Great resource of tourism
“Heritage and tourism have a close and mutually supportive relationship. Tourism not only relies on heritage for development but also honors heritage values, while preserving and promoting the values of heritage that have been crystallized and preserved. Ha Nam province has a long history and culture, imbued with national identity, which is an important resource for tourism development. At the same time, tourism development contributes to promoting and preserving cultural heritage values…”. This has been affirmed in the Master Plan for Tourism Development of Ha Nam Province to 2030, with a vision to 2050, with a clear determination of the goal of developing Ha Nam tourism to become a resort center of the Red River Delta; organizing the territorial space for tourism development in Ha Nam will follow two axes: the North - South axis with creative resort tourism products associated with science and technology; the East - West axis associated with festival tourism products, spiritual tourism and historical and cultural relics.
As one of the 10 provinces in the country with a large number of relics, diverse in types, rich in content, containing many unique values, Ha Nam has 1,892 ranked relics (2 special national relics; the remaining 98 national relics are provincial relics). Notably, through field trips and surveys in 2021-2022, the cultural sector has researched, discovered, and added dozens of relics and vestiges with a long history related to prehistoric times and the Ly/Tran dynasties. Mr. Mai Thanh Chung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (DOCST), said: Historical relics are the objects of exploitation of tourism activities and are the decisive resources for the birth and development of cultural tourism. Therefore, if the organization of tourism exploitation is limited, historical and cultural relics will reduce their ability to contribute practically to socio -economic development and lose important sources of income to reinvest in the preservation of historical and cultural relics...
Tran Thuong Temple Festival
In reality, based on the diverse and unique cultural tourism resource values with thousands of historical and cultural relics, nearly 200 intangible cultural heritages (festivals, traditional crafts, cuisine, traditional arts, folk games and performances)... many cultural tourism products and programs have been built and exploited to serve tourists, including: tourism to explore cultural and historical values, tourism associated with festivals and cultural events, craft village tourism, cultural and spiritual tourism. In which, cultural and spiritual tourism and festival tourism are currently considered the main products attracting tourists in Ha Nam province. This product is exploited based on the outstanding, unique and most important cultural tourism resource value of Ha Nam province, which is Tam Chuc Tourist Area, along with a number of other typical cultural and religious sites, such as: Ba Danh Pagoda, Tran Thuong Temple, Long Doi Son Pagoda, Lanh Giang Temple, Dia Tang Phi Lai Pagoda, Nguyen Khuyen Temple, Writer - Martyr Nam Cao Memorial Area; Doi Son Tich Dien Festival; Tran Thuong Temple Salary Distribution Festival... In the past 5 years, the average growth rate of tourists in Ha Nam province reached 25.07%/year, total revenue from tourism reached 49.25%. These are impressive numbers, not only contributing positively to the overall socio-economic development of the province but also affirming the importance and great practical value of historical - cultural relics in general and spiritual culture in particular. Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, affirmed: For Ha Nam province, these cultural resources are an important foundation for building a variety of tourism products and services to attract tourists, creating an environment and conditions for the province's tourism development. The core issue is how to simultaneously preserve and exploit the local cultural resources to promote tourism development in Ha Nam.
Exploiting spiritual tourism effectively
At the Ha Nam Province Tourism Investment Promotion Conference in 2024, many scientists and domestic and foreign tourism businesses all commented that Ha Nam has great advantages to develop spiritual tourism. The most blooming time, the most effective exploitation of the "gold mine" of spiritual tourism is spring. Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, expressed his opinion: Ha Nam has strengths and great potential for developing spiritual tourism. The demand for tourism and pilgrimage of tourists has become the driving force for the development of spiritual tourism. If exploited well, spiritual tourism will be attractive not only to domestic tourists but also to international tourists. Spiritual tourism will become an attractive and typical cultural product of Ha Nam, because the number of tourists participating in spiritual tourism accounts for a large proportion of the structure of tourists coming to the locality.
Spiritual tourism has created jobs, improved income and life of local communities. According to the explanation of the Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research Nguyen Anh Tuan: From tourism and through tourism, Ha Nam people have more job opportunities, especially in areas with attractive and outstanding cultural heritages, such as: Tam Chuc scenic complex, Dia Tang Phi Lai pagoda, ... from jobs such as: part-time work at tourism businesses; transporting tourists (motorbike taxi, electric car, service car); providing accommodation, food and beverage services, selling local products to tourists... to jobs that involve participation in tourism activities, serving tourists such as: performing arts, cooking, guiding tourists to experience rural agriculture,... With the economic benefits that tourism brings, people are aware of the value of cultural resources, thereby promoting community awareness in protecting and preserving cultural heritage, environmental landscapes at tourist destinations, building a foundation for sustainable local development.
Drum performance to open Tich Dien Doi Son Festival 2025. Photo: Le Dung
In fact, within just 10 days of the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday, the number of tourists to Ha Nam reached 587,000, including 8,500 international visitors, tourism revenue increased by 26% compared to the same period of the 2024 Lunar New Year. Spiritual tourist attractions that have great appeal to tourists in the spring, such as Tam Chuc Pagoda, Dia Tang Phi Lai Pagoda, Cay Thi Pagoda, Lanh Giang Temple, Tran Thuong Temple... tourists came in large numbers starting from the 2nd day of Tet. In Thanh Liem district alone, the number of tourists to the pagodas reached nearly 80,000 people during the 10 days of the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday (in 2024, at the same time, the number of visitors to these spiritual attractions reached nearly 100,000 people). In addition to the development of tourism services, the motorbike taxi service to take passengers to the pagoda has created jobs and high income for thousands of rural workers in the area. Mr. Do Xuan Do, a motorbike taxi driver at Dia Tang Phi Lai Pagoda (Liem Son Commune, Thanh Liem District) said that each day working at the pagoda area, he also earns about 500,000 VND. Compared to last year, the current income is lower, but it is still a salary that is not easy to earn for freelance workers on this "March 8th" occasion.
Along with that, to serve the dining needs of tourists, a series of local restaurants have sprung up around the temple area in the first days of the new year of At Ty, creating opportunities for many families to have more jobs and high income. Mr. Dao Van Viet, Tan Thanh town, Thanh Liem district said: My whole family has been present in the area near Dia Tang Phi Lai pagoda since the second day of Tet to prepare food and drinks to serve tourists. There are quite a lot of tourists coming to the pagoda in the early spring, so not only my family serves fast food but many other households also organize this service. To ensure reputation and have a place to do business for the following years, we have strictly followed the regulations on food hygiene and safety...
Follow trends, improve the quality of tourism products
With a rich traditional culture, where nearly 2,000 historical and cultural relics still exist and are preserved; nearly 200 intangible cultural heritages, of which 13 typical heritages have been listed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as national intangible cultural heritages, including: Chau Van ritual of the Vietnamese in Ha Nam; Doi Son pagoda festival, Tran Thuong temple festival; Tich Dien festival, Ba Danh pagoda festival; Ba Vu temple traditional festival, Lieu Doi wrestling festival; Lanh Giang temple festival, Nha Xa silk weaving village, Doi Tam drum making, Quyen Son singing, Lai Len singing, Liem Thuan drum singing, love songs in the Mong River junction... and 7 artifacts recognized as national treasures... Ha Nam truly has the potential and strength to develop spiritual cultural tourism.
Poet Vu Quan Phuong shared: Ha Nam currently has extremely unique cultural and spiritual tourism areas and destinations. Tam Chuc Pagoda with its majestic, poetic, and enchanting natural landscape and its massive, unique architectural works are worth visiting, worshiping, and learning about the cultural values here. In addition, ancient pagodas such as Dia Tang Phi Lai and Cay Thi are attracting tourists by their rustic and solemn beauty. People come there not only to enjoy the scenery but also to learn more about the cultural and spiritual values. Following the trend of developing spiritual tourism, Ha Nam should pay attention to improving the quality of tourism products.
However, many tourists visiting Dia Tang Phi Lai Pagoda expressed their opinions about the traffic infrastructure that still has many shortcomings, especially the need to park personal vehicles far from the pagoda area with no safety conditions; the situation of some motorbike taxi drivers competing for customers, causing frustration for tourists before entering the pagoda... At Tam Chuc Pagoda, the boat ticket price to enter the pagoda is too high, causing frustration for many tourists when they go sightseeing and worshiping in the spring but do not have the need to take a boat. In addition, accommodation and catering services for tourists in tourist areas and spots are still limited... Sharing his views on how to make spiritual tourism a main tourism product line, with attraction and a role in promoting the development of other types of tourism, Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research emphasized: Ha Nam needs to exploit and promote effectively the values of cultural resources to develop tourism products in the direction of quality, creating products with high brand and added value; prioritize building products based on the strength of exploiting the depth of cultural and spiritual values, taking Tam Chuc Scenic Complex as the center to connect with other cultural and spiritual tourist destinations. At the same time, build cultural spaces imbued with Buddhist influences in Tam Chuc Tourist Area with quality services: health care services using medicinal herbs and traditional therapies, experience Zen, Yoga, organize folk song and dance performances, folk games, etc.
Thousands of tourists visit Dia Tang Phi Lai pagoda every day during the Lunar New Year 2025
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Duc Thanh, former Head of the Faculty of Tourism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), the development of Ha Nam tourism in recent times is still in the initial growth stage with signs of increasing scale to meet the needs of the rapidly increasing number of tourists. Tourists have grown strongly but mainly in quantity, most of them are day visitors. The technical infrastructure system is still limited, currently only meeting part of the needs of tourists, especially during peak seasons... From this reality, he expressed his opinion: In the face of intertwined opportunities and challenges, to realize the goal of building Ha Nam into an attractive destination on the cross-Vietnam journey of tourists, in my opinion, Ha Nam province needs to continue to orientate the exploitation and development of Ha Nam tourism products associated with the traditional cultural values of the locality and regions across the country; At the same time, it is necessary to develop a synchronous system of infrastructure and technical facilities serving tourism to ensure good service for tourists, especially during peak seasons, such as spring. On the other hand, it is necessary to create tourism products with distinctive characteristics from the unique tourism resource values of Ha Nam; focusing on improving the experience of tourists such as: cultural and historical tourism products, craft village tourism products, agricultural tourism, on-site vacations, sports tourism, eco-tourism, etc., thereby increasing the length of stay and average spending of tourists in Ha Nam.
With a favorable geographical location, beautiful landscapes, friendly people, rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage, Mr. Mai Thanh Chung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: The province has prioritized investment in planning relic spaces associated with planning areas, types, and tourist routes, building routes linking tourist destinations to create attractive tourism products to attract visitors, placed in a tourism network with the provinces of the Red River Delta and the whole country. And, what is easy to see is that spiritual tourism products at destinations are gradually improving in quality, bringing interesting and unique experiences to visitors. The bright spots in the tourism picture of Ha Nam have been proving that spiritual tourism is a trend of the community, creating a significant source of revenue for tourism and can exploit the depth of spiritual culture and beliefs.
Source: https://svhttdl.hanam.gov.vn/Pages/ha-nam-khai-thac-du-lich-van-hoa-tam-linh-gan-voi-bao-ton-van-hoa-truyen-thong.aspx
Comment (0)