Home-stay tourism service in Ly Son Island

Ly Son Island (photo: internet)

Ly Son, the unique island of Quang Ngai province with diversified cultures and customs, is considered one of localities having strengths of marine resource exploitation and tourism development. ​

According to Ly Son district People’s Committee, in 2014, Ly Son welcomed 36,620 visitors. Only in the first quarter of 2015, the number of tourists has reached 16,000.

The increased number of visitors to Ly Son Island in recent years has led to the high demand of guesthouses and hotels; however, the current numbers of accommodations on the island could not meet the needs of visitors.

Since then, the home-stay service has appeared. A lot of islanders offer rooms at their own house for guests to stay.

However, this business model do not meet the standards of service quality, islanders are not trained of legal documents as well as additional knowledge about home-stay tourism service.

Home-stay service is considered a “green tourism” model for tourists who love to explore the tourism place, especially in Ly Son Island.

With home-stay service in Ly Son Island, tourists will eat, live and stay together with the islanders. They will have opportunities to participate into daily activities of the islanders such as planting and harvesting onions and garlic with farmers, in addition, tourists can also dive, fishing, and enjoy the sunset; especially they could attend the traditional cultural festivals of the island, etc.

Ly Son - the unique island of Quang Ngai province (photo: internet) A potential tourism service

According to the Quang Ngai provincial department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ly Son district currently has 02 hotels, 15 guesthouses and 20 households with home-stay service.

Besides, Ly Son is one of the few localities in the province that owns many old houses and valuable historical cultural relics; local people regularly maintain the good habits and customs. These are very favorable conditions for tourism development, especially homes-stay service.

However, the exploitation of natural resources and tourism development in Ly Son still face with a lot of difficult. Businesses and households with home-stay services have not been equipped with the necessary knowledge about tourism; most of accommodations do not meet the standards of quality as well as manpower.

In order to develop home-stay tourism service, besides improvement in infrastructure, the authorities need to enhance the inspections and provide training courses for tourism businesses and islanders, creating conditions for them to operate effectively.

Although the revenue from community tourism (home-stay service) is not high, but it is opening a new development way in tourism activities in Quang Ngai province in general and Ly Son Island in particular.

With the available potentials and proper orientations of the province and district authorities, this type of tourism service will develop and meet the needs of visitors who want to study and explore natural beauty and the island-sea culture of Ly Son.

Minh Thien

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Home-stay tourism service in Ly Son Island Related image(s)