Thanh Ha pottery village: a bright point in the community-based tourism

(QNO) - Thanh Ha pottery village (Hoi An city, Quang Nam province) is considered as a bright point  of the community-based tourism model

Two artists Douwe Buwalda and Bert van der Sluijs (Dutchs) at the pottery exhibition in Thanh Ha Terra Cotta Park in 2014. Picture: MINH HAI

Improving the quality of the destination

Thanh Ha craft village used to produce pottery, bricks and tiles. But since 2012, only pottery has been kept. In addition, the infrastructure investment, advertisement, taking part in fairs, exhibition, training for young artisans, product introduction have been promoted for tourism development. The Management Board of Thanh Ha pottery village’s community-based tourism has been founded to serve visitors to the village.

Thanh Ha pottery is much popular with tourists because of its natural resource without impurities and environmentally friendly features. At present, there have been many Thanh Ha pottery product lines such as: traditional line (post and pans, pots, money boxes…), fine arts line (for interior decoration, park, resort) and souvenir line.

A terra cotta establishment in Thanh Ha. Picture: HOANG LIEN

According to Nguyen Hao, Manager of Thanh Ha ward’s economic office, the terra cotta cultural park is a new feature of this 500 year-old traditional craft village.

Bringing benefits  to the local residents

Mr Nguyen Hao said that the locals at the craft village  have got many benefits from the community-based tourism. In 2014, the turnover of pottery trading reached at 1,8 billion VND (equivalent to 70,000 products sold). Just in the first 6 months of 2015, Thanh Ha pottery village welcomed 30,000 visitors. The turnover of tourism activities was about 700 million VND while the turnover of pottery products sold was about 1 billion VND.

Mr Vo Phung, Director of Hoi An Culture and Sports Center said when the locals benefit by the community-based tourism, the conservation of the craft village’s original features, traditional culture, community life habit will be more advantage.

By HOANG LIEN