Quang Nam tourism seeks opportunities from festival series

kite festival — The Quang Nam International Kite Festival 2024 took place on Duy Xuyen beach at the end of July. Photo: QT

Blending traditional and modern "breath"

For the first time, in just about 1 month (from the end of July to the end of August), Quang Nam will hold 5 festivals. Starting from the International Kite Festival to the Ngoc Linh Ginseng Festival, Cu Lao Cham Festival - red corn season, A Rieu Chili Festival and ending with the Co Co Festival 2024. Of these, there are 3 festivals taking place for the first time including the International Kite Festival, A Rieu Chili Festival and Co Co Festival.

It can be seen that the above series of festivals are not long-standing festivals (the longest-standing event is the Ngoc Linh Ginseng Festival, which has just taken place for the 6th time), but they are all more or less associated with traditional cultural and natural colors.

These festivals take as their "core" unique indigenous values, containing special values, with great potential to create momentum for tourism development such as Ngoc Linh ginseng, parasol flowers, A Rieu chili, country kites or the legendary Co Co river to serve as highlights to open related activities.

The season of blooming parasol flowers in Cu Lao Cham in late July and early August has been exploited and will become an annual festival from 2022. Photo: QT

It is worth noting that the space for organizing the above mentioned tourism-related festivals is not limited to the central area of Hoi An but has spread to mountainous districts such as Nam Tra My, Dong Giang, to the coastal area of Duy Xuyen, and even to remote islands such as Cu Lao Cham.

The public-private partnership element is becoming increasingly evident when many festivals have the participation of businesses, such as the Hoi An business community with the Co Co Festival, ginseng businesses in Nam Tra My in the Ngoc Linh Ginseng Festival, and businesses in famous destinations such as Hoiana Resort & Golf or Dong Giang Heaven Gate Eco-tourism Area proactively hosting the International Kite Festival and A Rieu Chili Festival.

Leaning more towards the festival part, the above festivals create great interaction of tourists through many activities. Ngoc Linh ginseng is the Ngoc Linh ginseng and mountain medicinal herbs market, Ngoc Linh ginseng contest on stage...

Cu Lao Cham Festival - red corn season has Cu Lao night market, Cu Lao culinary fair... At A Rieu Chili Festival, there will be cross-country races - mountain climbing, swimming, slingshot shooting, eating chili with Quang noodles... for visitors to freely choose their experiences.

These festivals are also suitable spaces for localities to inform and widely promote the honor that indigenous values have achieved such as: The traditional craft of weaving hammocks of Cu Lao Cham and "Folk knowledge of exploiting, growing and processing Ngoc Linh ginseng" are included in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage...

Promote tourism from festivals

The impressive thing about the above mentioned festival series is that they each have their own unique colors, meeting the diverse needs of the customer market.

Tourists at the International Kite Festival can enjoy high-class sea tourism and resorts; visiting the Ngoc Linh Ginseng Festival can combine exploring the majestic mountains and shopping for precious medicinal herbs of the great forest; many young tourists are passionate about traveling to Cu Lao Cham during the festival season because they are fascinated by "checking in" with poetic pictures of the parasol flower forest or diving to see the masterpieces of coral at the bottom of the sea here...

Statistics have shown that the number of visitors to Hoiana, Cu Lao Cham or Nam Tra My all increased sharply during the festival. In particular, after only 3 days of the Ngoc Linh Ginseng Festival, there were more than 10,000 visitors coming to visit, shop and participate in activities at the festival, of which there were about 6,000 visitors from other provinces and international visitors. The revenue from the market was about 10 billion VND, of which Ngoc Linh ginseng sold about 45kg and earned nearly 9.5 billion VND.

Mr. Pham Van Thuong - Deputy Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Nam Tra My district said that this festival also helped attract 20 more tourist groups with an estimated 1,500 visitors to visit Tak Ngo ginseng garden and other tourist attractions such as: Tak Po cloud hunting spot, Doi stream, 5-storey waterfall, Tay Du Ky waterfall, giant bamboo garden, ancient cinnamon garden, Tra Van waterfall, Nuoc La relic site..., thereby opening up more opportunities to promote tourism in Nam Tra My.

According to the representative of Dong Giang Heaven Gate Eco-tourism Area, the unit strongly supports the idea of coordinating with Dong Giang District People's Committee to organize the A Rieu Chili Festival for the first time because this is not only a good opportunity to attract more visitors to the tourist area but also an opportunity to promote the unique indigenous values of the locality to contribute to promoting sustainable livelihoods for residents.

According to a report by the British Council (the UK's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities), the main purposes often developed in festivals include: building local pride; developing cultural capacity; increasing environmental awareness; providing jobs, promoting innovation in the economy and creating opportunities for local communities; developing tourism and attracting investment...

Mr. Vo Quoc Hung - representative of Tonkin Media (a business providing creative media services and solutions) said that there are two decisive factors in the impact of festivals on the economy, especially the creative economy: the type of festival, the scale of the festival and the awareness and interest of the public.

Most festivals will involve participants from the three fields of art, design and culture. There will be social interactions between groups: the public, artists, businesses and other stakeholders. This will create opportunities for growth in the number of visitors, increase production and the number of transactions, contributing to local economic growth.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/du-lich-quang-nam-tim-co-hoi-tu-chuoi-le-hoi-3139432.html