Tourists snub handicraft villages

      The number of tourists visiting traditional handicraft villages has decreased sharply since Viet Nam was hit by the global economic recession.
Van Phuc Village in the west of Ha Noi, one of the country’s most famous traditional silk villages, is suffering from a lack of visitors.
According to the chairman of the Van Phuc Association of Craft Villages, only 200 tourists a day have been visiting the village, a decrease of 30 per cent against last year. Local visitors account for 60 per cent of the total tourists.
Bat Trang pottery village is seeing only 50 arrivals a day compared to 200-300 arrivals per day last year, according to Nguyen Trong Thu, a member of the Bat Trang Ceramics and Pottery Association.
Faced with falling attendance, traditional handicraft villages are striving to improve produce quality and have called for help from authorities to diversify tourism services.
Top priority should be given to improving the image of handicraft villages, said Chinh. "We plan to build a common business area to introduce and sell silk products. In addition, local cultural programmes will be added to existing tours," Chinh said.
A tourist and commercial service joint stock company will be set up in Bat Trang Village. The company will help develop traditional handicraft village tourism by introducing the village’s culture, history and current products to visitors.
People in Bat Trang Village were looking forward to the establishment of a pottery museum, said Thu.
At present, Van Phuc and Bat Trang are the most popular destinations out of the 11 traditional handicraft villages for tourists in Ha Noi.
Every year 8,000 to 10,000 foreign tourists and hundreds of thousands of local visitors visit the villages.