at wages attractive to Vietnamese workers, so normalizing this labor force would offer protection to Vietnamese workers and provide a source of income to the region until its own economy could provide competitive wages for all. • Monitor inflation in the region closely to ensure that tourism development does not lower the standard of living.

39

• Develop a program to fund scholarships for promising students from the DVKPG to receive industry specific advanced training in Hanoi and elsewhere.

5.4 Recommendations for a regional policy that would support the DVKPG • Develop the city of Ha Giang as a gateway community to the DVKPG. This would include urban infrastructure development, particularly along the river, and the development of a DVKPG visitor center that would connect visitors to tours and information. • Actively market the products of the DVKPG in specific stores in Ha Giang. Such products are not easily identifiable to outsiders at present. • Provide workforce training to DVKPG residents that is useful for growing industries in Ha Giang province. • Look for opportunities to encourage successful entrepreneurs in Ha Giang to partner with DVKPG residents in joint ventures.

5.5 Recommendations for building planning and governing capacity • Advocate for the collection of high quality data on tourism in the DVKPG. At present there is a great deal that remains unknown. A capable program of data collection and analysis is necessary for the monitoring and evaluation of policies. International donors and investors will likely require this. • Build the capacity of the public sector to collect, analyze, and use data on the regional economy, perhaps in partnership with the Vietnam General Statistics Office.

6 Preliminary recommendations – further focused research The final section of this report outlines a set of further research aims that may be undertaken in later stages of this project. 6.1 Survey of households The research team should conduct a household survey to determine the skills and competencies in the region, the need and interest in acquisition of new skills, and the vulnerability of households to the adverse effects of tourism development. Such a survey should take account of the differences between the four districts, as well as that between urban and more rural households. Among the latter, it should distinguish between identified cultural villages and other villages.

6.2 Survey of business establishments In similar fashion, the research team should conduct a survey of business establishments in the DVKPG to determine competencies, needs, available sources of financing, and connectivity to markets.

40

6.3 survey of tourists Though it is outside the capability of this project, expenditure data from tourists would be quite useful. Surveys at Cột cờ Lũng Cú, the palace of the Hmong king, and the town centers might provide sufficient numbers to estimate rough trends in visitor behavior and spending. Given the near total absence of such data at resent, even rough estimates would be an improvement.

6.4 Development of an impact model for Ha Giang province Using national level data from the Asian Development Bank, input output tables could be developed for Ha Giang province. This would require a fair amount of provincial and national data from the GSO, but would provide provincial authorities with a tool that they could use to compare and evaluate policy and investment opportunities in the future. This would support the capacity-building strategies mentioned in section 5.5.

41

Task #3: Forecast and orient infrastructural development to serve for socio-economic development demand, especially tourism ______The Dong Van Karst Pleateau Global Geopark is the first geopark in Vietnam. It is located in the northernmost region of the country in the Ha Giang Province and borders China. Home to 17 different ethnic groups, the region has a rich ethnic and cultural heritage. While the designation of the geopark bodes well for increased tourism to the region, there are many social, economic, and environmental challenges that arise from the geopark designation. This report will focus on some key social and economic challenges and assets that face the Ha Giang region based on site visits, interviews, meetings, and focus groups with local officials, local government staff, business owners, and community members, between March 8-15, 2015 by consultants from Third Rock LLC.

This preliminary report highlights five key challenges. These challenges include: high poverty rates, low education and skill levels for the new economy, low job diversity, lack of career ladders, few resources for business innovation and entrepreneurship, and preserving ethnic and cultural heritage.

Poverty

Challenge: The Ha Giang Province is among the poorest regions in Vietnam. The regional economy is largely based on farming, both crop and animal. The crop yield is largely dependent on rainfall levels as there is very little irrigation infrastructure. Therefore, farming productivity is largely dependent on seasonal rainfall levels and this region sometimes suffers from drought.

Questions: • How will economic development and growth affect poverty levels? • Will the new market-based economy and new jobs created by the geopark designation lift all boats or will economic prosperity be unequally distributed?

Example: The Yen Minh district has the highest rates of poverty in the region. The geopark designation has placed restrictions on the destruction of natural resources. While this is a positive goal for preservation and conservation, the closing down of mines and restrictions on deforestation may further limit residents’ ability to make a living.

Recommendations:

1. Identify populations most affected by restrictions imposed by the geopark and assist them in adapting economically to the new economy.

42

2. Target poor populations that are proximately located near corridors or centers of growth and development (e.g. along major arterial roads) to develop education and skills to take advantage of the growing tourism economy as well as other growing job sectors 3. Identify employers that can utilize the key human assets found in the region: hard working, industrious, and strong. Some examples of employers that would benefit from this labor force include manufacturers and food processors.

Education and Skills for Jobs in the New Economy

Challenge: The low education and limited skill sets among the residents of the Ha Giang Province pose challenges to transition to new industries, such as tourism. Working in the tourism industry will require skills and additional education about hospitality and tourism. For potential entrepreneurs, business planning, marketing and sales education would be beneficial. While many residents do have good skills in farming and crafting, these skills are not necessarily transferable to the new economy.

Questions: • How can workforce development skills and education be provided to those who need it most? • What type of workforce development would be most beneficial in the new economy?

Example: During a visit to the Giay Cultural Village in Yen Minh, where there are 54 households and roughly 259 individuals, we were told that all the children receive an education. The vast majority of children in this village go to school to become a teacher. Upon receiving their teaching credentials in Ha Giang, they are unable to find jobs. They return to the village, get married, and work on the farm. Since 2013, there have been very few jobs outside of farming.

Recommendations:

1. Provide occupational training in hospitality and tourism in areas that have a high capacity labor force. 2. Distinguish between skills and education needed to serve domestic versus international tourists and provide different types of training. 3. Provide basic English language education to serve international tourists.

Diversity in Jobs

Challenge: While growing the tourism industry may be one strategy to transition the Ha Giang Province from an agrarian-based economy to a more modern economy, more attention should be paid to diversifying employment sectors and jobs. A more

43 robust economy that is resilient to economic downturns is one that is more diversified. While this diversification may take some time, identifying other sectors besides tourism and investing in firm recruiting can occur in the short-term.

Questions: • What are the complimentary industries to existing industries already located in the Ha Giang Province? • Considering the assets in the region, what types of businesses could be recruited to locate in the Ha Giang Province? • Considering Ha Giang’s geographic location, what makes the region economically competitive?

Example: During our visit to the Quyet Tien Commune in the Quan Ba District, it was reported that herbs grow in the wild and individuals are beginning to collect the herbs to sell to an herbal medicine company. The herbal medicine company processes the herbs, packages it, and resells it. The processing and packaging occurs in Hanoi and not in the Quan Ba District. This value-added process is exported to other districts, but could stay in the Quan Ba District in order that the people in the district reap the profits. But, individuals living in Quan Ba do not have the knowledge and training to process the herbal medicine.

Recommendations:

1. Identify complimentary industries/jobs that could be recruited to the Ha Giang region. 2. Consider incentives to attract complementary industries/jobs to the Ha Giang region. 3. Determine the regional economic competitiveness of Ha Giang and what industries/firms could be recruited that could benefit from the location of the region along existing or future trade routes. 4. Plan future infrastructure investments in coordination with industry/job recruitment.

Career Ladders

Challenge: While the expansion of the tourism industry is one possible avenue for economic development, the jobs in the tourism industry often lack a career ladder. Therefore, the salaries provided by service sector jobs such as in the tourism industry are often low wage and capped at a very low rate. Based on our brief visit to the region, it appears that the sector that has the most promise for career advancement is in government. Many young people aspire to work in government jobs for this reason.

Questions: • What industries/professions in Vietnam offer career ladders? 44

• Can Ha Giang recruit industries that offer career ladders?

Example: In the United States, the health care industry is an example of an industry with an extensive career ladder and on the job professional training often allows workers to move up the career ladder. Sometimes, to advance in pay and rank, additional training and education is involved. For example, lower wage workers might assist with hospice care or home care. If they want to increase their responsibilities and pay, they may go to school to obtain a nursing degree. Nurses, relative to hospice care workers make significantly higher salaries. If nurses want further advancement, they can get addition education and become a physician’s assistant. Physician’s assistants receive higher salaries than nurses, on average, and can do many of the same things that doctor’s do, such as prescribe medication. Once an individual enters the health care profession, even at the lower occupational levels, they are exposed to the career ladder and learn about what it takes to move to the next wrung of the ladder.

Recommendations:

1. Recruit employers that offer the possibility for career advancement. Be careful not to recruit only employers that offer low-wage employment without the ability for career advancement. 2. Given that the government sector currently has opportunities for career advancement, provide education and training to work in the government sector to those groups that are the most disadvantaged. 3. Provide targeted outreach to ethnic groups and populations that are the most disadvantaged and are least able to be employed to provide education and training for government jobs.

Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Challenge: The Vietnamese people value and encourage entrepreneurship. There is much evidence of untapped potential for increased entrepreneurship, but the main challenge in the Ha Giang Province is connecting entrepreneurs to economic and technical capital. Connecting individuals to capital can be done through a number of local/provincial/national government organizations, banks, and non-governmental organizations. There appears to be few organizations and institutions in the region that provide a bridge to this type of capital for people who want or need it.

Example: We interviewed a new hotel owner who has a corn liquor distillery in the rear portion of his hotel. When he first made his liquor he was able to sell it easily. Over time, more individuals began distilling and selling corn liquor, thereby increasing competition and making it difficult for him to sell his liquor. He does not have the knowledge or capacity to market or sell his liquor to distributors or retailers. More business development and education could help the hotel owner to expand both his hotel and corn liquor businesses.

45

Recommendations:

1. Identify high capacity individuals/households and provide them with the minimum capital assistance needed to develop their business. 2. Identify a community organization that could provide economic and technical capital to help promote entrepreneurship and economic development. 3. Develop an “innovation fund” that could provide monetary support to the community organization that will provide the economic and technical capital. An innovation fund could work as a revolving loan fund so that money is continually re-invested in new businesses. 4. Develop a long-term strategic plan that would allow the community organization to be revenue generating, thereby not dependent on government support. This would make it more sustainable and replicable across different Provinces throughout Vietnam.

Preserving Ethnic and Cultural Heritage

Challenge: With increasing growth, development, and tourism comes the challenge of preserving what makes the Ha Giang Province unique and special: the ethnic and cultural heritage. We heard numerous leaders raise concerns about how rapid growth and tourism might destroy the existing way of life and turn the region into an overly tourist destination such as Sapa. Ha Giang has 17 ethnic groups that live quite harmoniously. The proximity of the ethnic villages to one another provides a density of historic and cultural richness not found in many other places in the world. This is an incredible asset and offers the region a unique identity. Yet, increased tourism and a transition to a tourism economy may alter the traditional way of life that then makes the region less attractive from a historical and cultural standpoint.

Questions: • What rate of growth and development would be sensitive to preserving the history and culture of the Ha Giang region? • How should growth and development be phased and strategically located to best preserve the ethnic and cultural heritage of the region? • What planning and historic preservation tools can be used to preserve the history and culture within the region?

Example: During our visit to the Bat Dai Son Reserve, we were told that the reserve contains many different types of interesting species of flora and fauna. In addition, there were four communes that lie within the reserve. This reserve has been envisioned as a future site for eco-tourism, thereby attracting international tourists and becoming a destination. Currently, the roads are very windy and it is difficult to get to the reserve. While there has been much discussion about improving the roads and making it more accessible to tourists, this reserve may be an area in which the 46 tourism infrastructure should be better developed before road access is improved. There are only six staff members who work on the reserve and the capacity to preserve and regulate activities in the reserve area are already maxed out. The government should take the opportunity to build more capacity by hiring more staff, developing a plan for environmental conservation and preservation as well as ways to develop the tourism infrastructure before creating better accessibility.

Community Based Assets

1. “Cam Sang” – the oranges in the region which have a distinct taste 2. “Kobe” beef from the “golden cow” 3. multicolored sticky rice – colors made out of natural ingredients 4. Beautiful agricultural landscape 5. Flowers and flower festival (VN tourists come to take selfies) 6. Rice and corn liquor distilled in the region 7. Textiles: linen 8. The people in the region: the ethnic and cultural richness 9. Crafts: hand made crafts from the ethnic groups 10. Natural heritage, biodiversity, temperature, beauty, landscape 11. Self-sufficiency of the people and villages – many produce enough food and goods to live off of, but maybe not enough to build wealth 12. Strong community cohesion, collaboration, and resilience in communities (example is that they walk long distances to get water when there is a drought) 13. Geographic proximity to China, Laos, Cambodia, and other countries along a trade route 14. Low labor costs 15. Strong work ethic 16. Dong Van leadership – strong and cohesive leadership 17. Dong Van district: has already begun to position itself as a gem of the region by historic and ethnic preservation, development of homestays, developing tourism infrastructure (through training the government staff) 18. Ha Giang is the gateway into the region and can serve as a launching off point for tourism in the region

Community Based Challenges

1. Tourism infrastructure is underdeveloped: few middle to high-end hotels 2. Recreational infrastructure is underdeveloped 3. Hospitality training is low 4. Little marketing or branding of the region to international travelers 5. Poverty is high relative to other regions of the country 6. Border security poses challenges 7. Currently, there is no official policy that allows visitors to come to the reserve 47

8. Roads are windy, narrow, and not well-maintained 9. Preservation of forests conflicts with tradition of farming 10. Low levels of education 11. Lack of high paying jobs 12. Low capacity for business development for businesses catering to international tourism: low English language skills, low education 13. Water: lack of reserves, dependent on rain water 14. Access to ports: far from major ports which creates challenges to trade 15. Accessibility for international tourists: no airport or train coming into Ha Giang. Closest airport is Hanoi.

Preliminary Recommendations:

1. The Dong Van business district serves as a model for historic preservation of homes and public space. The local government has invested considerable monetary resources to preserve public spaces and develop cohesive urban design that is sensitive to the region’s history and culture. Other local governments in the region should place as much emphasis on historic preservation. 2. Identify ways to encourage private actors to contribute to historic preservation. This could be done by developing urban design guidelines and historic preservation districts. 3. Consider Smart Growth Principles that can allow for the preservation of open space, farmland, critical environmental areas, and historic/ethnic/cultural assets. 4. Find additional ways to celebrate and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity of the region through the cultivation of traditional art, craft, and food.

48

Task #4: Propose Spatial Development Orientation of the Urban- Tourist Centers of Tam Son, Yen Minh, Meo Vac and Dong Van ______

The development of historic urban centers is one of the most successful long term strategies for creating and maintaining value to residents, tourists and other visitors. The four centers in Dong Van Geo Park should be seen as opportunities to build towns that are long-term assets for the visitor industry to Dong Van. While each center will have its own identity, the Geo Park criterion require an emphasis on cultural preservation and continuity. Thus, spatial orientation for each of the town centers must begin with some principles for preserving historic structures and incentivizing/requiring new construction that enhances the historic cultural aspects of each town.

Strategies for urban design that integrate historic assets with modern infrastructure, affordability and community-based development have proven successful in a number of instances. Charleston, South Carolina, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Luang Prabang, Laos have all consciously used their historic structures and designs, combined with thoughtful urban policies and other incentives to create urban-scale built environments that have become sustainable and authentic.

Both Charleston and Santa Fe have established design guidelines and/or historic preservation overlay districts in their downtown centers. These requirements incentivize the use of traditional building materials that develops a light industry opportunity for local entrepreneurs and craftspeople.

49

Charleston, South Carolina, USA is a major tourist destination in the United States. From 2011-2013 it was ranked as the top US tourist destination by Conde Nast Traveler magazine (readership voting of 16,000 locations worldwide), and the tourism Industry in Charleston generated $3.58 billion from 4.83 million visitors in 2012. The unique colonial-era built environment of Charleston has been facilitated by four regulations embedded in South Carolina state laws, guidelines and practices: 1) conduct a historic structures survey, 2) create a historic preservation overlay district, 3) develop and implement a strong public education program, 4) prioritize preservation planning as part of the norms of planning.

Similarly, New Mexico, USA is an excellent example of historic preservation. Santa Fe, New Mexico – the state’s capital and most remarkable urban cluster, ranked as the second best tourist destination in the USA in 2013 by Conde Nast Traveler magazine. Moreover, the state received 32 million visitors in 2012 despite its remote location, spending $5.5 billion. Importantly, these visitors generated an additional $612 million in state and local tax revenues in 2012.

The case of Santa Fe illustrates how a local ordinance set in 1957 and requiring any new development be designed according to one of several appropriate Spanish-related styles. These requirements placed on new construction were intended to enhance the limited number of restored historic structures in the city, and to create the “feel” of an old city, but in a way that allowed for the construction of modern-equipped buildings. The resulting built environment is unique in being completely built of adobe-style structures, most of which are constructed of concrete and modern materials. This physical design is what makes the city such a strong tourist destination.

50

The largest challenge that both Charleston and Santa Fe face is the cost of implementing historic overlay districts requiring new construction in styles consistent with the historic structures. In both cases, these overlays increase the cost of construction because they require finishes and specialized materials. On the other hand, the designation of a historic overlay district does create a new market, and with careful planning and coordination of the construction law with support for small businesses that produce new building materials and systems consistent with the overlay district requirements. Such careful coordination would establish a market for historically-oriented building systems through the design requirements, while at the same time supporting small businesses and producers developing the technologies and products to be sold into this new market for construction. This synergy for Dong Van appears to be particularly appropriate for the case of H’mong style architecture, which relies on rammed earth and wood, in a way similar to the adobe style of Santa Fe. Thus, material is local and cheap, but as is the case with New Mexico, cement can be used to strengthen the rammed earth to build more modern structures.

3/15/2015 santa fe urban fabric - Google Maps

201 Old Santa Fe Trail 3/15/2015 santa fe urban fabric - Google Maps Santa Fe, New Mexico Street View - Apr 2014

Untitled Ken Tamura Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA Photo

Image capture: Apr 2014 © 2015 Google

3/15/2015 santa fe urban fabric - Google Maps

101 Old Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe, New Mexico

Street View - Nov 2011

https://www.google.com/maps/search/santa+fe+urban+fabric/@35.685968,-105.937953,3a,75y,77h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sCasXkVehtDPU1ADCzpX0aw!2e0 1/1

Photos are copyrighted by their owners

! " https://www.google.com/maps/search/santa+fe+urban+fabric/@35.684083,-105.937694,3a,75y,90t/data=!Historically-referenced,3m5!1e2!3m3!1s-H1cBBds4Rzg%2FR5st1Cci2AI%2FAAAAAAAAEOU%2FBliRMb3gIBU!2e4!3 e12 1/1 Image capture: Nov 2011 © 2015 Google Actual Historic 3/15/2015 santa fe urban fabric - Google Maps 070520-0073 Santa Fe, New Mexico but modern: parks, www.jackrogersphotography.com # Jack Rogers Structure on the Photo streetscapes and National Registry https://www.google.com/maps/search/santa+fe+urban+fabric/@35.686943,-105.93807,3a,75y,94h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sMscdOEhlr52riNANYT73ng!2e0 1/1 buildings $ A Historically-referenced Construction Industry Using Affordable Local Materials

is a Sustainable Economy that Creates Photos are copyrighted by their owners Community-based Jobs 133

https://www.google.com/maps/search/santa+fe+urban+fabric/@35.6869752,-105.937799,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m5!1e2!3m3!1s-0FJNUl470_A%2FU52HcHVqEBI%2FAAAAAAAAanI%2FlQTsQwKuh00!2e4!3e12 1/1

These cases of Charleston and Santa Fe suggest that there is some additionally needed technical research to be done following on this project: 1) an inventory of historic and historically-designed structures, 2) a legal framework (national, provincial AND local) for designing an overlay district, 3) more specific financing options for town center development, and 4) the creation of a Design Review Board.

51

Beyond the general link between historic structures and new construction that each town center will need to prioritize, the four towns will have distinct characteristics. The overall plan for Dong Van Geo-Park development calls for the development of the park’s town centers along specific criteria. In particular, the Tam Son center is designated as an Entertainment Tourism Center, Yen Minh is designated as a Green Urban Center, Meo Vac is designated as a Scientific and Adventure Tourism Center, and Dong Van is designated as a Cultural and Historic Tourism Center. These overarching identities are useful and provide a starting point for creating distinctive and complementary centers in Dong Van that should guide future development. Based on an understanding of small town centers in similar locations from around the world, the plan should flesh out specific strategies for tourism and other economic development that should be prioritized as follows.

Tam Son: Entertainment Tourism Center

Tam Son is the closest settlement to the Park’s main entry point on the road from Ha Giang City, and will likely be the most easily accessed center for tourists and therefore is likely to receive the greatest number. Thus, the “entertainment” identity appears appropriate.

52

Being the most convenient center to access, Tam Son sohould prepare to host the most number of visitors, and creating a vibrant, mixed-use town center with sufficient hotels, restaurants, and other entertainment amenities is critical. This center should have a some educational facilities about the park, but also should serve as a place for urban Vietnamese and others to “get away” from their daily lives for a weekend or a couple of days. Thus, the center should prioritize “relaxing but fun” activities that a very wide range of visitors can engage, such as music, cooking, and personal services, for example. In addition to being fun and relaxing, the town center should promote “repeat visitors” that establish a long-term relationship with the place so that they come back on an annual basis, for example.

One way to encourage this kind of repeat visitor is to center the development strategy around “visitors” rather than around “tourists.” As has been done in the State of Hawaii, the concept of “visitors” rather than tourists encourages a range of products able to attract outsiders to come to the location. There must, however, be reasons to encourage these kinds of repeat visitors. One way to develop this visitor industry is to attract and secure an anchor cultural or sporting event. Honolulu, Hawaii has the annual Honolulu Marathon, as well as the annual Honolulu International Film Festival. Sundance Film Festival, and the Tour de France also are long-term, sustainable events that annually bring very large numbers of committed visitors to their respective locations. Each “product” targets a specific kind of high-value visitor that sees their travel as much more than a general tourist experience. It is a way for these interest-groups to reconnect with their personal and professional interests, and they are generally associated with very loyal visitor bases. A second aspect of this type of visitor industry is its cyclical nature. This characteristics facilitates marketing through event planning, and also takes advantage of the existing labor force present in Dong Van. Since most of the population are subsistence farmers, cyclical events can be timed according to agricultural cycles in

53 which there are extended periods of labor availabiltiy of the local population. Such coordinated timing will allow a gradaul integration of farming activities with the steady growth of a tourism-oriented labor force.

Spatial development plans and strategies, therefore, should prioritize two aspects:

1. Develop and expand town center with core night-market, walkable hotel/hostel town square, with music, food, services (e.g. study tours of cooking, crafts, etc); 2. Secure anchor cultural or sporting event that leverages the seasonal availability of agricultural labor and dispersed natural/cultural environment (e.g. annual film festival, Marathon, Tour-de-Tam Son bike race, etc).

54

Yen Minh: Restoration (i.e. Green Urban)

According to the overall plans, Yen Minh is designated as a Green Urban town center. However, after the preliminary investigation, the 3rd Rock Team suggests adapting the town center’s identity slightly to emphasize “Restoration Ecotourism,” which is one way of framing the overall idea of a Green Urban town center. There are two reasons for this refinement of the name. First, one of the unique aspects of Dong Van GeoPark is the cultural knowledge of traditional medicines, and the extensive medicinal herb industry in the region. Unlike the more mountainous towns of Meo Vac and Dong Van, Yen Minh is known for its agricultural products. Combining an existing practice of traditional medicine in the Dong Van region with the ability to grow a range of agricultural and herbal products means that Yen Minh is well positioned to develop an identity as a place to “recover, recharge, and relax.” Rather than coming for an annual event, or to get away for a weekend, Yen Minh’s identity should associate with longer-term recovery and restoration. For example, clients of traditional medical practice should be encouraged to focus their practices in Yen Minh, and welcome clients to come for multiple-week or multiple-month stays, since much of traditional medicine requires sustained treatment with herbs and practices.

55

This restoration and recovery identity is also important because Yen Minh is located very close to a major environmental liability: Mau Due Antimony Factor and Slag Heap. Several kilometers outside of town, the factory poses significant challenges to identifying Yen Minh as a “green town.” 3rd Rock recommends taking a pro-active approach to planning for the conversion of the factory into disuse in 10 years. Rather than risk having environmentally-oriented visitors “discover” the factory and feel misled about Yen Minh and Dong Van, planners should incorporate the Mau Due factory into a broader story of Yen Minh as a place to recover; just as people will recover in Yen Minh town through traditional medical practices and long-term recovery, the Mau Due factory site will restore itself through reforestation and adaptive reuse.

56

Spatial development plans and strategies, therefore, should prioritize a dual-cluster TOWN of TREES – restorative health center and light industry:

1. Town Center a. Maximize Efforts to preserve and plant mature mango trees as unique resource in town center; b. Provide locational incentives (housing, infrastructure) for certified herbal medicinal practitioner operations/treatment; c. Provide retail space for medicinal value-added processing for the region d. Add bypass route for traffic OR develop restoration services only on one side of main road. 2. Mau Due Factory Site a. Incentivize small- and medium sized enterprises to scale up artisanal building materials; 3. Reforestation throughout district

Meo Vac: Scientific & Adventure Tourism

Dong Van Geo-Park is an extensive landscape that has only begun to be explored from a scientific perspective, and one of the criterion for park designation and continued re- designation is scientific exploration. As discussed earlier in this report, there are international examples of scientific tourism that are particularly appropriate for the Geo Park. Meo Vac town will be the center that serves as the “jumping off point” for much of this exploration. This town, therefore, will have to be able to host more technically- oriented visitors and spaces to hold meetings and conduct technical research over relatively long stays. Moreover, Meo Vac should be able to host relatively large teams of students and others doing the field work.

Since these scientific visitors are tasked with accessing the more remote parts of Dong Van GeoPark, their needs fit well with the needs of adventure tourists. Thus, the investment in Meo Vac does not need to be extensive, but what is most important is that there are clean and affordable accommodations, excellent technical support such as business services (internet, printing, telecommunications, etc), and a number of food options. None of these requirements needs to be luxurious, but they must be absolutely reliable and consistent. In the longer term, to make Meo Vac a starting point for scientific tourism, it is important to secure university and scientific research partnerships.

Spatial development plans and strategies, therefore, should prioritize designs with education and research in mind:

1. Build partnerships with Vietnamese and foreign universities; 2. Create a district targeted to student/researcher visitors convenient for multi-week stays 3. Infrastructure and services for student groups

57

4. Provide a central, relatively high-end interdisciplinary scientific space/facilities for a. A mountain biodiversity research station connected to Dong Van’s new conservation areas/preserves; b. A branch of the National Hospital of Traditional Medicine (research and training of practitioners); c. Geological displays and history; d. Spelunking and cave mapping.

Dong Van: Cultural and Historic Tourism

Dong Van town center currently has the strongest identity, and already has very good assets in its historic district and structures. Moreover, as one of the two more remote centers in Dong Van Geo Park, it should be the most impressive physical center in the park. The major challenge here is to facilitate an urban design that conserves and enhances the physical appearances of the town as it modernizes. The town center has several good assets in place already. First, the walkable downtown area has a cluster of hotels and restaurants close to a three-street district surrounding the old marketplace, which has maintained is historic character. Second, it has a high cliff in the downtown area with a French-era fort/prison that provides stunning vistas of the town and the surrounding mountains, as well as an interesting historic site. Third, the town is an active center for many different ethnic minority people who come to the market each Sunday and create a very distinctive ethnic and visible character for the town.

58

Despite these assets, the town also appears to have a very weak planning system. Projects have been allowed that undermine some of these characteristics, such as a nondescript and modern tower built right in the center of the historic district, as well as a large neon sign at the top of the hill next to the old French fort/prison. Each project is inconsistent with the overall character of the town center projecting a sense of culture and history, and threatens to undermine the underlying assets.

Spatial development plans and strategies, therefore, need to create a landmark town center by: 1. Planning out and implementing a very strong strategy based on the Santa Fe (New Mexico) and Charleston (South Carolina) Historic Preservation Guidelines; 59

2. Developing policies/regulations that coordinate with the affordability of historic- style construction; 3. Developing the French military overlook to connect with the town center; 4. Retaining the interspersed agricultural land with the developed areas; 5. Building to scale (picture of market) 6. Providing a Strong Integration of Documentation, Project Development and Local Ordinances a. Where are all the historic and historically-referenced structures in the town; b. What are the major “anchor” preservation projects that the central and provincial government have invested in; c. What are the incentives/disincentives for residents to coordinate with these projects? .

60

Task #5: Propose a Model for Dong Van Karst Plateau Management, Exploitation and Development According to Planning and the Priority Programs and Projects ______

Create a local authority that focuses specifically on spatial planning issues.

Dong Van GeoPark is an ambitious project that requires deliberate attention towards planning, implementation and evaluation/monitoring. Strong attention to the details of these aspects of parks planning and management is critical not just for the general awareness and tracking of the park, but even for the designation of Dong Van as a Global Geo Park in the first place. The importance of establishing and strengthening good management systems cannot be overstated, and the management system criterion in the original parks designation application is valued the most highly by external evaluators.

The importance placed on management systems results from the complexity of planning and developing a very wide territory of varying natural and social conditions, the complexity of planning and developing a cultural landscape that includes over ???? ethnicities and cultures, as well as an ambitious target for tourism and economic development based on the park designation. 3rd Rock believes that this kind of complexity requires the creation of a strong development authority overseen by national bodies, and managed by technical experts from a range of fields. The scale of operations is similar to the development goals and strategies embodied by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and other regional development authorities in the United States created in 1933. Franklin Roosevelt described this new and innovative development authority in ways that are precisely relevant to the Dong Van management challenge in Viet Nam today. He envisioned TVA as a totally different kind of agency, describing it as “a corporation clothed with the power of government but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise.” Such kinds of development agencies possess the goals and public mission of the public sector, the flexibility of the private sector, and the financial power of a corporation.

In general, the Dong Van Community Management Authority (DVCMA)2 will be overseen by a supervisory board comprised of national, provincial, local and sectoral leaders. The DVCMA will consist of at least five main departments with distinct, but coordinated responsibilities. First, the DVCMA will house a development fund to support community-based development projects such as select and targeted small businesses, light industry, and other preferred borrowers through low- or no-interest loans and technical support. The DVCMA will also house a planning division to conduct ongoing analyses and plans for goal achievement on an annual basis. This function will coordinate with the more formal government planning process, but annual plans and evaluation are needed for Dong Van to succeed in its ambitious, integrated, and complex goals. The DVCMA will also include a Technical Assistance Division that conducts trainings, helps

2 See APPENDIX A. 61 community members develop business plans, and assists with technical policy and other support such as patenting and copyright. The DVCMA will also include an Architectural Review Board to manage the development of town centers and provide guidance on historic preservation. It will also house divisions of Public Relations, Coordination and Partnerships, as well as a Scientific Review Board. Perhaps most importantly, the DVCMA will oversee Parks Service to oversee all aspects of enforcement and serve as the Dong Van Geo Park police service.

Prioritized Projects and Activities

Consistent with the need to develop plans that are realistic and implementable, even though ambitious, the 3rd Rock Team’s initial recommendation is that development of the Dong Van Global Geo Park should follow a delayed growth model that emphasizes the development of local capacities, businesses, products prior to meeting the projected large numbers of visitors. We call this the “Delayed Growth Scenario,” and believe that it will best preserve and developing the region’s existing assets while building products and experiences that will retain their value over the long term.

• Phase 1 (focus 2015-2020): Capitalize on Based Economies

– Characteristics • Existing workforce • Existing reputation • Small investment (except for in Ha Giang City)

– Actions (e.g.): • Brand products, establish intellectual property; • Increase handicraft capacities – e.g. increase skills in sewing, dyeing, carving, etc.; • Establish small and medium-sized businesses in artisanal construction and building materials; • Establish extensive, low-impact trekking tours (e.g. in Dong Van villages); • Build community-scale infrastructure (e.g. water supply) that can meet current and short-term needs; • Community training • Focus on urban design elements consistent with these investments – e.g. production space for artisanal businesses, small but basic neighborhood “bases of operation” for trekkers (e.g. in Dong Van town); • Begin construction of airport and/or train line to Ha Giang City.

• Phase 2 (focus 2020-2025): Broaden the Eco-Tourism, Scientific-, and Adventure-tourism Products

62

– Characteristics • Known niche-markets with key national and international private sector and non-profit partners identified and engaged already; • Developed infrastructure (higher-end services, lodging, etc); • Higher-end, and more complex handicraft products available; • Greater access to and knowledge about nature preserves and areas of high geologic and scientific value; • Moderate investments lead to higher value

– Actions (e.g.): • Establish viable partnerships with scientific institutions and plan for science center (Meo Vac); • Fully implement Scientific and Adventure Tour Products; • Repair the road from Tam Son to Dong Van

• Phase 3 (focus 2025-2030): Develop More Complex Tourism “Products,” Increase Market Coverage for Handicraft Products, Develop Larger-Scale Infrastructure

– Characteristics • Higher-capacity workforce able to withstand competition • Established local reputation and brand protection • Greater confidence of a “track record” to make riskier larger investments

– Actions (e.g.): • Fully implement annual tourism events such as a film festival, marathon; • Fully implement Restoration (i.e. Green Urban in Van Minh) Eco-Tourism with health and rejuvenation services; • Develop export markets for textiles and building materials; • Fully Implement Scientific Center (Meo Vac); • Expand the road between Ha Giang and Dong Van.

63

References:

Bali Homestay. 2015. “Bali Homestay Program - a Unique and Authentique Experience in Real Bali.” http://www.bali-homestay.com/.

Batisse, M. (1982). The biosphere reserve: A tool for environmental conservation and management. Environmental Conservation, 9(2), 101-110.

Benjamin, Nancy C., Shantayanan Devarajan, and Robert J. Weiner. 1989. “The ‘Dutch’ Disease in a Developing Country: Oil Reserves in Cameroon.” Journal of Development Economics 30 (1): 71–92. doi:10.1016/0304-3878(89)90051-5.

Bleyer, Jennifer. 2010. “In Northern Vietnam, a Region of Beauty and Ethnic Traditions.” The New York Times, October 27. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/travel/31vietnam-ha-giang.html.

Butler, R. W. (1980). The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications for Management of Resources. Canadian Geographer, 24, 5-12.

Cook, Philip S. 2011. “Impacts of Visitor Spending on the Local Economy: Yosemite National Park, 2009.” Natural Resource Report. Fort Collins, CO: Natural Resource Program Center, National Park Service.

DLiA. (2013). Fifteen years of discovery. Gatlinburg, TN: Discover Life in America.

ESCAP. 2005. The Contribution of Tourism to Poverty Alleviation. Vol. 25. ESCAP Tourism Review. UN.

Greene, Linda. 1987. “Yosemite: The Park and Its Resources; A History of the Discovery, Management, and Physical Development of Yosemite National Park, California.” Yosemite, CA. http://www.nps.gov/featurecontent/yose/anniversary/timeline/index.html.

Groom, M. J., Meffe, G., & Carroll, C. (2006). Principles of Conservation Biology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc.

Ham, S. H. (1992). Environmental Interpretation. Golden, Colorado: North American Press.

Ham, S. H. (2013). Interpretation: Making a difference on purpose: Fulcrum publishing.

Ham, S. H., Brown, T. J., Curtis, J., Weiler, B., Hughes, M., & Poll, M. (2007). Promoting persuasion in protected areas: A guide for managers. Developing strategic

64 communication to influence visitor behavior. Southport, Queensland, Australia: Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre.

Hockings, M., Stolton, S., Leverington, F., Dudley, N., & Courrau, J. (2006). Evaluating effectiveness: A framework for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas. (Vol. 2nd edition.). Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN.

Kentucky Distillers’ Association. 2015. “History.” Kentucky Bourbon Trail. http://kybourbontrail.com/history/.

Kornstein, Barry, and Jay Luckett. 2014. “The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of the Distilling Industry in Kentucky.”

Liu, Abby, and Geoffrey Wall. 2006. “Planning Tourism Employment: A Developing Country Perspective.” Tourism Management 27 (1): 159–70. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2004.08.004.

Martini, Guy. 2011. “Dong Van Geopark Diagnostic and Strategical Action Plan 2011- 2013.” Global Geopark Network.

Michaud, Jean, and Sarah Turner. 2006. “Contending Visions of a Hill-Station in Vietnam.” Annals of Tourism Research 33 (3): 785–808. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2006.02.003.

National Park Service. 2015. “History & Culture - Yosemite National Park.” http://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/index.htm.

National Park Service (2012). National Park Service statistics. Retrieved from http://www/nature.nps.gov/stats/

Nyaupane, Gyan P., and Dallen J. Timothy. 2010. “Power, Regionalism and Tourism Policy in Bhutan.” Annals of Tourism Research 37 (4): 969–88. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2010.03.006.

Powell, R. B. (2010). Developing institutions to overcome governance barriers to ecoregional conservation. In S. C. Trombulak & R. F. Baldwin (Eds.), Landscape-scale Conservation Planning (pp. 53-67). New York: Springer.

Powell, R.B., Cushnir, A., & Peiris, P. (2009) Overcoming governance barriers to integrated coastal zone, marine protected area, and sustainable tourism management in Sri Lanka. Coastal Management, 37(6) 633-655.

65

Powell, R.B. & Ham, S.H. (2008) Can ecotourism interpretation really lead to pro- conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behavior? Evidence from the Galapagos Islands. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 16 (4) 467-489.

Powell, R.B., Cushnir, A., & Peiris, P. (2009) Overcoming governance barriers to integrated coastal zone, marine protected area, and sustainable tourism management in Sri Lanka. Coastal Management, 37(6) 633-655.

Pye, E. A., and T. B. Lin. 1983. “Tourism in Asia: The Economic Impact.” Edited by Y. W. Sung, B. N. Song, C. Y. Ahn, J. S. Delos Santos, E. M. Ortiz, E. Huang, F. Secretario, A. Attanayake, H. M. S. Samaranayake, and N. Ratnapala, 351pp.

Ridley, Neil. 2014. “Craft Distillers Breathe New Life into US Market.” Financial Times, December 16. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a8197882-8109-11e4-896c- 00144feabdc0.html#axzz3fcfS6wxi.

Romer, Paul M. 1986. “Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth.” Journal of Political Economy 94 (5): 1002–37.

Seabrook, John. 2011. “Crunch: Building a Better Apple.” The New Yorker. November 21. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/21/crunch.

Sinclair, M. Thea. 1998. “Tourism and Economic Development: A Survey.” The Journal of Development Studies 34 (5): 1–51. doi:10.1080/00220389808422535.

Thanh Nien News. 2015. “Sa Pa, the Beauty That Has Turned Beast.” Thanh Nien News. March 11. http://www.thanhniennews.com/commentaries/sa-pa-the-beauty-that-has- turned-beast-39316.html.

TripAdvisor. 2015a. “Dong Van Tourism: Best of Dong Van, Vietnam.” Accessed July 11. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g4200402-Dong_Van_Ha_Giang_Province- Vacations.html.

———. 2015b. “Ha Giang Tourism: Best of Ha Giang, Vietnam.” Accessed July 11. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g1544599-Ha_Giang_Ha_Giang_Province- Vacations.html.

Truong, V. Dao, C. Michael Hall, and Tony Garry. 2014. “Tourism and Poverty Alleviation: Perceptions and Experiences of Poor People in Sapa, Vietnam.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 22 (7): 1071–89. doi:10.1080/09669582.2013.871019.

United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. (1996). Indicators of sustainable development: Guidelines and methodologies (pp. 304). NY: UNCSD.

66

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. (2004). Living with risk. A global review of disaster reduction initiatives. (pp. 430pp). Geneva: United Nations

Vagias, W. & Powell, R.B. (2010) Backcountry visitors’ Leave No Trace attitudes. International Journal of Wilderness, 16(3) 21-27.

VietNamNet. 2013. “Sapa ‘obsessed’ by Money.” March 24. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/special-reports/70311/sapa--obsessed--by- money.html. Wattanakuljarus, Anan, and Ian Coxhead. 2008. “Is Tourism-Based Development Good for the Poor?: A General Equilibrium Analysis for Thailand.” Journal of Policy Modeling 30 (6): 929–55. doi:10.1016/j.jpolmod.2008.02.006.

Wise, W. L. (2013, Oct. 15, 2013). We're no. 1! Charleston named top tourist destination in US for third consecutive year. The Post and Courier.

World Travel and Tourism Council. 2014. “Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2014: Vietnam.” London: World Travel and Tourism Council.

Xiangling, Geng. 2010. “An Analysis of ‘Market Failure’ in of Tourism Resources in Tibet.” Journal of Tibet University. http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-XZDX201003007.htm.

Zhou, Deying, John F. Yanagida, Ujjayant Chakravorty, and PingSun Leung. 1997. “Estimating Economic Impacts from Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 24 (1): 76–89. doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(96)00035-7.

67

APPENDIX A: Dong Van Community Management Authority

Supervisory Board (e.g. National, Provincial, local, and sectoral leaders) Dong Van Community Management Authority

Development Technical Planning Director Architectural and Director of Fund Director Assistance • Ongoing Design Review Coordination and • Financing Director revisions and Board Partnerships projects • Business evaluation of • Create and • Coordination • Underwriting development the master enforce local across loans • Education and plan historic divisions, • Securing training • Initiation and overlay districts, districts agencies; matching • Intellectual coordination funds property of small area • Advise and • Coordinating assistance and certify the staging community traditional of plans building development Dong Van Park Service construction Scientific Review Public Relations • Code enforcement materials Board production • Marketing • Public safety • Branding • Natural resource protection/ • Web management Development Land Management 101

68

APPENDIX B: Dong Van Geo-Park Designation Scoring Criterion (applicant and progress evaluation)

69

APPENDIX C: Field Visit Notes Ha Giang Province March 8-15, 2015 Third Rock LLC

March 8, 2015

11:30am travel to Ha Giang 7:00pm arrive in Ha Giang 7:30pm meet with Department of Construction (?); dinner w/VIUP & Department of Construction staff • sat with the Director of the Department of Construction for Ha Giang- an economist who wrote his MA thesis on tourism in the Ha Giang region. His main concerns were tourism infrastructure and trade infrastructure o biggest locational advantage is being close to other trade destinations: China, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. o major ports can serve as a connector to trade routes through the Ha Giang region 10:00pm return to hotel

March 9, 2015

7:00am travel to Quan Ba District, Quyet Tien Commune 8:30am Meet with People’s Committee • Gateway commune to the Geopark • Jim’s question: How do you the Geopark designation will change your commune? o There are 13 communes in this district; 13 ethnic groups in the commune; 3 major ethnic groups – Hmong, Pui (1000 people and are a unique ethnic group in Vietnam) o Want to develop tourism around the Pui – homestays, etc. • They grow vegetables and flowers o Tourism should connect with agriculture § Cabbage, tomato, cu cai, nip lo • Q: Do they export? o Vegetables go to Hanoi, garlic export got to Taiwan o Merchants come and then ask to buy & export to Taiwan when the price of garlic is high in Taiwan • They would like a more sustainable way to sell their produce

70

• Herbal tree – are wild and they collect it; medical company processes it and then resells it; processing is in Hanoi and other regions, not there o They have to have knowledge and training to process the medicine and they currently don’t have that • Q: Is there any wild animal trading? A: No • Mining: the province doesn’t allow them to mine because of the Geopark designation – they are closing down the mines o Mining was conducted by a firm that was not local • Vice Director of Department of Constructions said yesterday that this is why they are prioritizing tourism – because the mines are shutting down o Also preserving trees in the mountains. At first it was difficult for the people to understand why they had to preserve the threes, so they had to talk o They check one day a week for deforestation. o The people were not cutting down trees for commercial use, but for personal use to make houses or firewood • Q: Do people here have to work far? o They work in Malaysia and Korea in the factories § This was a national poverty alleviation program § 1990s migration program relocated families to more fertile goround

10:00am Tourist stop: Rocky Mountain Gods (Thach Son Than)

10:30am Entertainment Center

11:30am Nam Dam Village – purple flowers § Toured Ly Quoc Chanh homestay: older couple, man with bloody hand § House built in the Dao architectural style § 2000 people visit the area and 1000 stay at this homestay § international travelers – French and Canadian § 10 degrees cooler than Ha Giang; 920M above sea level § Love market happens once a year • Hmong ritual – if you like them, you will spank them – mating ritual • Happens once a year due to unrequited love -- makes up for the “kidnapping” of young girls who get married off

1:00pm Lungstam Linen Cooperative § 113 women work at the cooperative – started by a British non- profit (check into this)

71

§ only 13% of the population in this area graduate from H.S. § Young girls working at the cooperative alongside older women § Woman in charge is gregarious and outgoing, made us put on Hmong clothing

2:45 pm Bat Dai Son Reserve (up windy road to the top) § Meeting w/ Mr. Trung, Director of the Preservation Park (interview) o 50% of the population is poor o Road and transportation infrastructure make it very difficult to get here o Main agricultural crop is corn o Bat Dai Son lies in the area of 4 communes o 1,200 Hectares is the protected area of the park o 2511 is the area where they are letting the trees grow back (don’t know what 2511 is) o Special species of tree: Pine tree called the “golden spruce” o Ecotourism park: they have made a promotional video but still in progress o They have a huge tree that is 1.5m in diameter. Has become a heritage tree, but have to walk by foot to get there. There is no transportation o A leopard may have been found here two years ago. They saw it and took a picture of the prints to be evaluated. § Low staff: Mr. Trung only has 6 people protecting the reserve so is very difficult to be effective o 136 families live in 4 communes in the preserve o in 2010, they paved the windy road that led up to the preserve. Before that, it was a dirt road. o 2008/2009 – a VCF team came and surveyed the bird population (they have a report in English that Bob and Tim got) § Tourism in the Preserve o No tourists have come o Mr. Trung’s office is too small to develop any tourism infrastrucrure o To expand his office, he has to ask the Ha Giang province but they have not approved that. o There are a total of 22 staff members that protect the entire park § Security Issues o Must ask permission from the military in order to have tours § Must ask upper level government for permission to have tours § There is no policy in place that allows for tourism § Monkeys: they don’t have enough money to build a protection zone for the monkeys in the preserve § Poverty: families in the reserve grow corn but only one season – the wet season. They are very poor. They don’t have enough to live on § Q: Why as the preserve set up? o A survey showed that there were endangered species: flora and fauna. § Q: What is a safe distance from the chinese border? 72

o With permission, you can go to the border § Q: Is the relationship between VN & China border patrol friendly? o Major borders between VN & China allows foreigner to pass but not minor border o Minor border allows only Chinese/VN to pass § Challenges for this region? o Water: only available from rain and many dry seasons, so they suffer

March 10, 2015:

7:30am Meeting at People’s Committee of Ha Giang (about 17 people from PC)

§ Introductions by Mr. Quang (Viup) and Jim § Jim “Vietnamese planning doesn’t consider the impact of growth/development on the community – spillover effects – poverty” § Trien Tai Ving introduces his staff from the People’s Committee o 17 people respresent the expertise of the province in the room o Assets of the region § Beef, Tea, Orange, Rice, and Corn § The people of Ha Giang are the biggest asset of the region • Direct Quote: “The planting of the rice, the steering of the oxen, that’s the people” § Ha Giang’s advantages: already designated a GeoPark and has many cultural assets § Ha Giang’s disadvantages: • there is no landmark or signature building – no draw for tourists • transportation routes need improving • he suggested a cable car that transports people § Mr. Ving mentions a national framework for growth in the region: 310 and 826 are policies that are mentioned

9:00am Drive to Yen Minh from Ha Giang ~ 3 hours

12:30pm lunch

2:00pm Meeting with the People’s Committee of Yen Minh § 9 people from Peoples’ Committee but the chairman wasn’t there § Assets 1. cultural village 1K away from here 2. yen mau long caves is a natural heritage 3. bird sanctuary on the way to Dong Van 4. ancient relics from the French § Economic Development § One of the poorest districts

73

§ There are currently no projects for development § There is one mine owned by a German Company? (need to verify) § 90% of the people live on agriculture: rice and corn § poor families get public assistance form the government § transportation is too difficult and there are no investments § 310 national policy: The prime minister designated green urban area and they are focused on protecting the forest; started to plant trees on the side of the road and on the mountains § Q: Do they sell their produce elsewhere? Is there produce valued elsewhere? § Small amounts, they just stated a project due to the wild herbs in the region § 25 different types of herbal trees and they just started packaging it § There is no processing of agricultural produces here § Yen Minh is the buffer zone of the herbal industrial area § They supply the herbs for processing in the last town we were in § They are planting ginger trees – company in Hanoi is providing the technical assistance (or actually doing it – need to verify) § Major investments are from government, not many other investors § Some ideas that come to mind (from Mai) they could develop their food processing/distribution – a complimentary industry in the region § What about developing the skills for ethnic food entrepreneurs?

3:10pm Mai and Tim to Giay Cultural Village that hotel owner takes us (with Mr. Quang and Mr. Nhan) § sit in the cultural house of the community – the community center § Ms. Trang Vice Chairman of the Village § Immediately drink corn vodka and eat “rice crispy treats w/sugar cane” § The village has 12 hectres o 54 households o 259 people who all farm o The kids graduate from school and go into technical trades – many want to go into teaching and they go to school for it, but can’t find jobs afterwards and end up getting married and farming (both boys and girls) o After 2013, there have not been many jobs § Tourism o Each year there are about 5-6 tour groups that stop there § Drive their motorcycles and stay in the homestays § The amenities (whether they want food or not) depends on the guests § The kids speak English so they can translate for international visitors § There have been times there have been 28 people staying in the homestays in one group. Sometimes couples come through. 74

§ They have renovated a nice new homestay but no one has come yet. They need to register to do some services as a homestay. Cost is 50,000 VND per night to sleep on the floor. § Farming Seasons 1. plant rice in March 2. plant corn in April (2 seasons) 3. dau coue (sp?) and dau dua 4. casaba 5. potatos – they plant it right after the rice is harvested § Quote: “The land doesn’t rest” § Animals: cows, pigs, ducks § Q: Where do they sell their vegetables? o Store rice for bad seasons o Sell at the market 6 days a week o Each household owns their own plot of land and plants/sells it § They have a festival called Long Tong: throw a ball through a hole § Q: Do you have a craft? o We have stitching and embroidery (Tim and I saw now evidence of this once we got to the house) § Tim and I spend about an hour at the house drinking corn liquor and chat with the family. Our host, the vice chairwoman of the village, is very gregarious and won’t let us leave without drinking. We take pictures at the end and then leave.

Second site visit is to another ethnic community – 6 different ethnic group Hotel owner takes us to his mother and brother’s home. We eat oranges and talk.

§ Hotel owner’s parents lived in Quyet Dinh (sp?) but moved here in 1963. Built the house in 1973. o Father worked in administration office of agriculture o Mother was in trading § Q: What do they do now? o Bake and sell in the market: make Banh pho and banh chung § Q: What has changed since the Geopark designation? o Trading and selling goods has improved but tourism has not improved o Geopark has raised consumption level

6:00pm Dinner w/the People’s Committee at the offices.

9:00 pm Return to hotel and interview hotel owner in depth. Hotel has only been open 2-3 months in anticipation of the geopark tourism.

Q: Who are the tourists? From Vietnam and abroad. Middle of VN and Hanoi. International tourists are French, Holland, Italy. 75

Q: How many rooms are in the hotel? 9 rooms

Q: What is the occupancy? Usually 60% occupancy rate

§ He makes corn wine in the back of his hotel. § There is an October festival of flowers. o There are good and bad aspects of the festival. o Bad: From an administration perspective, the capacity of the town doesn’t support the tourism § Not enough capacity in the hotels so they sleep in the streets (both VN and international tourists) § They just prepare a campsite § September is the most crowded season: tourists have time during that period, the flowers are nice, the weather is good (no fog and dry season) § Q: What are some favorite things to do? o Tourist sites are limited, so the guests come and stop one night. They go explore but only stay one night. He is not sure what they do. Tourism locally is not big but site seeing is better (they stop and go on to other sites) o Tourists come on the weekend. There would be no room if we came on the weekend. o Tourists come from Hanoi as well as the middle and south of VN. Also from China. § Taxes: 2-3 million/month o Every year the National gove’t says that the district has to collect a certain amount of taxes and the district collects it based on the value set o If you are an outsider who comes to town to build a hotel, you have some support to do it faster § The government rents out the land § Big white building in middle of town that is currently being built: land is rented by Suzuki as a motorbike showroom o Each year the taxes go up § Sometimes there are extraordinary cases – some business taxes will go to the province. § Example: the mining company and the electrical company. The province will collect the taxes, not the local government. § Q: How will the geopark change the lives of people here? o It will bring tourists – right now it will benefit the hotels but it has not benefitted the people yet o We need to teach the people to create goods and services § Share the prosperity

76

o Challenges: talked about his wine making – he doesn’t have access to the markets to sell his wine. There are no retailers § His business did well for 2 years but now there is a lot of competition in the wine making business § Sometimes he sells in Ha Gaing and some customers in Hanoi. He doesn’t have time to market his product § He built his hotel where his house was • Cost 6-700,000,000 dong • 70% of his own money; 10% from family and friends; 20% from the national bank § Only 2 hotel owners in town § There are 2 other guest homes § Mai’s observations: The hotel had quite a few design limiations o Windows in stairwells, not to the outside o Limited towels and toiletpaper o Need more tourism training, hospitality training, English language education 3/11/15

9:00 am Visit Nga Nghi (job training center)

• Training center – raise bees, sewing, motorbike repair o Also a homestay: lots of VN tourists stay here but not international tourists

9:25 am Visit a community at the base of the cave entrance: Na Luong • 30 households • pretty isolated yet self-sufficient • Multi-ethnic groups living harmoniously near one another: Tam, Hmong • An older man said he had a homestay but he doesn’t charge anyone to stay there • Team hiked to cave through Hmong farm land o Entered cave: bats, stalagtites o Very deep cave

12:30pm: lunch at a family’s house from the Tam ethnic group • Ate boiled pork with salt and intestines, corn liquor

2:30pm visited a beautiful village with the nicest homestay made we saw: good architecture that used traditional materials. • Homestay charged $60/night • How did he have the knowledge and skills to do this? • This would be a good example to hold up as a potential model for other higher end homestays. • Need to find out more about how he funded this project and how much it cost

77

3/12/15

8:00 am Meeting w/ People’s committee of Meo Vac (5 people)

• Jim gives introduction. Each of us talk briefly.

9:00am Bob and Mai Tour Na Trao Village where the villagers were paving a road

• 48 families 250 people • What do the kids do after graduation? They want to go into government jobs • Tet Celebration: 4-500 people come to village for the drum celebration • Animals are gone because the forest has been cut “they don’t have any problems with the animals anymore” • Q: What do they grow? Rice, corn, vegetables o 200-300 kilograms = $100-150 • There is some poverty here because some families do not have enough land to farm o There is a market and this is where the community gathers – people drink and talk (this was in response to a question about a communal space) o The market is also where people go for goods § Market is open 7-11am on Sundays • When asked about why they are repairing the road to the village: the government gave them some supplies and the villagers must provide the labor. This is how minor roads are built • When asked about governance: while the national government sets the laws, the village makes the fines and punishements o For example, in this village: There was a family that violated the 3 child rule. The villagers got together and said you must kill 5 chickens and bring one 20 liter bottle of corn liquor and all is forgiven. They ate and drank and forgave the violator. • No community enterprises. • Kids got to college in Ha Giang, but they have the lowest college rates in the country.

12:00pm lunch in Meo Vac 2:00pm Drive to Dong Van o See view of tallest cliff in SE Asia o View of Hmong People o Stop at Geopark tourist center § They are proposing a huge monument for people who built the road. Supposed to be built in Nov. 2015.

78

3:45pm People’s Committee of Dong Van – brief meeting o Dong Van will be the historical cultural center of the park o Walking tour of town center and historic homes in Dong Van. § Beautiful historic charm o Hike to the top of the hill – panoramic view of the city and the big neon sign

3/13/15

8:00am People’s Committee Meeting in Dong Van o Team gives long introduction on our perceptions about planning and economic development in Dong Van from what we have seen so far.

o Chairman of the People’s Committee o They have policies and plans in place to help residents raise golden cows and planting herbal trees o Golden cow branding o Agriculture connect w/tourism o Crafts connect w/tourism o Local products connect w/tourism o Invest in town center for the hospitality industry o We need your specialists to help with the Master Plan o What are the biggest challenges? o Water supply o Infrastructure o The tourism will be greater than Sapa so we need planning for 10 – 20 years. o Consultants will help us plan for the future

9:00am: Northern border of VN/China o 279 steps (relates to the war w/china) /54 ethnic groups in VN (flag is 54 sq meters o This is a frequently visited tourist destination o Beautiful panoramic view of villages

11:30am Visit Lolo Village

o Ministry of culture conducted a survey of the LoLo ethnic group and built a community center – government gave the supplies and the community gave the labor o Toured a 100 year old house o 3 homestays in the village o Began in 2011; house was built in 2005 o There was a program from the province that encouraged him to do this – he had an appropriate home, the capacity to start a homestay, and knew how to interact with guests o 50,000 VN Dong per night 79

o 3 other homes in the village serve food o 50 people visit each weekend o mostly VN visitors o Foreigners can not stay here because it is too close to the Chinese/VN border o Need permission from Ha Giang for foreigners to visit o Sell traditional foods and goods § Embroidery, pillows, wallets § Every household makes their own embroidery o Q: Are guests polite? Yes o In 2011: made 26,000,000 VN Dong from tourism – 20,000,000 for homestay and 6,000,000 for goods sold o To get house in shape, they made a bathroom § 50,000,000 to make the homestay guest ready – owner put in his own $ for this o He wants to open up another homestay § Is asking the bank for 50,000,000 VN Dong o Annual average income in the village is 9,000,000 ($417 US) but some people making up to 100,000,000 ($4617 US) § The ones making more are usually raising the golden cow and selling it o Transfer of capital and knowledge to others o He loaned another household $1M dong to buy mattresses to start their own homestay o He is a leader in the community – works with cattle – wife is a teacher. They make an income and saved enough to start the homestay.

12:30pm Luong Family Castle o Mr. Luong was the Hmong King; lived from 1865-1947 o 1899-1928 He built the castle; had a Chinese architect o Family still lived in it until 2004 when the government decided to conserve the house o Architectural style is Hmong/French/Chinese mix o 64 bedrooms o 30 guards in the front of house o The house needs more funding to be restored to its former glory

1:30pm Lunch on grounds of Luong Family Castle o Ate corn meal that Hmong people eat

3pm Visit a Hmong Village o Toured a house with artistic woodwork and painting – traditional Hmong style – traditional materials (stone, concrete, wood) o There were skylights and two private bedrooms. o 20,000,000 VN dong for all the wood in the interior

80

o Tile roof still used in this house – tile roofs are no longer affordable. They must now go to China to get the tiles. They are no longer made in VN. It is a skill/craft that is going out of business. o Owner came up with design himself and other family members copied him. The younger brother learned from the older brother. o 30-40% of people live in poverty – there is little water o They use rain water for drinking water and when they run out, they get out their bottles and go to the reservoirs o If they cut down the redwoods, they can sell each tree for 30,000,000 VN Dong o This area not in the protection zone?

4:30 pm Visit to the Hmong Cultural Village o Each ethnic group has one cultural village o The movie “The Story of Pao” was filmed here o One homestay that Kien and the other members of the people’s committee bought. They made an initial investment of 20,000,000 VN Dong to buy the house. It is under renovation. § The government is now fixing up the house. o When complete, they will charge 50,000 VN Dong per night. o Homestay will be available starting April 30.

5:25pm Visit the Chinese Family Neighborhood at 1 Pho Bang Street • 1979 China came and destroyed the district • It is nicknamed Hong Kong II because there are many rich chinese who cross the border and settled here • The Hmong King had a large house here – he used to be the chairman of the district • 1979 – many people left due to the invasion but they came back in the 1990s • In the Ha Giang region, this is the only Chinese Street left.

3/14/15

Drive back to Ha Giang for lunch, then back to Ha Noi

Things we need to learn more about:

• Plans for water management in the region • Plans for large infrastructure projects • SAPA- can be used as a case study of tourism gone wrong • What is the regional economic competitiveness of the region? Domestically and internationally • What are the opportunities for port and trucking exports?

81