Culture is identified as an important resource for economic development, poverty reduction, and sustainable social development. Preserving and promoting national cultural values has always been a central, long-term task set by our Party and State in every period.
On November 22, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism organized a scientific workshop on "Preserving and promoting traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development" to find solutions to achieve the goal of "using culture as a driving force and capital for socio-economic development," creating livelihoods for people, especially ethnic minority areas.
Ethnic culture is the key to sustainable development
Each Vietnamese ethnic group possesses a treasure trove of traditional cultural heritage including indigenous knowledge in folk literature, festivals associated with customs and practices, a system of folk songs and other forms of cultural and artistic activities.
In terms of tangible heritage, the system of communal houses, pagodas, temples, places of worship, and community house architecture all bear strong ethnic cultural imprints.
Professor-Doctor Bui Quang Thanh (Vietnam Institute of Culture, Arts, Sports and Tourism) said that we have had a solid and valuable foundation as a support for the strength of tourism development in general and the development of cultural tourism products of ethnic minorities in particular. However, the promotion of heritage values through tourism, including the task of exploiting and promoting values to develop cultural tourism products in Vietnam, has not yet achieved the desired results.
Mr. Thanh said that the villages directly or indirectly participating in tourism have not yet developed long-term plans or strategies to promote the development of specific cultural tourism products that are suitable for the locality and ethnic culture.
Cultural management teams do not have a deep understanding of the role and value of cultural tourism products, which are both familiar and unique, yet easily overlooked.
Therefore, the local community does not have orientations and training to raise awareness in this area. Village communities mainly passively use available products to serve tourists, but lack creativity and exploration of cultural heritage to create new products that still carry the traditional cultural identity of ethnic groups to attract tourists.
Meanwhile, attention to human resources is still lacking, especially generations of artisans and teams trained in tour guiding.
“Due to the lack of attention from local mechanisms and policies, and because of living conditions, many artisans of various types of heritage, 'living human treasures' who are talented enough to create cultural tourism products, have given up their passion and understanding of art and culture, and traditional crafts to find ways to make a living,” Mr. Thanh said.
Speaking at the workshop, Associate Professor, Dr. Lam Ba Nam, President of the Vietnam Association of Ethnology and Anthropology, said that each ethnic group possesses a rich treasure of knowledge, accumulated over many generations, related to life, production, and behavior with the environment.
This is a particularly valuable resource that needs to be respected and properly exploited in the process of sustainable development. It is time to "awaken" the cultural values of each ethnic group. Besides the policies of the Party and the State, more importantly, to develop sustainable tourism, ethnic culture is the soul.
Closely linking government-business-people
According to cultural experts, to continue promoting values, preserving them in association with tourism development, it is necessary to strengthen coordination between functional sectors, cultural entities and each tourism product exploitation unit, organize selection, introduce them in a systematic, easy-to-understand manner, with highlights, and have suitable performance spaces, contributing to promoting more unique local cultural features to tourists, thereby creating attractiveness and enhancing the value of tourist destinations.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duy Thieu (Vietnam Association of Ethnology and Anthropology) emphasized that it is necessary to put the principle of preservation first, not to trade culture for short-term benefits. Promoting cultural values must ensure sustainability and bring long-term benefits to the community.
He proposed solutions such as: Building a sustainable tourism development strategy; controlling tourism scale; investing in responsible community tourism; training skills for local people to participate in tourism business and improve service quality, while still preserving cultural identity; increasing the application of technology in heritage management and promotion...
Contributing solutions, Dr. Trieu Thi Nhat (Faculty of Tourism Management and International Languages, Hanoi University of Culture) said that based on cultural zoning and cultural characteristics of Vietnamese ethnic groups, it is possible to exploit and promote cultural values by region to develop cultural tourism products typical of ethnic minority regions.
For example, the midland and mountainous regions of the North can develop "roots" tourism combined with cultural and culinary experiences of local ethnic groups; spiritual tourism - learning about diverse beliefs and rituals imbued with the cultural identity of ethnic groups.
Dr. Trieu Thi Nhat also emphasized the importance of the close connection between government-business-people: Government guides, businesses support, people create, exploit their cultural values and enjoy the benefits from tourism products exploited on the resources they own.
From a management perspective, Director of the Department of Culture of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Trinh Ngoc Chung affirmed that the work of preserving and promoting the traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities has always received attention from the Party and State through specific policies, decisions and mechanisms. Many festivals, customs, practices, etc. have been restored and widely spread, showing that the policies have been effective when put into practice.
To concretize and continue to implement the tasks of cultural work in general and promote the traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities in the coming time, the key task is to preserve culture associated with tourism development; turn the cultural values of ethnic minorities into products of economic value, both improving life and spreading identity to people and tourists.
According to Director Trinh Ngoc Chung, the orientation of combining cultural preservation with tourism development has been institutionalized in many important policies such as Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW in 2017 on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector; Project No. 6 under the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period.
“These policies create a favorable corridor for localities to restore, preserve and exploit traditional cultural values; bring culture into community tourism development, create livelihoods and improve people's lives,” said Mr. Chung./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/danh-thuc-he-gia-tri-van-hoa-toc-nguoi-tao-tien-de-phat-trien-ben-vung-post1078639.vnp
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