Strengths and differences
Comrade Nguyen Cao Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism, said: Up to now, Ninh Binh is the only locality in Vietnam and Southeast Asia that owns a mixed heritage, which is the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex with outstanding global value, attracting tourists.
The diversity of culture, nature and aesthetics of the heritage resonates with the system of festivals, traditional craft villages; unique culinary culture... is a very unique tourism resource, bearing the cultural characteristics of Vietnam, an important resource, creating the strength and difference of Ninh Binh tourism. The Trang An scenic complex, at the time of the nomination in 2012, had only over 1 million visitors, but by 2019 (after 5 years of being recognized by UNESCO) it had attracted more than 6.3 million visitors.
In 2023, Ninh Binh welcomed more than 4.6 million visitors, with revenue reaching 4,500 billion VND. In 2024, Ninh Binh tourism industry aims to welcome 7.5 million visitors, including 6.6 million domestic visitors and 900,000 international visitors; striving to achieve revenue of more than 8,200 billion VND.
The above statistics show that Heritage has great potential to contribute to promoting sustainable economic development, reducing poverty and improving the sustainable livelihoods of local communities. The economic benefits of Ninh Binh's heritage sites are currently mostly through tourism activities and services for visitors and researchers.
In addition, many tourism products associated with promoting cultural values have been successfully exploited by localities such as the "Golden Color of Tam Coc - Trang An" Tourism Week in 2023, the Ninh Binh Xam Singing Festival in 2023... and one of the major cultural events successfully organized by Ninh Binh province is: Ninh Binh-Trang An Festival...
These are the key events that affirm the unique cultural features and unique brand of the ancient capital of Hoa Lu. These products have been creating the mark of "local brand positioning" of Ninh Binh on the national and international cultural and tourism map; making Ninh Binh a bright spot on the Vietnam tourism map (in the top 15 destinations, 10 provinces and cities with the highest number of visitors in the country), evaluated and voted by many prestigious domestic and international travel sites (Tripadvisor, Telegraph, Business insider...) as the friendliest, most attractive, most loved, most hospitable, most wonderful tourist destination in the world...
After 10 years, Trang An heritage has brought great economic value to the local government and community.
However, according to Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Vietnam Institute for Tourism Development Research, the biggest limitation that Ninh Binh is facing is: The economic efficiency of the tourism industry is not really convincing, has not attracted large investment sources, the infrastructure of tourist areas is not synchronous, tourism products are not diverse, there is a lack of close connection between tourism and other industries and fields, there is no strategy and risk management plan to respond promptly to natural disasters and other risks.
Therefore, to develop sustainable tourism in the process of expanding Ninh Binh urban area is to raise awareness of tourism, preserve and promote heritage values and sustainable development; plan and manage the implementation of planning; apply natural solutions in infrastructure development; control the capacity of destinations.
Turn heritage into assets
Ninh Binh has chosen the direction of development with the Millennium Heritage City including both a world heritage city and a creative city, relying on the Trang An Scenic Complex for economy and heritage tourism.
This is considered the right direction of new-style urbanization in breakthrough development strategies. Therefore, Ninh Binh is looking forward to building tourism products that fully, accurately and scientifically demonstrate the heritage value from the cultural value of prehistoric people's occupation, to the geological and geomorphological value in Trang An and, more importantly, to effectively and sustainably preserve and promote the value of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, worthy of being "an exemplary model of conservation and socio-economic development" as the Director General of UNESCO once commented.
To achieve this goal, Dr. Truong Van Quang, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, also said that heritage economic development is a special economic sector, based on the values of heritage for economic development. This is a development trend that many countries and localities are interested in.
To develop the heritage economy, Ninh Binh first needs to quantify the heritage value in a systematic and scientific manner. In addition, Resolution No. 16-NQ/TU dated August 23, 2023 of the Provincial Party Committee on the arrangement of district and commune-level administrative units in Ninh Binh province for the period 2023-2030, in which the goal by 2025 will shape the nature of the new administrative unit after the merger of Ninh Binh city and Hoa Lu district as "Ancient Capital-Heritage Urban Area" is correct and visionary.
In order to develop Ninh Binh into a large center with high brand value in tourism, cultural industry, heritage economy of the whole country and the Asia-Pacific region, along with the implementation of Resolution No. 16-NQ/TU, the establishment of the Heritage-Tourism Urban project is very important, creating a strategic framework, foundation, basis, with core values for Ninh Binh to gradually move forward and develop sustainably. On that basis, Ninh Binh is focusing on building quality and different tourism products.
Mr. Paul Dingwall, IUCN Wellington, New Zealand expert suggested: Trang An and the World Heritage management agencies of Vietnam consider conducting a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis for Trang An Heritage, as it could bring surprising results and financial benefits. A Global Geopark for Ninh Binh, a very promising way to enhance the value and status of Trang An is to join the UNESCO Global Geopark Network.
Associate Professor, Dr. Lam Ba Nam, President of the Vietnam Association of Ethnology and Anthropology, said that the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex is a unique, distinctive and special landscape, closely associated with the process of settlement on this land tens of thousands of years ago.
It is the cultural heritage that has created a special attraction for visitors and scientists at home and abroad. To awaken the uniqueness of this heritage, Ninh Binh needs to focus on exploiting the tourism aspect and developing the lives of Trang An residents.
First of all, it is necessary to build heritage tours and create unique cultural space forms; this lesson has been affirmed in many tourist destinations, which have great appeal to domestic and international tourists.
Citing Homer's statement in the Odyssey in the 9th century, that "tourists never forget the host who generously entertained them", Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Thuc, Hanoi National University, emphasized the importance of the relationship between tourists and local people in successfully developing tourism at cultural heritage sites.
"The future of the Heritage City with a vision for the next millennium depends entirely on how we accompany the World Cultural and Natural Heritage with continuous settlement to have a deeply rooted Trang An culture, imprinted on the sovereignty and independence of our ancestors more than 1,000 years ago".
The opinions of experts and researchers are an important premise for Ninh Binh to develop its heritage economy based on its inherent indigenous and historical values. This is also the direction that Ninh Binh is focusing on exploiting, in accordance with UNESCO's requirements in preserving and promoting the sustainable values of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex.
Nguyen Thom
Source: https://baoninhbinh.org.vn/danh-thuc-gia-tri-kinh-te-di-san-trang-an/d20240704080632259.htm
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