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The Trang An Heritage Site and Scenic Landscape Complex is located on the southern edge of the Red River Delta in Ninh Binh province, covering an area of 6,226 hectares and a buffer zone of 6,026 hectares, within the districts of Hoa Lu, Gia Vien, Nho Quan, and the cities of Tam Diep and Ninh Binh.
The heritage site comprises three protected areas: the Hoa Lu Ancient Capital historical and cultural relic site, the Trang An - Tam Coc - Bich Dong scenic area, and the Hoa Lu special-use forest; encompassing all the unique landscape values and related cultural values. According to statistics, approximately over 20,000 people currently live within the core area of the heritage site.
On June 25, 2014, the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site. This is the first mixed World Heritage site in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, with evidence of the interaction of ancient people with the natural landscape and their efforts to adapt to environmental changes over more than 30,000 years.
According to UNESCO experts, the conservation of the Trang An World Heritage site, combined with sustainable development, has achieved a relatively good balance. - Photo: VGP/Diep Anh
The Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex heritage site also plays a significant role in the religious life not only of the local people but also of people from other regions. Pilgrims account for a large proportion of visitors to the heritage site, especially during festivals, with the number of visitors potentially reaching 35,000 per day. With its unique and distinctive landscape, culture, and historical value of global significance, Trang An plays an important role in the socio-economic development of Ninh Binh province, creating momentum and strength to make Ninh Binh a major tourism center of Vietnam, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists every year.
The average annual growth rate of tourist arrivals in Ninh Binh during the period 2010-2019 was over 11%. In 2019, the province welcomed nearly 7.65 million visitors, including 6.58 million domestic tourists and 970,000 international tourists. Tourism revenue reached over 3,600 billion VND. Specifically, tourist areas and sites within the core heritage zone received over 3.1 million visitors in 2019, including approximately 650,000 international tourists, with a growth rate of about 9.7% per year.
Tourism, service, and heritage conservation activities have brought direct income and benefits to local people, thereby creating a close and strong relationship between the community and the heritage, raising awareness and responsibility among individuals, and ensuring harmony between preserving the natural landscape, conserving and promoting heritage values, and developing tourism.
According to UNESCO experts, the conservation of the Trang An World Heritage site, linked with sustainable development, has achieved a relatively good balance, harmonizing environmental protection, state management, the people, and businesses. Sustainable development policies, coupled with ensuring livelihoods for the people, have transformed the face of many localities within the heritage area, shifting the economic structure from agriculture to tourism services. Many traditional crafts have been restored, new occupations and livelihoods have been created, and, importantly, there has been a strong connection between tourism activities, agriculture, and experiencing the local way of life.
Security and order, environmental sanitation are ensured; infrastructure and technical facilities are constantly invested in and upgraded; tourism culture and civility have been enhanced; the quality of human resources and the service and reception of tourists have basically become well-established; tourism promotion and marketing are always emphasized, and the image and brand of tourist areas and destinations within the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex are increasingly affirmed.
The UNESCO World Heritage status has truly played a pivotal role in promoting tourism development throughout the province, affirming Ninh Binh's position in the domestic and international tourism markets. Activities promoting heritage values in conjunction with green tourism development within the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex have been quite successful, demonstrated by the participation of local communities in livelihood activities related to tourism services and the enhancement of heritage values.
Recently, at the International Conference on Promoting the Value of UNESCO Designations for Sustainable Development in Vietnam, held in Ninh Binh, Mr. Michel Croft, Acting Head of the UNESCO Office in Hanoi, stated that he had observed and witnessed the achievements of the public-private partnership model in Ninh Binh since the early years of the province's efforts to establish the designation for its heritage sites. This is a highly successful lesson from Ninh Binh, demonstrating its effective mobilization of public and private sector partners in building and sustainably maintaining the conservation and promotion of recognized World Heritage sites, a model that can be applied to many other World Heritage sites in Vietnam.
Mr. Firmin Edouard Matoko, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for African Priorities and External Relations, believes that to maximize the value of UNESCO designations, very specific mechanisms and policies are needed for urban areas, thereby simultaneously developing the economy and preserving and promoting the value of heritage. Everyone needs jobs, especially the younger generation, so policies need to be applied differently between urban and rural areas.
Trang An faces significant challenges for sustainable development.
However, alongside the achievements, the Trang An Heritage Site still faces many challenges in order to develop sustainably and become an attractive destination for regional and international tourism. These challenges include finding a harmonious balance between heritage preservation and socio-economic development.
Currently, the number of tourists visiting tourist areas and attractions within the Heritage site is increasing rapidly, leading to a high demand for tourist accommodation, especially in areas with natural landscapes and interspersed residential areas; the number of spontaneous homestay accommodations is also increasing rapidly, mainly concentrated in the core area of the heritage site. Land management, construction activities, tourism accommodation business, and the use of tourism resources within the heritage site are not strictly enforced, with long-standing violations that have not been thoroughly addressed; scientific research, especially research on culture and biodiversity, is still limited, and there are no in-depth, comprehensive studies on the values of the heritage site.
The challenges for the development of UNESCO-designated heritage cities are considerable, especially for mixed cultural and natural world heritage cities like Trang An (Ninh Binh).
Investment in and restoration of historical and cultural relics, and protection of the environmental landscape, have not been commensurate with the status and stature of the heritage site; investment projects in tourism infrastructure within the Heritage site are being implemented slowly; tourism products within the heritage site are repetitive, monotonous, and lack specialized tourism programs focusing on archaeology and heritage exploration linked to the cultural and historical values and traditions of the ancient capital of Hoa Lu.
Resolving the conflict between heritage preservation and economic development in a harmonious way.
Recognizing the importance of sustainable development in the era of integration, globalization, and the challenges of climate change and other social issues, Ninh Binh province has always adopted a sustainable development perspective based on the province's potential and strengths, especially its cultural and natural heritage sites and UNESCO titles. The focus is on placing people at the center and as the goal of sustainable development, enhancing sustainable livelihoods for people in heritage areas.
For communities living in heritage areas, in addition to creating conditions and encouraging them to apply their accumulated traditional experiences and knowledge in protecting and promoting heritage values, there needs to be a mechanism for sharing benefits with the community from heritage conservation and sustainable tourism development activities. This should create opportunities for people to participate in heritage protection activities, preserve historical and cultural relics and intangible cultural heritage, develop biodiversity, and create jobs for communities living in heritage areas.
At the same time, we will continue to improve and implement the public-private partnership model in managing and promoting heritage values, creating momentum for sustainable development. In Ninh Binh, the consensus between the government, the people, and businesses, along with the consultation of scientists, has yielded remarkable results in protecting and transmitting heritage values, contributing to heritage preservation and sustainable development.
Over the years, the public-private partnership model has been implemented in tourist areas and sites within the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, a World Cultural and Natural Heritage site, based on three main pillars: state management agencies, businesses, and local communities. In the coming time, Ninh Binh province will continue to refine the public-private partnership model in the conservation and promotion of heritage values, focusing on issues related to coordination mechanisms, benefit sharing, cooperation, and responsibility among stakeholders to further enhance the effectiveness of heritage conservation associated with sustainable development.
In addition, urgent tasks in preserving and promoting heritage values associated with sustainable development include: using resources economically and efficiently, especially non-renewable resources; mitigating the harmful effects of natural disasters; proactively and effectively adapting to climate change; and conserving and developing biodiversity.
Ninh Binh province also focuses on strengthening management capacity and developing sustainable human resources. This includes building a highly professional team of managers and specialists, equipped with and proficient in the regulations of the Law on Cultural Heritage and related legal documents, as well as the provisions of the Convention and the Charter of the World Heritage; equipped with scientific conservation methods; and capable of coordinating and collaborating with experts in various fields, both natural sciences and social sciences and humanities, to manage and implement in practice the planning, design, preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation of heritage sites.
In particular, it is important to improve public awareness campaigns, especially in areas where heritage sites are being developed for tourism, in order to make the community understand the importance and value of the heritage, thereby raising their sense of responsibility and self-awareness regarding the protection of heritage sites, the environment in general, and the tourism environment in particular.
