Creating attractive destinations: How traditional craft villages work

With more than 100 craft villages and traditional craft villages recognized by the Provincial People's Committee, Thanh Hoa's craft village tourism products have been invested in and exploited, creating attractive tourist destinations. Some localities have paid attention to investing in infrastructure, orienting production facilities to develop souvenir products and connecting with travel agencies to attract tourists.

Creating attractive destinations: How traditional craft villages work Some establishments in Tra Dong bronze casting village (Thieu Hoa) have built exhibition areas and produced handmade bronze items as souvenirs, serving visitors and shoppers. Photo: Le Anh

Up to now, Tra Dong bronze casting village, Thieu Trung commune (Thieu Hoa) is no longer a strange name to tourists who love to explore culture and experience. This is one of the typical traditional craft villages of the province, which is considered suitable for tourism activities. Along with a convenient transportation system, the craft village now has an area to display and introduce products. Coming to the craft village, visitors can not only visit and shop but also directly participate in some stages of production and product completion.

Sales Director of VNPlus Travel Company (Thanh Hoa City) Nguyen Ha Phuong said: “With many favorable conditions in terms of transportation, along with a fairly systematic tour process in Tra Dong bronze casting village, we have included this destination in the tour schedule of the “Echoes of Thanh land” tour series. Through the feedback of some groups, it can be seen that the craft village especially attracts the attention of domestic tourists and international tourists who love to learn about culture. However, the connection and promotion of the craft village to travel agencies is still quite limited, on the other hand, the tour process for tourists is not really professional”.

According to Ms. Nguyen Ha Phuong, tourists are quite interested in some small souvenir products of the craft village such as bronze drums, gongs, lamps, vases, bronze statues... However, the souvenir items are still quite limited and the prices are high, so they do not meet the shopping needs of the majority of tourists.

Identifying that craft village tourism not only contributes to promoting cultural beauty but also promotes local socio-economic development, in recent years, Thieu Hoa district has paid attention to leading, directing, and orienting in the work of promoting, advertising, and building products. Along with that, focusing on perfecting facilities and infrastructure to serve tourism development, contributing to positioning destinations and affirming the brand of craft village products.

Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Thieu Hoa district, Tran Ngoc Tung, said: “Along with Tra Dong bronze casting village, there are a number of traditional craft villages in the district that can be exploited to become tourist destinations such as Dac Chau rice paper village (Tan Chau commune); Hong Do silk weaving and silk weaving village (Thieu Hoa town),... However, in the past, the number of visitors to the district's traditional craft villages has been quite limited, partly because the craft villages have not really met the criteria of a tourist destination. In the coming time, the district will continue to pay attention to leading, directing and orienting localities in building destinations, investing in facilities and infrastructure to meet the needs of tourism activities. At the same time, connecting craft villages with local relic sites to form unique and attractive cultural discovery journeys. In addition, the district will focus on building Tra Dong bronze casting village into a typical craft village tourist destination of the district, as a basis for replicating this model to a number of other traditional craft villages in the district.

In recent years, some travel agencies have initially included discovery and experience tourism in Nga Son district's craft villages in their tour itineraries. With 23 craft villages recognized by the Provincial People's Committee (20 sedge mat weaving villages, 1 bamboo and rattan weaving village and 2 wine making villages), Nga Son district has increasingly favorable conditions to promote the development of craft village tourism. In particular, sedge mat weaving villages are not only the pride of the people of Nga Son but also a cultural symbol of the Northeast region of Thanh Hoa.

Ms. Mai Thi Yen, Director of Ngan Khuong Company Limited (Hamlet 5, Nga Thanh Commune) said: “To contribute to building the craft village into an attractive destination, we have researched and grasped the needs of the market to improve suitable designs for gifts. Initially, we have researched and produced a number of products such as baskets, bags, storage boxes, etc. with eye-catching patterns, increasing the aesthetics of souvenir handicrafts. Along with that, we also researched and developed a tourist sedge mat product, with a size of 0.8m x 2m, which can be folded and carried like a bag, weighing nearly 1kg, priced at 300,000 VND, which is both suitable for tourists' budgets and a meaningful gift from the craft village for tourists to buy for their own use or to give to relatives and friends”.

It can be seen that craft village tourism in localities in Thanh Hoa province has initially had a positive development direction, many craft villages have paid attention to implementing solutions to attract tourists. However, frankly speaking, tourism activities in most traditional craft villages in the province are not really vibrant, attracting a large number of tourists. Therefore, it is necessary to have the attention and orientation of all levels and sectors in the planning of craft villages, building and developing tourism services, training human resources, ... to create attractive craft village tourism destinations, contributing to widely promoting the unique cultural beauty of Thanh land and people to friends and tourists near and far.

Le Anh

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