It is necessary to exploit and promote the cultural values ​​of festivals in depth for tourism development.

It must be affirmed that the exploitation of culture and beliefs is considered a priority choice for tourism development and when talking about culture and beliefs, it means talking about festivals. However, the reality is that the development of cultural and religious tourism in Bac Lieu City has long lacked good models and practices. Therefore, tourism exploitation still "follows the festival", or is organized in a "scheduled" manner, but has not promoted the typical cultural values ​​crystallized from festivals and turned festivals into one of the cultural activities that are organized systematically, creating more motivation for the development of the tourism industry.

The ceremony of inviting the gods to sing and worship Ky Yen of the Chinese community in Bac Lieu .

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CULTURAL EVENTS AND FESTIVALS

In recent times, cultural and sports events hosted by the province in Bac Lieu City have attracted many domestic and foreign tourists and local people to participate, such as: Cultural - Tourism Festival; Agricultural and rural tourism festival with many attractive activities, including traditional craft villages; traditional art performances; OCOP products and typical rural industrial products of Bac Lieu; agricultural specialty culinary contest; mobile propaganda contest on rural tourism... were successfully organized and attracted 10 times more visitors to Bac Lieu City than normal days.

Along with that, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year every year, Bac Lieu City has organized many recreational activities to serve the people and tourists inside and outside the province to enjoy the spring and welcome the New Year through the Spring Festival "Countryside Market on Tet" with many cultural and artistic activities such as: street music exchange, amateur music exchange... Thereby attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists inside and outside the province to visit and experience the activities at the countryside market, contributing to increasing the number of tourists every year. In particular, organizing the Da Co Hoai Lang festival, the Quan Am Nam Hai festival and other local folk festivals, aiming to preserve and promote cultural identity associated with cultural activities, entertainment to promote and attract the participation of people and tourists.

The city also coordinated with other sectors to implement Project 06 on "Preserving and promoting the fine traditional values ​​of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development" under the National Target Program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021 - 2025 with the following contents: organizing performances and reenactments of two traditional festivals of the Khmer people, Chol-chnam-thmay and Ooc-om-boc at Xiem Can pagoda (Vinh Trach Dong commune) to restore, preserve and promote traditional cultural values, train artisans, and improve the level of cultural enjoyment for the Khmer people associated with tourism development in the city. In addition, it also directed localities to manage and exploit the organization of folk festivals associated with tourism development...

Blessing ceremony at Phuoc Duc ancient temple (also known as Bang Pagoda, Ward 3, Bac Lieu city).

LACK OF RESEARCH

It can be said that although cultural activities and festivals have been exploited and promoted in association with tourism development, in general, they still face many difficulties and have not fully exploited their inherent potential and advantages, especially the exploitation of cultural values ​​from traditional folk festivals. The above shortcomings are due to many reasons, but the main reason is still the lack of works and research topics on the cultural values ​​of festivals, especially traditional folk festivals of ethnic groups living in Bac Lieu. For example, when visiting the architectural and artistic relics of the Chinese community in Bac Lieu, tour guides only introduce the year the relic was established, or introduce folk festivals in a soulless way, causing the typical cultural values ​​crystallized from the relics and festivals to not be exploited, creating boredom, visiting for fun, for information but not being able to "breathe life" to arouse curiosity, desire to explore, want to continue to come to exploit, or create regret because the values ​​​​from the relics are discovered too slowly. Overcoming this weakness, city tourism can create a spreading power, retaining tourists. Based on the above situation, encouraging and having policies for research projects on festival culture in the city will bring many meanings to the development of cultural and religious tourism. This not only solves the current practical difficulties in exploiting the cultural values ​​of festivals for tourism development, but also contributes to preserving and honoring traditional folk festivals and limiting the organization of hybrid festivals, losing their roots in the style of "instant noodles" or falling into superstition.

Tourists watch a performance of Khmer ethnic music. Photo: KT

Another significant issue is that compared to other localities of the province and the upcoming merger with Ca Mau province, Bac Lieu City (to become Bac Lieu Ward) must be considered the tourism center of the province when concentrating many works and attractive tourist destinations of the Mekong Delta region that have been recognized by the Mekong Delta Tourism Association. In particular, exploiting and promoting the cultural values ​​of traditional festivals must be considered unique and highly competitive or have their own identity. Only then will Bac Lieu Ward in the future be able to maintain its key tourism position and attract visitors in unfavorable traffic conditions, as well as overcome infrastructure barriers to attract visitors with the uniqueness and appeal of a culturally rich land in which folk festivals are the leading strength.

NGUYEN THANH

Source: https://www.baobaclieu.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/can-khai-thac-phat-huy-gia-tri-van-hoa-le-hoi-theo-chieu-sau-cho-phat-trien-du-lich-100825.html