Reviving heritage
Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet - Director of the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board affirmed that the most important success is the work of preserving the relic. In recent years, from local budget sources and international aid, with the coordination and support of domestic and foreign agencies, organizations and experts, a number of conservation projects have been implemented to help many temple and tower architectural works escape the risk of collapse.
Typically, the UNESCO - Vietnam - Italy tripartite restoration and cooperation project on "Presentation and training on international standards for the conservation of My Son G tower group"; Khe The stream archaeological excavation project; E7 tower restoration project; Project to preserve and restore tower groups K, H, A under the Indian project implemented from 2016 - 2021..., contributed significantly to reviving the My Son temple tower architecture system after hundreds of years of oblivion.
The title of world cultural heritage has really brought many opportunities to My Son, especially helping to attract many resources for conservation work.
Through the support and extensive cooperation with domestic and international organizations such as Lerici, MAG, JICA, Milan University, ASI Institute (India), America Express, UNESCO Hanoi Office; the governments of Italy and India; the Institute for Monuments Conservation, the Institute of Archaeology, the Department of Heritage, etc., most of the temple and tower architecture has been preserved and restored firmly.
Besides the conservation mark, another outstanding result of My Son after 25 years of becoming a world cultural heritage is the effective restoration and development of the flora and fauna of the forest and the landscape of the area surrounding the relic.
In recent years, in addition to planting new native tree species, implementing forest fire prevention plans, organizing patrols to prevent illegal forest encroachment, etc., have helped My Son landscape forest to be well managed and protected.
Although there is no research or statistics on the exact number of animal and plant species, the survey process of the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board has discovered the return of some rare animals such as wild boar, muntjac, deer, weasel, snake... Many native tree species such as green lim, cajuput, sour... have also been restored and developed.
According to Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet, the results of conservation work have played an important role in effectively promoting the value of My Son heritage, specifically demonstrated through tourism activities. If in 1999, about 22 thousand visitors bought tickets to visit My Son, now it has increased dozens of times.
Affirming destination branding
With unique cultural and architectural values and the outstanding efforts of the leadership and staff of the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board, it has contributed to affirming the brand of the heritage destination. Many synchronous solutions have been deployed and implemented by the Management Board.
For example: promoting, welcoming famtrip groups, developing smart tourism products, maintaining meetings and dialogues with travel businesses to exchange and provide information... Thereby helping the unit promptly grasp the customer market situation to improve and enhance the quality of products and services accordingly.
Visitors to My Son not only get to explore an ancient Champa civilization amidst a fresh ecological natural setting, but also have the opportunity to experience attractive services such as taking souvenir photos, transferring by electric car, watching Cham art performances at the foot of the tower...
After 25 years, the value of My Son is no longer limited to the relic site but has spread outward to the community. In particular, the sharing of benefits to the community has been effectively implemented by the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board. The most obvious is the acceptance of local children to work at the unit.
To date, more than 80% of the staff of the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board are local people. In addition, most of the workers participating in the My Son relic restoration projects are also from the surrounding area.
Along with the restoration of Champa cultural values such as the formation of the Cham dance team (in 2003), coordinating with the district education sector to introduce heritage education programs into schools (in 2004)... has helped restore and spread intangible cultural heritage values more and more deeply to people, tourists, especially the younger generations.
Architect Dang Khanh Ngoc - Director of the Institute for Monuments Conservation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), who has participated in conservation projects in My Son for more than 20 years, acknowledged that the success of My Son after 25 years of becoming a world cultural heritage is basically comprehensive, specifically demonstrated in the fields of international cooperation, heritage conservation, tourism development, and landscape environmental restoration.
In particular, the opening of some groups of towers to visitors after being successfully preserved such as G, E7, K, H, A... has clearly demonstrated the inseparable relationship between conservation and promotion of heritage values through tourism. This is also the foundation for My Son to continue to develop strongly and firmly, worthy of being an effective management model today.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hong - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, after 25 years of being recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage, up to now, the success of My Son heritage can be assessed in 3 aspects. Those are management, preservation and promotion of heritage values.
“Regarding the management of world cultural heritages in other localities, management is often assigned to the provincial level. But with My Son, Quang Nam boldly piloted the assignment to the district and in fact managed it very well,” said Mr. Hong.
For conservation work, local authorities and departments have focused a lot of investment resources from provincial and central budgets.
At the same time, international cooperation with Japan, Italy, India and many other international organizations has been very good in issues ranging from research, resource funding to expert support... Since then, many groups of towers have been firmly preserved and restored.
Finally, the issue of promoting the heritage value is very successful, My Son has become a famous tourism brand, a famous destination not only in Vietnam but also internationally. Thereby contributing to the budget revenue, solving employment, promoting the socio-economic development of Duy Xuyen, at the same time having resources to reinvest in the conservation of the My Son tower groups.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, My Son's average annual tourism growth rate was about 10%. In 2023 alone, despite having just recovered from the pandemic, the number of visitors buying tickets to visit the heritage site reached 380,000, with total revenue of more than 60 billion VND. Revenue from sales services alone reached 5.3 billion VND, and explanatory revenue reached 255 million VND. It is expected that by the end of 2024, My Son will welcome about 420,000 visitors, equal to 2019 (the peak before the COVID-19 pandemic).
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/hanh-trinh-bao-ton-phat-huy-gia-tri-di-san-my-son-3145287.html
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