Exploiting historical and cultural values ​​to develop tourism

Dragon dance performance at the Tran Temple Traditional Festival 2022. Photo: Cong Luat/VNA

Attractive spiritual tourist destinations

According to statistics, Nam Dinh has 1,360 relics; including 2 special national relics: the Tran historical and cultural relic complex associated with the history of the Tran Dynasty; the Phu Day historical and cultural relic complex. The whole province has one representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity, "Practice of the Vietnamese Mother Goddess Worship"; 12 national intangible cultural heritages and many unique folk art forms and performances such as Cheo singing, Chau Van singing, Ca Tru singing, water puppetry, puppetry, stilts, trumpet music, dragon dance, lion dance, unicorn dance.

Nam Dinh has nearly 240 traditional festivals, with many large festivals such as: Tran Temple Seal Opening Ceremony (Nam Dinh city); Phu Day Festival, Vieng Xuan Fair (Vu Ban district); Keo Hanh Thien Pagoda Festival (Xuan Truong district); Co Le Pagoda Festival (Truc Ninh district)... These festivals annually attract a large number of domestic and foreign tourists.

Every year, the Tran Temple Seal Opening Festival (Loc Vuong Ward, Nam Dinh City) is held with many activities imbued with traditional cultural identity such as the Ngoc Lo palanquin procession; water procession and fish sacrifice; incense offering rituals and cultural, artistic and folk games activities; the focus is the seal opening ceremony on the night of January 14, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Binh, Head of the Management Board of the Tran Temple Historical and Cultural Relic Site - Thap Pagoda, said that every year, two major festivals take place at the Tran Temple relic site: the Spring Seal Opening Ceremony and the Tran Temple Festival in August. To serve the needs of the people and tourists, Nam Dinh province has been completing the investment project to build a festival center area in the Tran Historical and Cultural Relic Site with a total area of ​​92.5 hectares, including 3 main sub-areas: Tran Cultural Park Area; Festival Center Area and buffer area, service area, traffic system connecting to the sub-areas, internal traffic, general technical infrastructure hub works... Up to now, the project has been basically completed and put into use, helping the organization of the Tran Temple festival to become increasingly large-scale and methodical, becoming one of the destinations for tourists.

In addition to Tran Temple, Nam Dinh is also famous and considered the largest Mother Goddess worship center in the country with Phu Day Historical and Cultural Relic Site. During Phu Day Festival (early March of the lunar calendar every year), tens of thousands of people from all over come here to join in rich traditional cultural activities such as: Mother Goddess procession ceremony, torch procession at Tien Huong Palace, human chess competition, word arrangement, flower-pulling festival and immerse themselves in the cultural space of practicing Mother Goddess worship of Vietnamese people.

Ms. Le Thi Nhung, a tourist from Hai Duong province, shared that every year during the Phu Day festival, she arranges her work and time to come here to worship the Mother Goddess and watch the mediums practice the Mother Goddess worship. At the festival, she feels that this is a place where tangible and intangible culture converge, where the historical, cultural and religious values ​​of the nation are preserved and honored.

Connecting community tourism development

Nam Dinh is one of the leading provinces in building new rural areas, creating bright, green, clean and beautiful countrysides. In addition, the advantages of historical and cultural relics and many beautiful churches in all localities in the province are ideal conditions for forming tours and tourist routes connecting historical and cultural relics, churches with activities to experience the working life of local people.

In 2019, Ecohost Hai Hau - the first rural tourism model in Nam Dinh was born, creating a highlight in the connection between businesses and local people in developing community tourism.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhan, Director of Ecohost Hai Hau shared that, in addition to being the first new rural district of the province with peaceful natural landscapes, Hai Hau also has unique tourism resources such as the ruined church on the beach in Con town - evidence of climate change in Vietnam along with many churches with unique architecture, Pham Phao brass village (Hai Minh commune); Cau Ngoi - Luong Pagoda relic (Hai Anh commune) ... These are ideal conditions to form destinations in Ecohost Hai Hau community tourism tours.

In recent years, to attract tourists, in addition to the tourist attractions in Hai Hau district, Ecohost Hai Hau has linked up with other units in the province to form a system, providing diverse services and giving tourists a more general and impressive view of the culture, customs and people of Nam Dinh.

Ms. Tran Thi Loan, representative of Ecohost Truc Thang (Truc Ninh district) said that Ecohost Truc Thang is an extension of Ecohost Hai Hau's sustainable community tourism development strategy to bring more unique experiences to tourists. The differences in geographical and cultural characteristics in each locality will create diversity in services, thereby satisfying and leaving an impression on all tourists when coming to Nam Dinh.

In order to exploit historical and cultural values ​​to develop tourism and attract tourists, in 2022, Nam Dinh registered the Rural Tourism Development Program in New Rural Construction, period 2021-2025 with the following models: Vi Khe Bonsai Village Tourism in Nam Dien Commune (Nam Truc District); My Tan (Nam Dinh City); Community Ecotourism Model in Giao Xuan Commune (Giao Thuy District); Ecohost Hai Hau Community Tourism Model (Yen Dinh Town, Hai Hau District).

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nam Dinh province has strengthened tourism promotion activities, coordinated with relevant units, tourism associations, and travel companies to organize Famtrip groups to community tourism destinations to promote, promote, and introduce destinations. The provincial tourism industry has designed and operated pages to promote Nam Dinh tourism on social networking platforms, encouraged tourism businesses to innovate in business activities, supported the connection of rural tourism products with other tourism products to gradually form new tourism products based on digital technology and digital data, creating favorable conditions for businesses, people, and tourists to quickly, vividly, accurately, and fully access information about the land, people, culture, and tourism of Nam Dinh province.

According to statistics, in the first 3 months of 2025, there were about 768,000 tourists visiting Nam Dinh, an increase of more than 7% over the same period in 2024. Total revenue from tourists is estimated at 182 billion VND, an increase of more than 10% over the same period.

According to VNA

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/khai-thac-gia-tri-lich-su-van-hoa-de-phat-trien-du-lich-a418657.html