A conference was held in Hoi An city in the central coastal province of Quang Nam on March 31st to assess the results of the “Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Development” project in the Central region implimented over a year ago and discuss solutions for 2015.

The USD920,000 project was implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Thua Thien and Quang Nam Provincial People’s Committee in January 2014 and December 2015.

The overview of the meeting

The project aims to improve living conditions for local communities and to promote the development of cultural tourism, reduce poverty, increase income and develop tourism products that are friendly to environment.

After over one year of action, the project has achieved initial results, such as: the skills of workers and job opportunities being improved, competitiveness of enterprises in the tourism sector increasing, local craft products being widely promoted, poverty reduction through tourism livelihoods for rural and mountainous communities, cultural resources for tourism market being promoted and awareness of the tourism community about responsible tourism being heightened.

However, participants at the conference reported limitations shown in the project, such as slow disbursement from donors and partners; delays in the process of approving operation plan and limited role and capacity of tourism associations.

The participants agreed to continue to speed up the implementation of the project, proposed the involved parties to recognize and commit to overcome the shortcomings and limitations to complete the project in the near

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