Travel "shakes hands" with music, is it more difficult than difficult?

Ms. Hang Tran (28 years old, Hanoi) is currently working in the media industry. This year, she has participated in 6 tourism and music programs. The most recent program she participated in was the music night of singer Ung Hoang Phuc at the "Music Night on the Pine" stage, Ha Long city. This is also the first time in 20 years of his career that the male singer has performed in the beautiful coastal city.

“In the past, I never thought of spending money to go to a music show in another place because the cost would be much higher, but now I think differently. There are shows that I attend and then plan additional travel to optimize costs. The feelings that these music shows combined with travel bring me are very valuable when I can enjoy nature and directly listen and interact with the singers,” Hang said about her new hobby.

Music in tourism used to be like a biscuit in afternoon tea, helping to make the tourist experience more special and complete. Now, music is gradually becoming a spearhead, a part of cultural tourism, helping to attract many people willing to explore new lands to meet their idols. Besides professional art programs, there are still shortcomings that cause difficulties for the audience.

Ms. Dien (Hanoi) is a busy businesswoman managing a beauty care business. She added: “When traveling, I often pay attention to the unique experience factor at the destination. Before, resorts often only had water music and light music which was not attractive enough, but now there are many really high-quality art programs. Such as the program "Hoi An Memories", the program of musician Duc Tri in Cu Lan village, Da Lat, programs in Yen Bai... Many professional programs are dedicated to customers with income, willing to pay to experience".

Recently, Ms. Dien was interested in the art program combining male singer Ha Anh Tuan and artist Kitaro from Japan, which will be held at the Hoa Lu ancient capital relic site, Ninh Binh. However, because of the limited availability of tickets, the lack of professional distribution channels, and the fear of buying fake tickets, she also lost a lot of excitement.

Many audiences who bought tickets in advance, even though they paid, still did not receive tickets from the program organizers. The organizer Viet Vision, along with the Storii platform, has sent notices to readers to fix this situation. On December 26, the program officially sold tickets through the Ticketbox platform and quickly sold out after only four hours.

Ms. Dien also added about her difficulties: “Organizers of many programs often only distribute tickets for a short time, with a limited number of tickets. In addition, intermediaries will sell tickets, adding resort packages that they themselves combine to increase the price. This is their way of doing business, but it also causes a lot of difficulties for the audience.”

Ticket prices for music shows today are quite diverse. Tickets are usually the lowest at 250,000 VND, and the highest at around 5,000,000 VND. From there, the situation of ticket scalpers, fake tickets, small-scale sales, forced purchases in packages... also appeared to make illegal profits.

Mr. Vo Hoang Viet, representative of May Lang Thang, a pioneer in organizing tourism activities combined with music, also shared about this issue: "At the end of this year, May Lang Thang will also organize two programs in Da Lat for about 1,000 guests and one program for 500 guests in Da Nang. To avoid the situation of selling fake tickets or ticket brokers, the organizer needs to coordinate closely with tour providers for a long time, so that customers can easily buy tickets to see the show combined with accommodation and sightseeing. At the same time, the information is also clearly shared on the website and official fanpage."

According to financial institution Future Market Insights, the music tourism market in 2022 was worth US$5.5 billion globally and is forecast to reach US$11.3 billion by 2032. A lucrative segment that no travel service provider wants to miss out on.

"I find the most difficult thing when creating a service model combining music is to create habits for tourists, so that they are willing to pay for the product. Da Lat is oriented to be a music city next year. Tourists not only come because of the beautiful natural scenery and mild climate, but also because of the quality, civilized, culturally rich music tourism products," the representative of May Lang Thang added.

According to statistics, Vietnam only welcomed 3,661 thousand (3.6 million) international visitors. Cultural tourism, including music, is expected to be the next spearhead for us to surpass Thailand or Malaysia, countries that have soon reached the milestone of 10 million visitors. In the future, with quality products, tourists can absolutely choose Vietnam as a destination to listen to music, sightsee and experience culture.

After three years of absence, pianist Pho An My has returned with the program “Inspiration Chieng Di” and most recently the program “Going up the mountain to listen to the clouds” in Chieng Di, Van Ho, Son La. The programs bear the strong imprint of the culture of the Northwest mountains and forests, the culture of the Mong people, combined with classical music, creating much excitement for the audience.

“About three years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Chieng Di, saw a patch of sunlight that made the landscape beautiful, the climate was temperate and pleasant, so I decided to stop here. At first, I wanted to create a space for artists to work, exhibit, and set up a creative camp. Then, I wanted to preserve the Northwestern identity, avoiding urbanization. I also had to mobilize the local people to wear traditional costumes, preserve traditional houses and support tourists to the markets here to sell products, increasing income. I hope tourists will come back here because of the special identities of this place,” the female artist shared about her journey of developing a cultural tourism area.

Currently, the female artist still maintains a small scale of about 100 people for each program. The audience not only enjoys the music night but also participates in market activities, stays at local homestays, enjoys Northwestern dishes and experiences trekking in the mountains and hills around Chieng Di. Most customers are very satisfied with this new service.

Vu Ngoc Anh, also known by his stage name DJ Tobias, has attended many music festivals around the world such as 808 Music Festival, Tomorrowland, Djakarta Warehouse Project. Later this year, he will also experience Ravolution Music Festival in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I think Ravolution in Vietnam is completely up to international standards. But there is a small drawback that it is not spacious enough and convenient for people with disabilities. Otherwise, it is quite similar to the international music festivals I have participated in. If we have more large spaces, with an outdoor music festival character, then in the future we can hope to organize Tomorrowland,” the male DJ shared.

In order not to be left behind in the tourism service race, organizations in Vietnam still have a lot of work to do. But we have every right to hope that in the future, Vietnam will become a destination for music lovers. Because this time, tourism workers are no longer alone, but have artists joining hands.

April Ha