· Most of natual tourism resources locate at Thanh Liem and Kim Bang districts. They are kart caves in limestone mountains with fancy shapes, spakling colours of nature stones, which bring tourists to a wonderland. Most of the limestone mountain ranges locate along rivers which create a romantic and charming scene. Typical places such as Five caves Thi Son, Luon cave, Bat cave,Vong Cave, Bat Canh Tien region, Tam Chuc lake etc.
· Humanlity tourism resources. They are the cultural and historical sites, traditional villages such as these typical places Tran Thuong pogoda, Van Xa temple, Tho Chuong (Ly Nhan) temple, Long Doi Son pogoda, Lanh Giang temple,Lu Xuyen (Duy Tien) temple, Ba Danh pogoda, Truc temple, Ba Le Chan temple (Kim Bang), Chau pogoda, Fairy pogoda, Dinh Le relic, Lieu Doi cultural attractions (Thanh Liem), Nguyen Khuyen ancestral house, ancent Co Vien temple, Bo De temple (Binh Luc) etc.
· Ha Nam government concern and invest to develop industry and handcraft industry in tradittional villages to attract tourists. They focus on restoring and developing famous traditional villages such as An Hoa embroidery village (Thanh Liem), Nha Xa weaving village (Duy Tien), Do Hai horn village (Binh Luc), Hoang Dong rattan village (Duy Tien) etc. All the villages are included in tours which gives the people there a job and maintains the tradition and encourage young generation to succeed the skills and the careers. Come here tourists also will be instructed how to make a product themselves to create a beatiful memory in their trip.
In the tourism development stratery in Ha Nam in period 1998-2010, the industry had indentified that Ha Nam is the vicinity of Hanoi tourism, the tourist attraction on the tourism route throughout Vietnam. With such protential and adequate investment Ha Nam tourism will develop and make more attractive destinations such as ecotourism, resorts, festivals etc.
Before 1997, the tourism activities in Ha Nam virtually undeveloped. The resources haven’t been exploited. All was just in the form of protential. There were just two accommadtion establishments. Like Hoa Binh hotel, there were 30 rooms mostly just to serve foreign experts being on a business trip in the province.
Since the province was re-established, the province had got a master plan on developing tourism in period 1998-2010 and had detailed plan in some places such as Ngu Dong Son, Tam Chuc lake, Tran Thuong temple etc. It was the foundation of the management-oriented tourism resources. The tourism business gradually put into place and developed in accordance with the provision of the Government. Currently, the Department of Commerce and Tourism of Ha Nam have been conducting some projects on build infrastructure for tourism development, promotion tourism to attract domestic and foreign investment to exploit tourism resources in Ha Nam.
Since 1997 the tourist activities in Ha Nam haven been developing constantly. Up to now, there are 20 units, organisations and individuals engaged in tourism business in the whole province with different services such as accommodation, food and drink services, domestic travel services, physical therapy etc. The facilities of the industry are also increasing quickly but mainly in accommodation service and catering. In 1997, there were two accommadtion establishments with 42 rooms. By 2002, there were 16 accommodation establishments with 280 rooms including 20 standard rooms to welcome international guests. The workforce in the tourism industry has increased. In 1997, there were about 150 people working in this section. In 2003, there were more than 450 people. In the coming time, this figure will increase in quantity as well as in quality to meet the standard services in the tourism industry.
In recent years, the types of tourism business have been extended with different kinds of services including resorts, ecotourism, festivals, tours, traditional villages etc. In general, all kinds of tourism business in Ha Nam has been gradually invested to improve the quality to meet the increasingly diverse needs of visitors.
The number of people visiting Ha Nam increased about 12.85 per year including domestic and international visitors. The domestic visitors are mostly from Hanoi and neighbour provinces. They come to see the festivals combining with work. International visitors come to Ha Nam from different countries, mainly from the tourist route throughout Vietnam. According to the statistics, the number of visitors in 1997 was 12,000, in 2003 it had increased 2 times. In particular, there were 10,800 domestic tourists in 1997 and double that number in 2003.
In the coming years, the province will focus on construction and calling for investment from locals and foreigners in tourism projects of the province.
