Hanoi needs to connect and diversify products to create momentum for tourism development.

– For a long time, cultural tourism has been considered an important foundation for sustainable tourism development, contributing to creating a unique attraction, especially for international tourists. With its potential and outstanding advantages, Hanoi can completely build tours with its own "special" mark, if there is a close connection between businesses and localities to diversify products and enhance the experience for tourists.

Many potentials and advantages

Statistics from the World Tourism Organization show that the proportion of international visitors coming to visit and experience cultural tourism products always accounts for more than 40% of the total number of visitors.

Hanoi – the capital of Vietnam is a land rich in cultural identity, leading the country in the number of relics in the area with 5,922 relics inventoried. Including 1 world cultural heritage, 21 special national relic clusters, 1,160 national relics, 1,456 city-level relics.

Arriving in the capital, tourists will visit architectural works ranked among the best in the country with buildings, theaters that existed from the French colonial period or historical and cultural relics such as Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam... Visiting the suburban area, tourists will come to the rich northern villages of the white cloud land of Doai, the ancient village of Duong Lam.

Not only preserving unique architecture, Hanoi is also a locality that is preserving the quintessence of Northern cuisine . This is also one of the reasons why the prestigious award in the world of Michelin cuisine has chosen restaurants in Hanoi to award stars as a way to honor and recognize the unique cuisine of the land of a thousand years of civilization.

Tourists visit Duong Lam ancient village. Photo: Hoai Nam

In fact, in recent times, the capital's tourism industry has relied on cultural "materials" to restore and create many unique destinations, events and festivals. Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism Tran Trung Hieu said that in recent years, Hanoi has formed a system of tourism products in many localities such as Phuc Tho, Dai Thanh, Ngoc Hoi, Hong Van, Chuyen My, O Dien, Ba Vi or Phu Dong. In addition, Hanoi also focuses on building attractive cultural tours such as night tours of Hoa Lo Prison relics, Thang Long Imperial Citadel heritage... thereby, creating opportunities for tourists to learn about the culture of the thousand-year-old capital.

Chairman of the People's Committee of Phuc Tho Commune Kieu Trong Sy shared that the traditional festival of Tuong Phieu communal house has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage, creating a spiritual highlight, closely associated with the journey of experiencing the cultural heritage of the Doai region. Currently, the locality is coordinating with the Hanoi Department of Tourism to deploy the rural tourism product "Tuong Phieu flower colors", aiming to combine spiritual tourism, eco-tourism and agricultural experience tourism.

Similarly, Chairman of Hoan Kiem Ward People's Committee Trinh Hoang Tung said that in recent years, Hoan Kiem Ward has been established a creative cultural model to serve tourism and has gradually become an indispensable part of the lives of Hanoi people. Typically, public art projects in Hanoi's Old Quarter have gradually become familiar destinations for tourists. The area under the Phung Hung Street bridge, after many years of being "renovated", has become a fixed destination in tours and sightseeing in Hanoi.

Join hands to build a "special" tour

Although Hanoi has many potentials and advantages for developing cultural tourism, according to experts, the development of Hanoi's tourism products has not yet fully exploited its rich resources.

Tourists visit a bonsai garden in Phuc Tho commune. Photo: Hoai Nam

As someone who has worked in the tourism industry for more than 20 years, Chairman of Lux Group Pham Ha commented that the current tourism exploitation in Hanoi is still fragmented, with only a few traditional tourist spots in the inner city such as Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Dong Da, so there has not been a comprehensive and systematic tour program.

From a business perspective, General Director of Wondertour Vietnam Le Cong Nang assessed that Hanoi is the convergence point of Vietnam's quintessence through the ages, however, communication activities to promote cultural tours, especially Hanoi cultural tours, have not been strongly invested.

To exploit Hanoi's potential strengths, Director of the Institute of Tourism Economics Nguyen Anh Tuan said that Hanoi needs to shift from a tourist destination model to an experience, event and creative destination. The Capital Planning 2021-2030, vision 2050 has created conditions for the formation of 5 priority product clusters such as heritage tourism - craft villages, ecology, MICE - events, cuisine - night tourism and smart tourism products. "However, to implement these models requires flexible mechanisms and effective public-private partnership models to turn that potential into real value" - Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan proposed.

Sharing the same view, Director of Travelogy Vietnam Tourism Company Vu ​​Van Tuyen said that the most important thing to develop tourism is to arouse people's pride and learning spirit. If people are properly oriented and learn from successful models such as Da Lat or Sa Dec, they will be confident in doing tourism properly, preserving the traditional identity of the profession and forming a green, clean, livable rural space.

Tourists visit Quang Phu Cau incense stick village (Ung Thien commune). Photo: Hoai Nam

From the experience of planning and exploiting cultural heritage for tourism in Vietnam, President of the Association of Science for Sustainable Tourism Development (STDe), Dr. Architect Nguyen Thu Hanh, said that in order to successfully plan tourism development at cultural heritage sites, Hanoi needs to research and invest in developing a chain of tourism products from the core and outstanding values ​​of the heritage to create richness, diversity and uniqueness, thereby attracting many types of visitors.

But to do this, management agencies such as the Hanoi Department of Tourism need to build a clear and reasonable benefit sharing mechanism, thereby building a close link between managers - scientists - businesses and people in the process of implementing the product chain.

From the perspective of the management agency, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration Ha Van Sieu said that tourism businesses need to strengthen links and cooperation with the government, state management agencies and people to create many tours, routes and tourism products. So that Hanoi continues to be a leading cultural destination in Asia.

In addition to the efforts of businesses, the Hanoi Department of Tourism is required to continue to orient and promote public-private cooperation, effectively implementing Resolution 68-NQ/TW on private economic development. Thereby, encouraging pioneering businesses to create new products, link tourism value chains, build unique tourist routes and destinations in Hanoi, bringing visitors not only the experience of eating, staying, and sightseeing, but also deep emotions and impressions of each land and each person in Hanoi.

Source: Economic & Urban Newspaper

Source: http://sodulich.hanoi.gov.vn/ha-noi-can-lien-ket-da-dang-san-pham-de-tao-da-phat-trien-du-lich.html