Big opportunities have come for small tourism projects

While gigantic tourism projects have been “immovable,” the small projects capitalized at VND10 billion or less have heated up the tourism market in the central region.
In general, provincial and municipal authorities, when promoting investments in the localities, strive to attract big scale projects by offering big investment incentives. The special policies with preferences have helped generate the 4-5-star resort roads in the coastal areas of Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An, Nha Trang and Binh Thuan, or the modern tourism centers like Ba Na Hills.
However, the current difficult conditions have made new big investors hesitant to pour money into real estate tourism projects. Only the small investors still keep daring to pour money into the market.
The local authorities have seemingly changed their viewpoints when attracting investors, now encouraging investors to develop small scale projects after witnessing the success of the projects in the areas of Hoi An and My Son cultural heritages.
Hundreds of small scale projects capitalized at VND10 billion have together exploited the rural areas in the suburbs of Hoi An. They have generated the attractive secondary tourism sites which encourage the travelers of the “Central Heritage Road” tour to stay there for longer and spend more money.
In mid-2012, the Quang Nam Silk Company began developing the $25 billion Hoi An Silk Village on an area of 2 hectares in Hoi An ancient town. This is a village where travelers can buy silk products, make excursion, have clothes tailored and enjoy traditional food.
Chi Mai, Deputy Director of the project, said the small capital of the project allows the investor to be flexible in worker recruitment and in the management mechanism. With the compact workforce, the company doesn’t feel the hard pressure of arranging money to pay to workers. If it has to receive big groups of tourists, it would join forces with the partners to provide services. Meanwhile, with the
“The small scale of the project helps us overcome the difficulties we meet in the first phase of the development, when the village still has been less known,” she said.
In mid-June, a stop station project named “Khong gian Viet” (Viet space) of Vina House was inaugurated. This is a stop during the tourists’ itinerary of visiting the museums, craft villages, rural markets, located some 10 kilometers far from Hoi An ancient town.
The project covers an area of one hectare, providing a secondary tourism point (the main points are Hoi An and My Son). This has been well exploited by travel firms which highly appreciate the high quality service and the reasonable service fees.
A series of similar craft villages have been set up by small companies and individual investors. Only VND2-4 billion is enough to provide services to attract tourists, who want to do the sightseeing, enjoy entertainment services, learn about the local culture and life.
In Da Nang City, “Tran” is a well-known culinary brand with a chain of restaurants. The noteworthy thing is that the investor started his business with a modest capital. The restaurants do not cover too large areas and they don’t have sophisticated decoration, but they still can attract the travelers who like to taste local dishes.
A survey conducted by the Da Nang Economics University on the areas around the Quang Nam Culture Heritage has also found many land areas with great potentials for the secondary tourism development.