'Awakening' tourism potential from museums

06/12/2024 06:30

The potential of museum tourism in Vietnam needs to be better exploited. (Photo: An exhibition space at the National Museum of History. Illustration: PV)

(PLVN) - Vietnam has a large number of museums with thousands of artifacts bearing the national identity. This is a potential for tourism development, attracting tourists to visit and learn about the country's culture. However, museum tourism in Vietnam is still not really attractive.

Precious resource

Vietnam has advantages in terms of historical length and cultural depth. Our country has about 200 museums, both public and private, which preserve many heritages of documents and artifacts. Museums are a valuable resource for exploiting and developing sustainable tourism. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism once stated that museums are considered the shortest way for tourists to learn about the culture and history of each country and ethnic group.

In the world , many countries have fully exploited the potential of museum tourism, turning museums into "golden spots" for tourists to visit. In Southeast Asia, Singapore is a country with a weakness in natural resources, but in return, this island nation has museums famous for foreign tourists, such as: Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Asian Civilizations Museum, etc. Museums are invested in both content and form, helping Singapore attract hundreds of thousands of visitors. In addition to attracting the public to visit, museum tourism also brings in huge revenue for countries. For example, in France, there are more than 1,000 museums, accounting for about 17% of GDP. In the US, 2019 figures show that museums here earned about 13 billion USD.

In Vietnam, in recent years, museums have been investing in science , technology, and art and have a place in the hearts of people and tourists. Some museums are well known to many tourists, such as: National Museum of History, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts... It can be seen that Vietnamese museums are on the way to "awakening" their potential.

However, in reality, Vietnamese museums still have many limitations in terms of human resources, communication, infrastructure, and lack of ideas to attract tourists and become a typical tourism product of each province and city.

Strengthening links to develop museum tourism

Sharing with reporters, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham - Director of the Southern Women's Museum commented that currently, the connection between tourism and museums still has "gaps". Vietnam has many interesting and unique museums with heritages of international stature, imbued with national identity, these museums should have been known to many tourists long ago.

Ms. Tham said: “Museums are one of the criteria that tourism needs to include. In many countries around the world, tours are required by the Government to take tourists to a few museums and famous historical sites. Currently, in Vietnam, there is no such regulation.”

According to Ms. Tham, this is also one of the reasons why Vietnamese museums are not yet widely known to international tourists. Although Vietnamese museums are currently making efforts to apply modern technology such as 2D, 3D, 360-degree photos, change the way of displaying, and organize many activities, the museum's efforts alone are still not enough. If the museum wants to become an attractive tourist destination, it needs the support of all levels, sectors, and travel companies to coordinate with the museum to attract visitors to visit and return many times.

In addition to creating a link between tourism and museums, to "pull" visitors closer to the museum, educational activities aimed at young people, teenagers and students need to be actively organized. Mr. Nguyen Van Vu, Deputy Director of the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protected Area Management Board, Hoi An City - shared that Cu Lao Cham aims to develop sustainable tourism associated with preserving and promoting the value of natural resources and thousand-year-old culture here. In particular, educational activities are a tourism potential that Cu Lao Cham is exploiting.

Mr. Vu said: “The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, explain and display artifacts of artistic, cultural and scientific significance for research and education. Museums in Cu Lao Cham pay great attention to local students and more broadly, tourists, groups of high schools and universities who come to travel and study. Educational programs on nature and heritage protection will be subtly integrated into each trip.”

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/danh-thuc-tiem-nang-du-lich-tu-bao-tang-post515407.html