Planeación de la intervención

Together with a lack of a detailed plan for developing Cultural Heritage Tourism, the researcher‟s conducted survey has shown that an uncompleted understanding of Cultural Heritage Tourism and its impacts from the people is also one of the main problems for the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism in Quang Nam province during last few years. The Chart 7.8 below presents the people‟s understanding in Cultural Heritage Tourism, of which forty seven percent (47%, n=129) of them could understand about Cultural Heritage Tourism and its roles, meanwhile forty eight percent (48%) of respondents could not understand Cultural Heritage Tourism. Only five percent (5%) percent of remaining respondents said they had no ideas about this argument. The researcher‟s conducted survey has also shown that the public officials, including those who are working in the field of tourism management, could not understand partly or even fully the definitions of Cultural Heritage Tourism and its importance. They could also not differentiate the differences between Cultural Heritage Tourism and the other types of tourism. This is one of difficulties for developing Cultural Heritage Tourism, because if they do not understand fully about Cultural Heritage Tourism, they can

not measure its potential impacts in the socio-economic development of the province and this will perhaps affect indirectly some unexpected problems such as disappearance of traditional valuable cultural heritages, degradation of the environment, poverty, and the like.

However, as explained by the respondents who could understand Cultural Heritage Tourism and its significance that Cultural Heritage Tourism will help the people to preserve and promote the values of traditional culture such as historical relics, old architectural buildings, ethnic minority groups, religions, natural landscapes, and so on in Quang Nam province. They added further that Cultural Heritage Tourism will make the local people to be proud of their inherent cultural assets and therefore, they will respect and do their best efforts in actively interacting with the conservation and preservation of their valuable assets. However, the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism will also lead to the demolishment of old buildings, historic centres, historical relics, and the degradation of natural environment and ecosystem as explained by the respondents too.

Chart 7.8: Understanding Level of CHT

47%

48%

5%

Understand Not Understand No Ideas

Source: Researcher Note: n=129

The Table 7.15 summarizes the respondents‟ ideas in terms of typical differences between Cultural Heritage Tourism and the other types of tourism such as mass tourism, adventure tourism, eco-tourism, and the like in economic, social, political and environmental aspects. Through the table, we can see that Cultural Heritage Tourism which comprises of both tangible and intangible heritages and cultural landscapes will promote the preservation and conservation of cultural heritage resources.

Moreover, the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism will bring in both positive and negative impacts in the socio-economic development, economic growth, environmental issues and spatial planning management. In the context of Quang Nam, a full understanding of Cultural Heritage Tourism and its important roles from the local people will facilitate those works towards the better conservation of cultural heritages. The local people will also become better aware of the risks of disappearance of traditional cultural values, degradation of old buildings, historic centres, uncontrolled of waste and sewage discharge, demolishment of environment which will affect their life.

Table 7.15: Cultural Heritage Tourism and Its Effects to Quang Nam

- Lost traditions, inequitable benefits distributions, crime and disruption;

ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICAL

- Preservation and conservation of existing status of environment;

- Environmental degradation, destruction of ecology and the environment;

- Better coordination and cooperation among sectors; Tourism from the people in Quang Nam province are also different from each other. Comparing to the tourism operators and visitors, the public officials seem to understand better about the significance of Cultural Heritage Tourism and its important roles. However, only the public officials who work directly in the domain of tourism could understand the roles of tourism than their colleagues who come from the other departments and agencies. One more important thing is not all public officials can understand thoroughly the importance of cultural heritage and its impacts, especially the negative impacts of Cultural Heritage Tourism. For tourism operators and visitors, most of them have not yet understood fully the concept of Cultural Heritage Tourism and its affects. Most of them could only partly understand some aspects of Cultural Heritage Tourism, particularly in heritage conservation and in some positive impacts of Cultural Heritage Tourism for the society.

7.3.3. Natural Disasters and Its Negative Impacts

The researcher‟s conducted survey has shown that natural disasters and their negative impacts are also identified as one of the main causes for the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism in Quang Nam province. As analyzed in the previous chapter, due to its geographic location, Quang Nam is one of the provinces in the central part of Vietnam which are very vulnerable to harsh weather conditions. Given the literature review, Quang Nam is prone to natural disasters including storms, tropical depressions, floods, flash floods, landslides of riverside, seashore and mountain, north-eastern monsoon (cold air), thunderstorms, cyclones, drought, earthquakes, and saline

intrusion. Those natural disasters have demolished a lot of historical relics in the provinces and have degraded the natural environment. These harsh natural phenomena are viewed as one of the main problems, which have much affected the province‟s socio-economic development, the safety of human lives and they has also led to the heavy demolishment of traditional cultural buildings in the province. However, according to the interviewees, there is presently a shortage of synchronized investments into the early disaster warning systems in Quang Nam, leading to the insufficiency of warning systems in the province‟s cities and districts. Additionally, not only local officials but also local people are not yet fully aware of the system application and its usage. As explained by the respondents, not all of officials, enterprise and local people have been instructed or trained in disaster preparedness and prevention.

Based on the survey results, the researcher has observed that together with hundreds of old houses and buildings with traditional architectural styles, and a lot of historical relics in Hoi An Ancient City which have been coping with the high risks of being partly and/or full collapsed; ten of architectural buildings at the Cham culture‟s old towers in the sanctuary of My Son (Holy Land) have been in similar situation. All of these buildings could be collapsed in any time. As explained by the public officials from the My Son Relics Conservation Committee, in a total of twenty towers that were put into operation for tourism purposes, eighteen of them are facing with a high risk of unexpected collapse. According to the officials, the main reason for a risk of collapse is due to the effects of wars, time and nature. Furthermore, because of the lack of timely restorations, the high risk of collapse of the towers seems possibly to happen. The Photo 7.4 below indicates the ruins of towers in the area of My Son Holy Land. According to the researcher‟s observation, some towers were completely collapsed and some of them remain only their foundation, while the body of tower is already ruined. In general, as explained above, a severe condition of weather and bad consequences of wars are the main problems for devastating the valuable cultural heritages in Quang Nam province.

Photo 7.4: Ruins of My Son Holy Land‟s Towers

Source: Researcher

The Chart 7.9 presents the interviewees‟ ideas in terms of natural disasters and its effects to the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism in Quang Nam province, of which seventy four percent

(74%, n=129) of interviewees responded that natural disasters will affect negatively much the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism. As explained by the interviewees, natural disasters will demolish the system of roads, bridges, seaport, airports, systems of electricity and water and will make the historic relics, cultural buildings, and so on collapse. They further added that natural disasters will also affect the safety of local people‟s lives and degrade the natural environment.

According to the interviewees‟ answers, during in rainy seasons, floods and storms are often happened in August and last to next January of the year. Within a duration of six months of heavy rains, this have often inundated the majority of historic relics and cultural buildings in Quang Nam and heavily damaged these. Meanwhile, seventeen percent (17%) of interviewees disagreed and the remaining number of nine percent (9%) of respondents said they had no idea about this issue.

Chart 7.9: High Risks of Natural Disasters in Quang Nam Province

74%

9%

17%

Agreed Disagreed No Ideas

Source: Researcher Note: n=129

The Photo 7.5 below shows one of the towers in My Son Sanctuary which was heavily destroyed because of the flood that happened last 13th and 14th October 2011. As explained above, flood is one of the main problems that caused the collapse of many cultural heritage vestiges in Quang Nam province. Over the past years, more than 30 towers in My Son Sanctuary have been coping up the risks of a complete collapse because of yearly floods.

Photo 7.5: A Broken My Son Tower after Big Flood in October 2011

Source: Quang Nam Province’s DoCST

As pointed out by the public officials from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism: in the towers of A1 and A3, the situation of leaning and sinking were appeared, and walls at towers B2, B3 and B4 are cracked. For the areas of D, G, E, C, the gate arch are also cracked, the foundations

were sunk, the decoration walls are deformed. They explained that the collapse of towers was caused by the big floods in last years. Especially, in October 2011, a flash flood heavily inundated the whole area of My Son sanctuary. Most of the towers were flooded by the flash floods running from the mountain top. According to the officials and tourist operators, except for towers of B5 and C1, most of the remaining towers are heavily downgraded and are facing with a high risk of collapse at any time. However, the budget for making the restorations of the relics have been so limited although the province has spent an amount of fifty percent (50%) annually from the financial sources of monuments visiting tickets with around three billion Vietnamese dongs for restoring the towers.

However, only the expense for restoring the tower of E7 costed from seven to nine billions VNDs.