To turn cultural heritage into a resource for tourism development - Part 1: Looking straight at reality, planning for the long term

QTO - Quang Tri is "rich" with a "treasure" of 18 national intangible cultural heritages (ICH) along with many unique forms of culture, folk arts, diverse and rich traditional craft villages with many unique features in the cultural life of the Bru-Van Kieu and Pa Ko people. However, in recent times, the locality has not yet fully exploited its strengths, turning ICH into a resource for tourism development. This concern requires specific solutions and actions to implement, in order to effectively exploit the potential.

In fact, in Quang Tri, there have been a number of tourism products exploiting the value of intangible cultural heritages with the expectation of contributing to promoting and introducing the heritage, while also creating an impressive highlight, retaining tourists, especially international tourists. However, this parallel is still not really clear, fragmented and lacking in attraction and impression for local tourism.

Lack of tourism products from intangible culture

The art of Bài Chòi in Central Vietnam has been recognized by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity and is a popular tourist product in many provinces and cities, such as: Da Nang , Dak Lak... Previously, Dong Hoi made Bài Chòi one of the activities that created a special impression for the Cultural-Tourism Week on the walking street every year.

Secretary of Dong Hoi Ward Youth Union Nguyen Thi Kieu Trang said that, assigned with the task of organizing Bai Choi, the City Youth Union (old) has actively implemented and made efforts to turn this unique cultural heritage into an impressive highlight, attracting the attention of tourists from near and far. In the first years of organization, the City Youth Union invited Bai Choi artists to participate and pass on the knowledge to young people. Later, union members and young people can organize Bai Choi themselves and continue to maintain the "flame" of preserving and promoting the heritage.

Many unique traditional cultural features of ethnic minorities are a "gold mine" for tourism development - Photo: Netin Travel

However, the card game only really receives attention and attention during the Dong Hoi Culture-Tourism Week. The walking street on weekends is deserted, so the card game has no place to perform. And when the walking street project is no longer implemented, the card game shouts have also disappeared. On holidays and Tet, some localities in the province still organize card games, but mainly to serve the people, and to create products for tourists from all over the world is very rare.

Another outstanding intangible cultural heritage that has also been included in the Chay River - Dark Cave tourist route of Phong Nha Tourism Center is "Ca Tru warming up the winter heritage". After exploring and experiencing the activities of this tourist route, visitors can immerse themselves in the space of Ca Tru art from the artists from the Indochina Ca Tru Club (Quang Trach commune). This interesting experience has received the love of tourists, especially international visitors. However, like Bai Choi, the "golden" time of Ca Tru on this tourist route is not long. The idea of ​​"bringing heritage to serve heritage", one of the effective ways to promote and preserve intangible cultural heritage, is also difficult to last long.

In recent times, Netin Travel Company Limited is one of the few tourism units in the province that has always strived to incorporate cultural heritage into tourism products, creating impressive highlights. The company has organized tours to bring tourists to join the traditional swimming and boat racing festivals on Kien Giang River, enjoy Le Thuy folk songs in the hometown of General Vo Nguyen Giap. Or when implementing tours to explore nature, learn about the community culture of the Bru-Van Kieu people, explore Khe Nuoc Trong, Suoi Tien, conquer Cong Troi-Bai Dan and recently trekking Pa Thien-Vo Mep peak - Conquering the roof of Quang Tri (in collaboration with Samuer Company Limited), many unique traditional cultural features of ethnic minorities have also been blended and integrated into the experiences of tourists. However, in reality, the cultural heritage factor is still not really a prominent highlight, enough to attract tourists to come back.

Forgotten "gold mine" of cultural heritage

Explaining this reality, Director of Netin Travel Tran Xuan Cuong said that in order for intangible cultural heritages to "integrate" into tourism products, it requires not only the efforts of businesses, but also effective and sustainable coordination with local authorities and people. Especially in training, fostering, introducing, promoting as well as preserving, maintaining and promoting heritage. Besides the reason that some festivals and types of heritage are still temporary and difficult to exploit regularly, many types require businesses to have specialized knowledge, expertise and appropriate ways of promoting. Meanwhile, this is what Quang Tri tourism businesses still lack.

Bai Choi will "attract" tourists if there is an effective way to exploit its value - Photo: MN

According to Dr. Tran Tu Luc, Head of the Faculty of Economics and Tourism, Quang Binh University, the reason why Quang Tri tourism has neglected the "golden treasure" of cultural heritage in recent times is primarily due to the outstanding advantages of natural tourism resources and the tourism development mindset still tends to exploit existing resources. Localities prioritize focusing resources on natural potential, which is easier to build a brand and promote. Meanwhile, cultural and historical tourism requires research, storytelling, in-depth investment and creativity in approaching tourists.

In addition, we still lack a long-term and synchronous strategy for developing cultural tourism. The tourism industry does not have a clear plan or a systematic plan to preserve, restore, and connect heritage, build unique cultural tourism products, and apply technology to tell cultural stories. This leads to relics, festivals, and cultural values ​​only existing in a scattered, fragmented manner, making it difficult to create strong attraction for tourists.

In addition, there are also causes due to limited investment in funding and infrastructure; the exploitation of cultural heritage has not been professionalized. Cultural tourism products in the past have been sketchy, mainly sightseeing, listening to explanations, taking photos - lacking vivid interactive experiences. Human resources with knowledge of culture and history are still lacking, tour guides' qualifications are uneven; there is a lack of creative tourism products. At the same time, the work of building brands and promoting cultural tourism has not been properly implemented and there is no good connection between destinations and localities in the region to exploit and develop cultural heritages.

Mai Nhan

Lesson 2: The road is wide open, don't miss your chance

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/du-lich/202510/de-di-san-van-hoa-tro-thanh-nguon-luc-phat-trien-du-lich-bai-1-nhin-thang-thuc-tien-tinh-ke-duong-dai-2702e1f/