Building a GIS database for ecotourism development in Ba Vi District, Ha Tay Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Ecotourism is a concept and a fast growing segment of the tourism industry worldwide. It plays an increasingly important role in the socio-economic development of many districts and provinces in Vietnam. Therefore, it needs to be well planned and managed with the aid of spatial information technologies such as Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). This paper presents the results of building a GIS database for ecotourism development in Ba Vi, a large legendary mountainous district of Ha Tay Province based on field and desk investigations. The created database consists of spatial and attributive data files related to natural and cultural resources in Ba Vi stored in a standard format of ArcView GIS that can and should be effectively retrieved, analyzed and updated to generate useful information in the form of maps, tables and charts to support ecotourism planning and management activities in the district for sustainable development.