New trends in cultural tourism

In recent years, the tourism model combined with cultural discovery has quickly become a new trend, both providing visitors with interesting experiences and contributing to preserving and promoting cultural values and identities.

Tourists join the “Heart and Talent” literature tour at the Vietnam Literature Museum. (Photo: TRAN TUAN LINH)

An ancient cotton tree in March flower season, an ancient house hanging paintings by famous artists or a space that is not known to many people, the Vietnam Literature Museum... have created a new and attractive feature for tourists from things that seem familiar.

Awaken your potential

Every year, in March, many people recall memories of the red cotton tree season. This year, the space around the ancient cotton tree in the National History Museum is decorated with a different look thanks to the appearance of the tour "Bac Co - cotton flower season".

While immersing yourself in the space of memories of Vietnamese countryside with the reproduction of village gate models, tea shops, shoulder poles, bamboo swings, folk games... visitors also have the opportunity to learn about Bac Co building, a construction bearing the mark of Indochina architecture blended with indigenous culture, interspersed with the brilliant red flowers of a hundred-year-old ancient cotton tree.

The tour program also highlights the quintessence of Vietnamese villages through exhibits belonging to the national treasures, such as: Tu Ky Pagoda stone incense tree (17th century); stone bridge dating from the Le Trung Hung period (18th century); Ngoc Lu bronze drum and Van Ban bell (spiritual and musical instruments indispensable in Vietnamese rituals and religions)...

Besides, there is also a meeting and exchange between tourists and experts to explore the history and bronze drum casting techniques of our ancestors and experience drumming and listening to sacred sounds in an ancient space.

Deputy Director of the National History Museum Nguyen Thi Thu Hoan shared that the tour program helps remind each person of their homeland memories, while also bringing discovery value to the young generation and foreign tourists experiencing it for the first time, from which they have more love and inspiration to explore cultural values more deeply.

Organizing a night tour with a focus on the value of bronze drums has created a good aesthetic and emotional effect, which is also a unique feature that attracts tourists.

Also a night tour, another cultural tourism highlight that initially made an impression on visitors was the “Heart and Talent” tour taking place at the Vietnam Literature Museum.

This activity contributes to “awakening” a museum that has been operating since June 2015 but is almost unknown. The museum has an area of about 3,000m2, displaying more than 3,454 typical artifacts selected from 55,000 artifacts, which are valuable heritages containing many stories about writers, poets, and the quintessence of Vietnamese literature.

The tour offers visitors many experiences, such as: Visiting the statue garden of 20 literary celebrities; Carrying the words "Heart" and "Talent" into the "Temple of Vietnamese Literature"; The space of Vietnamese literature in the ancient and medieval periods; how writing circulated poetry and literature; The first Declaration of Independence "Nam Quoc Son Ha"; The second Declaration of Independence "Binh Ngo Dai Cao"; The space of the great poet Nguyen Du and the Tale of Kieu; Uncle Ho and the best poet about him; poets, writers, playwrights Luu Quang Vu - Xuan Quynh and stories that touched people's hearts...

Writer Nguyen Thi Thu Hue, Director of the Vietnam Literature Museum, said that the operating team is always thinking about a new way to help spread cultural and literary values to the public instead of just letting the public admire thousands of artifacts and listen to explanations.

From the initial foundation of successfully combining with a tourism unit, the museum will make more efforts to have more versions of literary tours with different themes, at the same time coordinate with units to create many specialized tourism programs, connect with localities that are the hometowns of famous authors so that literary values are more familiar to everyone, every family and international visitors.

Also during the days of March, an interesting cultural tourism model was tested at the ancient house space at 45 Hang Bac, which was a long-term exhibition of painting collections mainly from two periods: Indochina Fine Arts and Resistance Fine Arts associated with the names of famous painters: To Ngoc Van, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Bui Xuan Phai, Hoang Tich Chu, Nguyen Tien Chung, Phan Ke An, Nguyen Gia Tri, Nguyen Huyen, Phan Thong, Nguyen Van Ty, Nguyen Van Thien...

Besides, there are also outstanding works by French masters who participated in founding and teaching at the Indochina College of Fine Arts, such as: Victor Tardieu, Joseph Inguimberty...; or the work that attracts special attention from the public is the landscape oil painting of King Ham Nghi.

The space is completely free of charge, allowing visitors to admire ancient architecture, enjoy paintings, chat with collectors, art researchers, or leisurely drink coffee while watching the streets... The idea and content of the program were implemented by the Ngoc Ha Club Branch of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association with the participation of many Vietnamese curators and artists returning from abroad.

The association representative said that they will coordinate with tourism and travel agencies to make the location and event a destination on the Hanoi tourism map, contributing to promoting the cultural quintessence of the old town and bridging the gap between classic paintings and the public. The first unit to connect this project is also the one that successfully organized night tours at the National Museum of History and the Vietnam Literature Museum.

Creativity and persistence are the key factors

Vietnam Sustainable Tourism Company (STID) is one of the units actively coordinating with museums, cultural spaces, and heritage sites to organize many meaningful tours. Not only playing a management role, Director Phung Quang Thang has personally surveyed, written scripts for each program and emphasized the unique features to exploit.

Sharing about cultural tourism, Mr. Phung Quang Thang commented that to design a tourism product, for companies, the most difficult thing is to clearly understand the content of the location, have extensive knowledge and find human resources who are passionate enough and willing to invest time and effort.

As for coordinating units such as museums, cultural spaces, etc., it takes time and conditions to get used to and adapt to services and the "life cycle" of tourism products and must withstand the pressure of demands such as: perseverance, what is new, what is attractive, etc.

Regarding advantages, according to initial surveys, units implementing cultural tourism believe that the goodwill cooperation between parties has created a source of creative inspiration and companionship.

From there, they have more opportunities to research, exchange, learn from each other, and have more advantages in improving the quality of services for tourists. The higher the demand for cultural tourism, the more favorable conditions are created to exploit the values of heritage.

The most special highlight is that for the young generation and families, cultural tourism is becoming a form of connection, discovery and learning in a gentle and interesting way. Creativity and perseverance are the core factors to create a different and successful cultural tourism product.

In mid-April, the Vietnam Tourism Association organized the 2023 Tourism Forum with the theme “Developing Vietnam’s Cultural Tourism”. At the forum, Director General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh commented that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed tourism demand, creating new tourism trends.

In the context that countries around the world, especially in the ASEAN region, are focusing on priority solutions to restore and promote growth of the industry, Vietnam's tourism is facing fierce competition in terms of destinations, tourism products and services in attracting foreign markets as well as developing domestic tourism...

According to statistics from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), before the Covid-19 pandemic, cultural tourism contributed 37% to global tourism and is forecast to increase by 15% per year. Developing sustainable tourism associated with preserving and promoting heritage and cultural values is an extremely urgent task.

The tourism industry has made cultural tourism products one of the leading important product lines promoted for development in the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy to 2030 as well as the Vietnam Tourism Product Development Strategy to 2025, with a vision to 2030.

According to information from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), among cultural tourists in general, visitors to museums account for about 59%; visitors to historical sites and cultural heritage sites account for about 56% - much higher than those attending traditional art performances.

Research experts believe that it is possible to apply successful models in some countries to attract cultural tourists, such as: live performances; telling stories about the history and culture of the nation and locality in an interesting way; looking at and exploiting seemingly familiar elements in a new way...

In our country, there have been tourism products combined with promoting cultural values, such as: tours connecting world heritages of ASEAN countries; Central heritage journey; Vietnamese festivals such as Hue Art Festival, Nha Trang Sea Festival, Ha Long Sea Carnavan, Central Highlands Gong Festival, Da Lat Flower Festival... and recently, the unique features in culture have been researched and built by businesses and investors into unique tourism products such as the live shows "Hoi An Memories", "Quintessence of the North", "Water Puppetry"; craft village tours are also the top choice for international visitors when coming to Vietnam.

MAI LU

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