Finding new ways to boost local tourism
Born and bred on Ly Son Island, Le Van Thanh spent his childhood along the beautiful beaches of the island. Despite studying far from home, he always nurtured an aspiration of returning to his hometown to start his career.
During summer time and breaks in the semesters, Thanh had the opportunity to join geological and archaeological experts on their journey to explore Ly Son’s underwater geological features. The trips helped Thanh explore more about the century-old dead volcano on Ly Son Island and the geological heritage hidden deep under the blue ocean, which urged him to follow his dream of conquering the sea.
After three years as a student majoring in travel management at the Hue Tourism College, Thanh decided to return to his island district and established the Ly Son Volcano Dive Centre as his start up project.
“After I told my father about my plan and clear goals, I received support from my family. I’m young and I’m adventurous, so I want to provide customers with fresh and unique tourist products in order to attract visitors,” Thanh said.
Thanh was confident that diving beneath the sea to admire a volcano is a fresh experience with rich tourism potential, so he cooperated with an archaeologist to make long-term investment in his business.
 |
Dang Van Sam's bungalow is colourful enough to stand out in the green wild space of the islet. (Photo: zing.vn)
Another story of a youngster returning to their hometown to start a business is Dang Van Sam, 26, the owner of a homestay named Bungalow on Bo Bai isle. Inspired from the Indian-style bungalows he had seen during his trips to Sapa town and Cat Ba Island, Sam made the design for his bungalow on his own, making it colourful enough to stand out in the green wild space of the islet.
As a graduate of Business Administration from Nha Trang University, Sam decided to run his start-up project in tourism.
“It is important to establish a new and unique way to approach customers,” Sam said, adding that nature-based tourism and a touch of indigenous culture will make visitors stay longer on the island.
Efforts to raise value of local agricultural products
Meanwhile, Le Thi Thanh Thanh has been busy with her project on raising the value of Ly Son Island’s seaweed.
Each year Ly Son islanders harvest more than 500 tonnes of fresh seaweed, which is sold for traders and distributors at quite a low cost.
With the hope to raise the project’s value and bring it to a larger-scale market, Thanh successfully experimented on dried and fermented seaweeds.
In her first effort, Thanh made 400 boxes of fermented seaweed, with each box sold at VND37,000. The products received great appreciation from visitors.
“Ly Son islanders often sell seaweed as a raw material thus the cost is low, while fresh seaweed can not keep for a long time,” Thanh said.
Therefore, she buys seaweed from islanders at a higher cost before processing it into higher-valued products, which not only helps the locals improve their income but also contributes to raising the quality of Ly Son’s specialty.
Thanh’s project received aid of VND 450 million from the Foreign Trade University’s Startup Incubation Programme SIP100.
In addition to producing edible seaweed products, Thanh has also worked to diversify her products, including making beverages, tea and masks from seaweed.
 |
Le Thi Thanh Thanh (R) at an event to promote her edible seaweed products (Photo: vnexpress.net)
Apart from target benefits, the Ly Son young people’s start-up projects have also paid due attention to protecting the environment and available resources of the island.
As Ly Son Island is known as the Kingdom of Garlic in Vietnam, Ly Son garlic has a distinctive flavour and is in high demand at home and abroad.
With the hope to further promote the brand of the project, Nguyen Van Dinh made an investment in producing organic garlic and onions with the construction of an organic farm in 2017, which covers 2,500sq.m with updated high-tech farming equipment.
“Organic and green products are the core value in my strategy of developing my own brand. I have targeted not only meeting the domestic demand for Ly Son garlic but also exporting my products to foreign markets,” Dinh said.
Aside from Le Van Thanh, Dang Van Sam, Le Thi Thanh Thanh, and Nguyen Van Dinh, there are many other Ly Son youngsters who have aspirations to boost their hometown’s development. Their creativity, innovation, energy, and daring to take a chance have contributed to making Ly Son Island more attractive to visitors while helping to improve the islanders’ income.
