Developing tourism imbued with Thanh culture

With the potential and advantages of natural resources and rich cultural history, Thanh Hoa tourism has been developing in the direction of building destinations and tourism products with strong cultural features. Thereby, it not only creates competitive advantages, contributes to building the brand but also promotes the "smokeless industry" to develop in a sustainable direction.

Developing tourism imbued with Thanh culture Pu Luong Community Ecotourism Area (Ba Thuoc) affirms its destination brand from indigenous cultural values.

Talking about Thanh Hoa is talking about Ma River - the origin of the legends and history of Thanh Hoa land. Based on that, the "Up and Down Ma River" tourist route has been put into operation, serving tourists since 2015. After 9 years of operation, "Up and Down Ma River" tourism has increasingly affirmed its position as one of the highlight products in the tourism picture of the province. It can be said that this is not a new product, but the name "Up and Down Ma River" alone has made tourists immediately recognize the Thanh tourism brand. Up to now, many tours in the sightseeing route have been widely welcomed by tourists such as Hoang Long wharf - Sung Nghiem pagoda, Nghe Yen Vuc temple (or Phu Vang) - Co Bo temple; Hoang Long wharf - Female student monument - Truc Lam Zen Monastery - Co Bo temple...

Aiming to effectively exploit the potential of river tourism, while bringing visitors new experiences at night, in April 2024, the Song Ma Tourism Development Center launched the program "Listening to Song Ma's Melodious Songs". The program starts when the sun goes down and throughout the journey, visitors will listen to melodies such as "Rising to the Wharf", "River Ferry" and "River Ferry" songs, performed by local artists.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thanh Hoa Inland Waterway Management and Traffic Construction Joint Stock Company Hoang Van Huy said: Up to now, the "Up and Down the Ma River" tourist route has been increasingly popular with tourists because of its unique cultural experiences. Along with researching and perfecting the product, we especially focus on training and improving the quality of human resources, including the tour guide team. Because, whether a cultural experience tourism product is complete or not depends largely on the content of the explanation and the unique cultural values that we want to convey to tourists. And we hope that the program "Listening to the Ma River Song" will bring tourists complete feelings in the journey to explore the "Up and Down the Ma River" tourist route.

Along with river tourism products, community ecotourism is also a "latecomer" tourism product of Thanh Hoa tourism industry. Destinations such as Nang Cat village - Ma Hao waterfall (Lang Chanh); Hang village (Quan Hoa); Pu Luong (Ba Thuoc); Ma village (Thuong Xuan) ... have now become familiar names to many tourists, especially international tourists. If tourists are people who love to explore and learn, they will find the unique attractions of each destination, in which the traditional indigenous culture expressed through each stilt house, costume, cuisine, festival ... is the unique feature that makes the value of the destination. Thanks to tourism, many traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities such as Thai, Muong ... have been and are being restored.

Determining that developing tourism with strong cultural features is necessary to build a brand and increase competitiveness, in recent years Thanh Hoa province has completed key product lines including sea tourism, cultural tourism and community ecotourism. In which, each destination or tourism product strives to bring visitors different and unique experiences from its own strengths and traditional cultural values. This is also one of the important factors contributing to the breakthrough development in the number of visitors of the whole province during the recent April 30 and May 1 holidays.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuc, Vice Principal of the University of Culture, Sports and Tourism, commented: “With 1,535 historical and cultural relics, including relics that just by mentioning the name, tourists can recognize the brand of the destination such as the Ho Dynasty Citadel cultural heritage (Vinh Loc); Lam Kinh historical relic (Tho Xuan); Ba Trieu Temple relic (Hau Loc); Con Moong cave (Thach Thanh); Sam Son historical relic and scenic spot (Sam Son city)... Along with that is a system of intangible cultural heritage with a variety of unique games, performances, and festivals. These are valuable "materials" to build the brand identity "Thanh Hoa Tourism - Four Seasons of Fragrance" which has been widely announced and known to many tourists across the country. Thereby, it shows that culture is not only a tourism resource, an important factor to enhance the competitiveness of the destination, but also the driving force for tourism development with bold cultural identity in a sustainable way".

Article and photos: Hoai Anh

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