Finding directions for tourism development in My Son.

Over 20 travel businesses based in Da Nang city gathered at the My Son Heritage Site (Thu Bon commune) last weekend to provide advice, contribute ideas, and find ways to attract tourists to this destination.

Tourists visit the My Son temple complex. Photo: KHANH LINH

Not yet commensurate with potential

As a unique complex of brick architecture built by the ancient Cham people over nearly 10 centuries, the My Son temple complex has become a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction in Vietnam with distinctive values. Alongside it, over 1,100 hectares of landscaped forest, along with the surrounding flora, fauna, and river and lake ecosystems, further enhance the outstanding advantages of this heritage site.

Over the past period, the My Son World Cultural Heritage Management Board has implemented plans, invested in service infrastructure, and developed attractive tourism products, ranging from Cham folk dance performances, traditional singing and chanting, electric shuttle services, Cham brocade weaving experiences, Cham pottery making, conical hat making... to multilingual automated audio guides, 360-degree virtual reality tours, online ticket sales... offering many attractive experiences for visitors and contributing to maintaining a stable annual growth rate of over 10% in visitors to My Son. However, compared to the potential advantages of the heritage site, this growth rate is still not commensurate.

According to Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet, Deputy Director in charge of the My Son World Cultural Heritage Management Board, because My Son belongs to the group of cultural, historical, spiritual, and religious tourism , the types of tourists are not stable.

In addition, current tourist trends are also changing, with a preference for ecotourism, responsible tourism, nature-based tourism, and recreational tourism, which has a certain impact on destinations.

In particular, although the Management Board is a financially autonomous unit, some procedures related to investment and construction of product items require unified financial approval before investment can be implemented.

In the future, My Son will need to diversify and further improve the quality of its tourism products and services in order to increase the length of stay and spending of tourists.

Simultaneously, strengthen promotional activities in various markets, boost communication on digital platforms; create attractive promotional mechanisms to attract businesses, travel companies, and tour guides to bring tourists to the My Son heritage site.

A unique destination - unique value

In 2024, My Son welcomed over 450,000 visitors, and in the first nine months of 2025 alone, over 353,000 visitors purchased tickets to visit the temple complex, a 4.2% increase compared to the same period. Most businesses recognize that My Son is unique and distinctive, and therefore requires a unique approach to exploiting and promoting its potential.

My Son will develop many products and services to attract tourists in the future. Photo: VINH LOC

Mr. Bui Van Tuan, Director of Hi Vooc Co., Ltd., believes that My Son is a unique world cultural heritage site found only in Vietnam, making it very attractive to foreign tourists. Furthermore, its pristine ecological environment and beautiful scenery offer many fascinating experiences for visitors. The challenge now is finding effective solutions and methods to highlight the values ​​of the heritage site.

"The rarer something is, the higher its value, so tourists are willing to spend a large amount of money to experience it if the service quality is good. My Son already has these values; now it just needs additional services and supplementary products to attract tourists," Mr. Bui Van Tuan analyzed.

According to Mr. Ly Dac Nam, representative of Khang Huy Tourism Co., Ltd., although the number of visitors to My Son is relatively large, it is still modest compared to other world cultural heritage sites, because the services at My Son are not truly attractive, diverse, or visually appealing.

“Khang Huy Company specializes in receiving cruise ship passengers, averaging nearly 60,000 visitors arriving at Vietnamese seaports annually. We have also developed a My Son product to offer to cruise lines, but customer choices are limited. This is because cruise tourists, upon arriving anywhere, want to experience the destination's culture in the most visual way possible. Therefore, My Son needs more visually engaging and vivid ways to highlight its cultural heritage and clearly demonstrate its status as a world cultural heritage site with outstanding cultural values,” Mr. Ly Khac Nam expressed.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet informed that, given the current state of products and services and the strengths of natural landscapes, the unit will focus on developing diverse types of tourism in the future, with ecotourism as the main focus, along with supporting experiential services to diversify products and offer more attractions for visitors.

The Management Board is focusing on developing the My Son tourism development plan for the period 2025-2030, in which ecological tourism resources, including hills, mountains, streams, lakes, waterfalls, and hydroelectric power plants, will be accessed and utilized rationally to build ecotourism products that connect heritage sites with the community.

“The unit will also develop river tourism products based on the strengths of the Thach Ban dam; trekking, mountain climbing to explore native plants, thematic research on biodiversity, thematic research related to historical stories… Creating a space for a series of Cham-Vietnamese craft village experiences; a space for experiencing Cham-Vietnamese folk games.”

"In addition, we are launching a mountain bike experience service to the My Son hydroelectric power plant; observing from above using telescopes combined with fire watch posts… to create new and unique highlights for tourists, developing My Son tourism to be worthy of its status as a world cultural heritage site," Mr. Khiet shared.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/tim-huong-phat-trien-du-lich-my-son-3304933.html