Many potentials and advantages
In the Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries in Vietnam to 2020, with a vision to 2030, cultural tourism is identified as one of the 13 industries to be promoted for development. The Strategy also sets a specific target that by 2030, cultural tourism will account for 15-20% of the total 40 billion USD in revenue from tourists.
Assessing the potential and advantages of Vietnam's cultural tourism, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Tourism (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) Pham Van Thuy said that Vietnam has 32 world heritages recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), including 2 natural heritages and 1 mixed heritage, 29 cultural heritages; along with thousands of relics and the diversity of cultural identities of 54 ethnic groups. Tourism based on the strengths of culture, nature, identity and customs of ethnic groups can make a difference for Vietnam. This is the basis for creating unique tourism products that are highly competitive with other countries in the region.
Guiding international tourists to visit the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam. Photo: Nguyen Quang
According to the Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, Vu The Binh, along with other types of tourism such as eco-tourism, sports tourism, medical tourism, adventure tourism, etc., cultural tourism is considered a unique product of developing countries, attracting many international tourists. The most attractive and appealing thing for international visitors is the cultural identity of the countries expressed in tourism products. Tourists coming to Vietnam often look for new and unique things, experiences of exploring local culture, being with the people, enjoying the beauty of the locality, etc.
Currently, many localities have built unique cultural tourism destinations to attract tourists such as: Hanoi, Ha Long (Quang Ninh), Hoi An (Quang Nam), Hue (Thua Thien Hue). In Hanoi, Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang affirmed that cultural tourism is the greatest strength of the capital's tourism, and is also the focus of development of Hanoi city.
Need cooperation from many sides
Although it is considered to have a lot of potential and advantages for developing cultural tourism compared to many countries in the region, according to experts, Vietnam's cultural tourism still has many limitations and has not fully exploited its rich resources.
As a person who has worked in the tourism sector for more than 20 years, Chairman of Lux Group Pham Ha commented that Vietnam has many unique resources, different from other countries in the region and the world, including the four biggest resources: culture, nature, cuisine, and people. However, Vietnam has not yet taken advantage of these factors to develop a cultural industry like Korea and Japan. According to Director of the Vietnam Institute for Tourism Development Research Nguyen Anh Tuan, in our country, cultural tourism products are still slow to innovate, lack creativity, overlap between localities and regions, lack uniformity, and have not created sustainable quality tourism products.
Tourists visit Hoi An ancient town (Quang Nam province). Photo: Bao Phuong
The story of the recent success of cultural tourism products in Hanoi such as the night tour at Hoa Lo Prison, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, literature tour at the Vietnam Literature Museum... is a great proof that relying on culture to develop tourism will create great attraction for tourists. Typically, the night tour at Hoa Lo Prison, tourists must book 2 months in advance to experience. As for the night tour at Thang Long Imperial Citadel, every weekend night also attracts 300 visitors. However, not all localities can fully exploit cultural values to create an attractive tourism brand.
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Hong Long, Head of the Faculty of Tourism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), for cultural tourism to reach tourists, localities and destinations need to be creative in telling their stories. It is necessary to "breathe life" into existing relics and heritages with many new experiences.
Having directly built many cultural tourism products in Hanoi and some localities, Chairman of Hanoi Tourism Association Phung Quang Thang said that to develop sustainable cultural tourism, in addition to the participation of local authorities and investment in resources from businesses, the participation of the people plays a very important role in preserving cultural identity, making that land attractive, friendly, and attracting tourists to return. Therefore, propaganda, education and training of people to participate in building cultural products need to be focused on.
At the Vietnam International Tourism Fair - VITM Hanoi 2023 taking place from April 13 to 16, the theme "Cultural Tourism" is the main focus as an orientation for localities and businesses to focus on investment and exploitation to develop sustainable tourism. Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh said that in order to attract international visitors in the coming time, the tourism industry needs to focus on building new products on the basis of exploiting the unique values of traditional culture and cultural heritages of Vietnam.
