(NB&CL) Hanoi tourism is entering the peak season of Lunar New Year, with thousands of cultural heritages and hundreds of festivals about to take place. How to retain long-term guests, exploit the potential of the night economy, thereby promoting shopping and spending of tourists? How can the tourism industry quickly "take off" from heritage resources? All are the concerns of those working in tourism in the capital...
“Awaken” the monuments with a series of night tours
As soon as we stepped through the ticket gate of Hoa Lo Prison, we met a group of foreign tourists happily holding tickets in their hands and walking quickly to catch the upcoming “Sacred Night”. A French tourist named Celine excitedly said: “To me, Hoa Lo Prison has a truly profound mark, reflecting the truth of history, through the lens of those who went through the war and the perspective of those on the opposing side, including later generations, so that we can understand the past and draw lessons for the future”.
Although the cost is not cheap, ranging from 299 to 499 thousand VND, the situation of "sold out" tickets is no longer rare for night tours in this relic site. The unique live performance in the revolutionary prison that touches emotions is gradually becoming an unmissable destination for tourists when coming to Hanoi. With meticulous staging and sublime performances by nearly all actors, the show continues its journey of tirelessly bringing Vietnamese culture to the world.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy - Director of Hoa Lo Prison Relic Management Board, developing cultural tourism will contribute to conveying cultural and historical significance to the young generation of Vietnam to understand their people and country.
Night tour to explore Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Hanoi. Photo: Pham Chieu
As soon as we had an appointment, Director of the Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy Le Xuan Kieu immediately showed us about the night experience program "The Quintessence of Dao Hoc" recreating a completely new cultural space, creating different experiences and emotions, both profound and mysterious, and uniquely sophisticated, that can only be found at the Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy. Through his captivating story, we can see that Hanoi's cultural workers have truly broken away from the old tracks to find creative, soaring ideas that attract domestic and foreign tourists.
“We have a clear direction to gradually turn the relic into a creative space, which is specified in the center’s annual projects and plans. We maintain connections with creative organizations and individuals to organize diverse cultural activities based on the values of the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam heritage, such as exhibitions, painting and design competitions, etc.”, Mr. Le Xuan Kieu excitedly shared.
Unlocking resources from cultural depth
The unexpected success of the tour to explore the revolutionary prison relic or the night experience program at the Temple of Literature shows that if we know how to exploit it effectively and turn potential into strength, cultural resources will bring enormous benefits to the development of the tourism industry.
On its development path, the leaders of the capital's tourism industry are showing their awareness and sensitivity, not only knowing how to exploit the advantages that the thousand-year-old land of Thang Long has inherited but also creating from the "pedestals" products with strong local imprints.
Many creative spaces have become brands and highlights of Hanoi. The Hoan Kiem Lake walking space has hosted nearly 500 domestic and international events in just over 3 years. The Hanoi Book Street cultural space has welcomed more than 3 million readers in 5 years, bringing in revenue of about 29 billion VND.
A scene from the program “Sacred Night” at Hoa Lo Prison relic. Photo: BQLCC
Up to now, Hanoi has had dozens of night tours. Of which, most of Hanoi's important heritages have launched night experience tours, for example: Thang Long Imperial Citadel with the tour "Decoding Thang Long Imperial Citadel", "The Quintessence of Confucianism" organized at the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, Ngoc Son Temple is the place where the tour "Ngoc Son - mysterious night" takes place, "Stories of Hang Street" in Hanoi's Old Quarter. These are the most vivid examples showing the specific, breakthrough steps for Hanoi to realize its commitments when joining the network of creative cities.
According to Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang, developing night tourism economy is one of the key activities that Hanoi city pays special attention to and has directed the development of this type of economy to become an indispensable part of economic and social development. "Hanoi's successful organization of festivals and major cultural events not only opens up the direction for developing the night economy, promoting the cultural industry of the capital but also affirms the brand of Hanoi as a friendly destination," Ms. Giang affirmed.
Positioning the capital's tourism brand from sustainable values
According to experts, although Hanoi has rich cultural resources with a large number of historical and cultural relics, tangible and intangible cultural heritages, the current exploitation of these resources is not commensurate with its potential, lacking cultural tourism products with distinctive brands. Hanoi does not have truly classy nighttime entertainment complexes. In addition to the boredom and lack of attractiveness of tourism products, the reality of traffic congestion, overloaded airports and train stations during peak tourist seasons is also a minus point in the choice of domestic and foreign tourists. The problem of soliciting tourists and ripping off tourists still exists. The issue of environmental protection in tourism development is still a concern. The human resources working in tourism in the capital, although large, are not yet uniform. The issue of tourism promotion, propaganda and advertising also has many shortcomings...
All of the above factors have become major barriers that make the rate of tourists returning to tourist attractions and resorts for the second time quite modest. Although tourism is considered the largest economic sector, the "land of flying dragons" has only convinced international visitors to spend from 91.5 to 113.5 USD/day, domestic visitors from 60.5 to 76 USD/day in 2023. Data in mid-2024 shows that while each visitor to Khanh Hoa spends up to 5.3 million VND, Ho Chi Minh City spends nearly 4.52 million VND/visitor, the capital only makes each visitor spend at 2.93 million VND...
According to Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Deputy Director of the Social Affairs Department (Central Economic Committee), it is clearly time to change the mindset of tourism from "providing what you have" to providing services and products that customers need. It is especially necessary to promote people's creativity in tourism activities to not only enrich the economy but also enrich the culture of each land and each relic. Most importantly, the City needs to have appropriate policies and mechanisms, specific to night-time economic activities. Hanoi can study and expand night-time tourism products such as developing tourism services on both sides of the Red River, and have plans for the construction of modern shopping centers near the central area, such as underground shopping centers like many countries are doing.
Changing the mindset to create products that meet market needs, adding beautiful, civilized, and kind actions will increase tourist satisfaction and professionalism. Because a “Unique, attractive, safe, and quality tourist destination” is the brand that Hanoi is striving to build and position. On that path, there will be a significant contribution from night tours.
Minh Ngoc
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/du-lich-ha-noi-cat-canh-tu-gia-tri-dac-biet-cua-di-san-post328146.html
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