Phu Dong connects tourist destinations with travel businesses

Potential, available advantages

Phu Dong Commune has a huge treasure of cultural heritage with 101 historical and cultural relics, 4 revolutionary resistance relics, including the Phu Dong Temple National Special Relic Site with 10 locations and 19 relics ranked at the national level, 30 relics ranked at the city level and 25 traditional festivals, the most famous of which is the Giong Festival which has been honored by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity...

At the program, delegates visited and listened to an introduction to the profound cultural and spiritual significance and unique architectural features of the Gióng Temple - Phù Đổng Temple, where the Saint Phù Đổng Thiên Vương is worshiped - one of the Four Immortals of Vietnamese folk beliefs; visited Kien So Pagoda, a pagoda built by Zen master Cẩm Thành before 820, after Buddhism was introduced to Đại Việt, where King Lý Công Uẩn once came to practice and study Buddhist scriptures... With its profound historical, cultural and spiritual value, Kien So Pagoda is honored by historians as the ancestral temple of Vietnamese Zen.

Delegates visit and listen to an introduction about Phu Dong Temple. *Photo: Anh Duong*

Phu Dong also has the Giong Festival. Every year, from the 7th to the 9th of the 4th lunar month, Phu Dong organizes the Giong Festival - a traditional festival, formed during the Ly Dynasty. The attraction of the Giong Festival is integrated through a series of unique artistic symbol systems, with characters participating in the festival, such as: the Generals - generals of Saint Giong, female generals, the army of the royal family, the Ai Lao group, the black-shirt group, the red-shirt group; activities such as playing chess, pulling dragon-horse carriages, rewarding the troops, carrying water, reviewing the generals...

At the Saint Giong Temple, delegates enjoyed a performance of songs and dances by the Ai Lao troupe - one of the components of the Giong Festival. *Photo: Anh Duong*

The commune also has Phu Dong Green Park eco-tourism area with an area of over 15.6 hectares, designed close to nature, fresh space, recognized by the City People's Committee as a 4-star OCOP product in the field of community tourism and tourist attractions, recognized by the Hanoi Department of Tourism as a standard facility serving tourists.

In particular, the commune has key traffic routes passing through, many investment projects on key traffic infrastructure, urban areas, services, and logistics are being implemented, such as: Gia Binh Airport connecting road project, Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway; Hanoi - Quang Ninh high-speed railway..., creating favorable conditions for Phu Dong to develop multi-sector economy , promote regional connectivity, attract investment, enhance economic - cultural - social exchanges and especially connect tours and tourist routes.

Vice Chairman of Phu Dong Commune People's Committee Nguyen Dinh Quang said that based on its existing potential and advantages, Phu Dong Commune is gradually building and exploiting tourism products and programs with 4 types: Cultural - spiritual tourism; school tourism and cultural and historical education; traditional craft village - culinary tourism; eco-tourism, agricultural experience.

Vice Chairman of Phu Dong Commune People's Committee Nguyen Dinh Quang speaks. *Photo: Anh Duong*

However, Phu Dong tourism still faces many difficulties: Traffic infrastructure, parking lots, and ancillary service systems are not yet synchronized; tourism promotion and advertising are not strong; there is a lack of experiential product models, accommodation, and on-site tour guides; people have not been properly trained to participate in community tourism activities... Therefore, the exploitation of Phu Dong tourist site has not yet achieved the desired results, and is not commensurate with the cultural and tourism resources that the locality has.

To overcome these limitations, Phu Dong commune is building a project "Preserving and promoting the value of cultural and historical heritage associated with tourism development to create a foundation for sustainable development in Phu Dong commune in the period 2025-2030".

The project has many new ideas, promising breakthroughs in tourism development for the locality and brand positioning, such as: Upgrading and beautifying the landscape of the entire relic site; investing in signs to install tourist destination maps with explanations introducing tourist destinations; building an area to display costumes of characters associated with the Gióng Festival, such as the Headmasters, the Generals, the red-shirt and black-shirt ward..., to enhance the experience for visitors.

Along with that, the commune focuses on upgrading infrastructure to serve tourism such as building a parking lot in front of the Thuong Temple, lowering the Da dike, public restrooms; proposing to the city to allow the construction of a Bamboo Park of more than 30 hectares associated with the Four Immortals in Vietnamese folk beliefs; connecting the relic site with destinations in the city...

Promoting heritage values

Affirming the advantages of applying digital transformation and building digital maps will help develop tours and tourist routes in the commune, Director of the Center for Research and Promotion of Cultural Heritage Values Nguyen Duc Tang said that Phu Dong commune needs to build thematic tours, connecting the space of historical and cultural relic values of the locality with the tourist area in the area, helping visitors better understand the cultural space of worshiping Saint Giong. At the same time, the locality needs to promote the cultural tourism industry, thereby having valuable cultural products associated with introducing local specialties and typical products.

Chairman of the Vietnam Green Tourism Association Phung Quang Thang said that each locality has its own characteristics, with Phu Dong - a locality with great cultural value, so the commune needs to exploit the value of heritage, connect with component heritages, craft villages, tourist routes, create unique tourism products, attracting tourists all year round.

If Phu Dong commune builds a "virtual reality interactive room", which contains full information and legendary stories about Saint Giong, it will help visitors feel like they are in the relic space, and can even interact and learn about the history and culture of the locality in the "virtual reality interactive room". This is the meaning of tourism associated with digital transformation and digital technology, helping to promote the development of Phu Dong tourism.

Delegates expressed their opinions at the conference. *Photo: Anh Duong*

Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Van Sau - former Head of the Department of Culture and Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture, said that positioning the tourism brand of Phu Dong is an important highlight, especially positioning the destinations of the relic through images, so that visitors can feel and understand the historical significance of the relic.

Along with that, it is necessary to realize the legend through introducing the existing relic sites in Phu Dong commune. Besides, placing banners and boards introducing the relics should be arranged in appropriate areas. One element that helps to breathe life into tourism and decode the cultural heritage in Phu Dong is to create a really good explanation, true to historical value, helping visitors understand correctly and clearly about the relics, thereby creating the core value of the destination.

From the perspective of young people on tourism, Vice President of Hanoi Tourism Association Dang Duy Trung Hieu said that in order to diversify tourism products, the commune needs to soon connect green bus routes, build bicycle and electric bicycle tours to destinations in the area, helping tourists experience green space when traveling in Phu Dong.

To turn tourism in Phu Dong into a thriving economic sector, attracting tourists and bringing prosperity to the locality, Mr. Nguyen Van Tai (Vietnam UNESCO Travel Club) said that the commune needs to develop culinary services, invest in rustic dishes, full of countryside flavor, and local specialties to introduce and attract tourists. This requires the people of Phu Dong commune to join hands with the locality to promote existing advantages.

Director of Travelogy Vietnam Tourism Company Vu Van Tuyen commented that Phu Dong is the "capital" of bougainvillea in Hanoi, so it is necessary to exploit the advantage, arrange the bougainvillea space on a long, beautiful road, both to help position the Phu Dong bougainvillea brand and to create a feeling for tourists to love it more, wanting to come back to "check in" in Phu Dong.

Homestay services also need to be focused on by the commune to attract more domestic and international visitors to Phu Dong. From a business perspective, Travelogy Vietnam Tourism Company recognizes the tourism potential of Phu Dong and is ready to accompany the locality in tourism development.

Professor, Dr. of Science, Architect Hoang Dao Kinh speaks. *Photo: Anh Duong*

Prof. Dr. Architect Hoang Dao Kinh, Member of the National Cultural Heritage Council, former Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Architects Association, former Director of the Institute for Monument Conservation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) affirmed that Phu Dong is a heritage warehouse, a land of tourism with a humanistic, cultural and civilized wonder that has existed for thousands of years. This place not only has the Phu Dong National Special Relic Site, but is also a condensation of Vietnamese village civilization, a living cultural heritage that needs to be promoted. Therefore, it is very necessary to have support from the city's functional agencies, and to have the determination and determination of local authorities in exploiting and developing tourism.

Affirming the location, potential, advantages and tourism development orientation of Phu Dong commune - a land converging cultural, historical and spiritual values, possessing beautiful ecological landscapes and a rich system of craft villages, creating a solid foundation for sustainable tourism development, Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism Tran Trung Hieu highly appreciated the enthusiastic opinions of experts, scientists and travel businesses.

To realize the goal of tourism development in Phu Dong commune, the leaders of the Department of Tourism requested travel agencies to proactively survey and develop tour programs connecting with Phu Dong, especially tourism products associated with culture - spiritual beliefs - craft villages - ecology.

Delegates take souvenir photos at the conference. *Photo: Anh Duong*

The People's Committee of Phu Dong commune needs to continue to pay attention to investing and perfecting tourism infrastructure, creating favorable conditions for businesses, communities and tourists; at the same time, promoting propaganda and promoting the image of Phu Dong - a typical heritage, cultural and ecological destination of the capital. In addition, local people need to actively participate and become the subject of community tourism activities, contributing to building the image of "Friendly and hospitable Phu Dong people".

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/phu-dong-ket-noi-diem-den-du-lich-voi-cac-doanh-nghiep-lu-hanh-722608.html