The northern province of Ninh Binh has huge potential of tourism development, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Online Newspaper reported, adding that t he province’s comparative advantage increased when the Trang An Ecological Complex was recognised as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

Ninh Binh province is endowed with unique and diverse tourism resources such as Cuc Phuong National Park , Van Long Nature Reserve, Kenh Ga hot spring, Van Trinh Cave, Phat Diem Stone Cathedral and the Trang An Ecological Complex.

The province also has 1,499 relics, of which two relics have been nationally ranked: Hoa Lu ancient capital and Coc and Trang An Ecological Complex, a world heritage site (former Trang An – Tam Coc – Bich Dong natural beauty site).

Ninh Binh has 260 traditional festivals, which are inherited and have been developed from the traditions and customs of rice cultivation in Hoa Binh and Dong Son for thousands of years. Currently, the province has 69 traditional villages, notably Van Lam embroidery village, Ninh Van stone carvings village, Kim Son sedge fine art village and Phuc Loc carpentry village.

Besides the enormous advantages from having beautiful scenery, the province is also proud of its unique Bai Dinh pagoda, the largest pagoda in Vietnam.

Ninh Binh is located 91 km from Hanoi and has both rail and road transportation links. It is pretty close to other famous tourist attractions such as Ha Long Bay, Cat Ba Island.

In recent years, the number of tourists to Ninh Binh has rapidly grown. In the first six months of 2014 alone, Ninh Binh welcomed 3.3 million arrivals, including 268,800 international tourists.

A tourism expert in Ninh Binh said that the biggest difficulty is the lack of manpower, particularly skilled workforce. Currently, the province has 11,000 employees involved in the tourism sector.

The province has welcomed around 4.5 million tourists per year, but it has only 42 tour guides.

Vice Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Duong Thi Thanh said that in the future the department would hire experts to train their farmers on how to offer community tourism to tourists, helping create stable income for them.-VNA