According to Insider Exclusive, heritage tourism is now considered one of the fastest growing types of tourism. Accordingly, heritage tourists typically spend 60% more than other forms of tourism in general (about 1,319 USD/trip). Heritage tourists also take more trips than other forms of tourism on average (3.6 trips/year compared to 3.4 trips/year).
UNESCO statistics also show that places with recognized world heritage sites attract more tourists and they stay up to 2.5 times longer than other places with similar characteristics.
According to statistics, in 2019, total revenue from ticket sales and services of Hoi An Ancient Town and My Son Temple Complex reached about 360 billion VND (accounting for more than 15% of total revenue of world heritage sites nationwide).
Along with Hoi An, My Son Temple Complex is a top favorite destination for international visitors to Quang Nam.
At the workshop on preserving and promoting the value of world heritage sites in Vietnam held in Hoi An City, information from world heritage sites showed that these destinations are making many moves towards enhancing their heritage tourism brands according to their own characteristics with high added value created from tourism. Therefore, Hoi An and My Son also need to continue to improve their products and management methods, thereby positioning the brand value of their destinations in the heritage tourism segment.
Mr. Phan Xuan Thanh - Chairman of Quang Nam Tourism Association said that the value that heritage tourism in Quang Nam, especially Hoi An, will bring will be huge if we change our approach. In fact, we have achieved some achievements in exploiting heritage tourism for a long time, but there are still many unique "layers" of heritage that if we know how to exploit in depth, the added value will be huge.
Not only focusing on preserving tangible values, recently traditional values in Hoi An have been recognized as national intangible cultural heritage such as Thanh Ha pottery, Tra Que vegetable growing or most recently the Lantern Festival. The special mechanism to promote heritage values for Hoi An Ancient Town and My Son Temple Complex, if approved, will also contribute to raising the level of heritage tourism.
According to the Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Conservation, at the grassroots level, there are still many concerns related to promoting heritage values associated with tourism that need attention, such as policies to support the production of traditional tile and brick materials for relic restoration; policies and incentive mechanisms for officials specializing in cultural heritage conservation, art and culture, etc.
