On the 22^nd November, 2012, the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) held a conference called “Travel, Experience, and Furthermore” with the participation of representatives from state-owned enterprises, NGOs, travel agencies and related media. The conference supported and promoted of community-based ecotourism.

The conference creates a chance for the local communities in MCD’s project sites (Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Khanh Hoa, and Hai Phong Provinces) to promote the brand name of their own community-based ecotourism models. For example, the conference introduced the coastal community-based ecotourism model in Cu Lao Cham, which aims to promote and develop models of Marine Protected Areas and National Parks in coastal areas of Vietnam.

During the conference, communities practiced presenting the scenic landscape, local traditional products, and special features of their tourism via a video presentation. Additionally, the local communities took the opportunity to discuss implementing their own business strategies for travel agents and tour operators, in an effort to create a community-based ecotourism network within Vietnam.

After each presentation, the local people received comments and suggestions from travel agencies, tourism experts, and NGOs. This way, they can learn from more experiences and apply these lessons more successfully on their business development. Most visitors have the same feedback: that all the presented ecotourism models have much potential and ecological and environmental value; however, it is not special enough to be greatly attractive to the tourists. To improve the situation, in the near future the communities are supposed to put more effort into developing products and diversifying incomes, in order to turn ecotourism into one of the most effective supplemental livelihoods for local communities in the coastal areas