Quang Yen is a land with a long history of formation and development. The historical process also left on this land more than 200 historical - cultural relics, accounting for about 1/3 of the number of relics in the whole province along with many other intangible cultural heritages bearing the cultural identity of the residents of the Northern Delta. Exploiting this rich resource for tourism development has received considerable attention from the locality, however, the realization process still faces many difficulties and challenges.
Upgrade tourism infrastructure
In recent times, Quang Yen Town has promoted infrastructure investment in relic sites to serve tourism development, including many projects mobilizing large investment resources, especially key traffic works, urban and rural infrastructure.
The locality also oriented and called for investment in the construction of 3 1-star hotels and 1 2-star hotel; assessed and recognized 50 motels that meet tourist service standards, with a total of 500 rooms, capable of serving 1,000-1,500 guests/day and night. Along with that, assessed and guided the upgrading of facilities and services for 20 restaurants that meet tourist service standards with a capacity of serving 3,000-3,500 guests/day. Of which, 3 restaurants have been granted the "Restaurant that meets tourist service standards" sign at the provincial level; 17 restaurants that meet local tourist service standards.
Investment in conservation, restoration and embellishment of historical and cultural relics associated with tourism development has been focused on implementation with many capital sources. Over the past 10 years, the Town People's Committee has coordinated with provincial departments and branches to invest in restoration and embellishment of relics from the provincial and town budgets with a total approved budget of 259.9 billion VND, of which 155.441 billion VND has been implemented. Of which, the central budget is 26.3 billion VND, the provincial budget is over 84.9 billion VND, and the town budget is over 44 billion VND.
Socialization work has also achieved many positive results. According to local statistics, from 2015 to present, the town has directed and guided the Monument Management Boards, monks, agencies, units, enterprises, philanthropists, and people to mobilize resources, mainly socialized resources to invest in the restoration and embellishment of monuments, with a total approved budget for relic restoration and embellishment projects of 564 billion VND; the budget implemented is 460 billion VND. Thereby, contributing significantly to the conservation and promotion of heritage values in a sustainable manner.
Exploiting local advantages
Over the years, Quang Yen Town has always paid attention to and focused on promoting the value of heritage as the local advantage to build tourism products. Thereby, many relic sites and festivals have become typical models of the province in promoting the value of heritage, becoming unique tourism products, unique brands of Quang Yen Town, such as: Coc family national relic and Xuong Dong Festival, Tien Cong Temple national relic with Tien Cong Festival, Bach Dang special national relic site with Bach Dang traditional festival; 24 Tien Cong family temples associated with "Feast of the family" in early spring are of special interest to people, tourists inside and outside the province, international visitors along with many other attractive relic sites.
To create more services and products to attract tourists, the town has directed the People's Committees of the communes and wards: Quang Yen, Phong Coc, Nam Hoa, Phong Hai, Cong Hoa, Hiep Hoa, Tien An, Lien Hoa to guide traditional craft villages in the area to make handicraft products, such as: Lo, that, bamboo boat models, wooden boats, making gio cakes, day cakes, rice cakes, honey cakes, sour nem... Build the OCOP product brand to make products for tourism. Research and introduce folk cultural and artistic forms: Hat dum, "Ba gia dong", hat cheo, ho bien to serve tourists on tourist routes, destinations and festivals. Encourage the development of entertainment, shopping, banking systems to serve tourists, such as standard karaoke restaurants, cafes, refreshment shops...
With many synchronous solutions, statistics show that the number of tourists to historical and cultural relics in Quang Yen town has increased significantly in the past 10 years. Accordingly, if in 2015, the relics welcomed 156,000 visitors, by 2023 this number more than doubled, reaching 350,000 visitors, this year it is estimated to reach over 640,000 visitors. On average, the annual revenue from relics, festivals and tourism services from relics in the area is estimated at 15-20 billion VND/year, contributing about 6% of the total revenue of the town's tourism industry.
Through local assessments, it is affirmed that the work of promoting the value of historical and cultural relics with tourism development has contributed positively to transforming the growth model from "brown" to "green" in a sustainable direction. At the same time, building relics into "red addresses" to educate and remember the patriotic tradition for generations of Vietnamese people about the history of the nation and the heroic feats of our ancestors, typically the 3 times of fighting against the Northern invaders on the historic Bach Dang River. Promoting and introducing to domestic and international tourists the culture, history, landscape, nature, people of Quang Yen...
There are still difficulties
However, heritage tourism in Quang Yen has not been a bright spot in the whole province in recent times, and there have been no significant breakthroughs, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. In reality, there are still many bottlenecks, including long-standing problems that have not been resolved. Local assessments have frankly acknowledged that the traffic infrastructure and service infrastructure serving tourism development connections are still lacking and weak; the traffic system connecting relics and relic sites is narrow, unable to accommodate tourist vehicles of 50 seats or more, and there are no parking and turning points. The infrastructure for food, accommodation, entertainment, and shopping services is still lacking, and the quality of services is limited...
Objectively, the local authorities have focused on restoring, embellishing and preserving the relics in the area in recent years in accordance with regulations. However, the relics here are mainly made of wooden structures, formed and built hundreds of years ago, and are located in an area that is often affected by storms, wind, hot and humid climate, and human impact, so many relics are being damaged, degraded in terms of landscape, aesthetics, and environmental pollution...
On the subjective side, another important point must be mentioned. That is, in the past, Quang Yen has not attracted businesses with the potential to implement public-private partnership models on tourism development associated with cultural heritage conservation. The Bach Dang Victory National Historical Relic Site is the connecting center, the highlight in the development of spiritual cultural tourism, experiential tourism... in Quang Yen. However, the recent problems in implementing the Project to Preserve and Promote the Value of the Relic Site related to the 80 billion VND investment support capital from the central government have not been resolved, causing the progress to be prolonged. Up to now, the project has completed the investment phase but only completed the first phase of the project.
In addition, the project to restore and embellish the national relic of Tien Cong Temple, proposed by the town in 2012, has not been considered for more than ten years, although the relic has been seriously degraded... These shortcomings and difficulties need to be resolved soon, contributing to creating motivation and increasing the attraction to promote the development of heritage tourism in Quang Yen town in the coming time.
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