Scientific research promotes tourism development

As an initiative that won the prize at the 17th National Technical Innovation Contest, the scientific work “Research on the application of digital technology to create a tourism guidebook for Thai Binh province to contribute to the exploitation and development of sustainable tourism” compiled by Thai Binh College of Culture and Arts is a meaningful document that is currently being spread to tourists inside and outside the province. With this work, the school has mobilized the participation and promoted the strengths of teachers in all departments with the desire to create a colorful tourism panorama of the province.

Many works of art about beautiful tourist landscapes of Thai Binh are introduced in the provincial tourist guide by the school's lecturers.

Continuously updated to meet information needs

Introducing the scientific work, Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Hien, Vice Principal in charge of the Provincial College of Culture and Arts shared: In reality, the application of digital technology in tourism development in the province is being gradually implemented, however, there is no document to systematically build tourist routes in the province according to Decision No. 3562/QD-UBND, dated December 29, 2017 on approving the Tourism Development Plan of Thai Binh province to 2025, with a vision to 2030, while integrating and introducing rural tourist destinations according to the province's orientation. With the role and function of being the only school in the province that specializes in tourism training, training cultural managers and a team of specialized teachers in the field of tourism and related fields, the Provincial College of Culture and Arts conducts a research project on applying digital technology to build a provincial tourism handbook. To access all the information that has been researched and compiled in this work, visitors only need to use a smartphone or tablet with an internet connection to scan the QR code. This is also what the author team really appreciates about the travel guide because encoding the content not only helps to convey information quickly and conveniently but can also be continuously updated and improved to meet the increasing demand for information about destinations of visitors.

The tourist guide includes 15 parts, in which 7 routes are introduced in detail according to the Provincial Tourism Development Plan. In addition, more than 50 tourist destinations are also introduced specifically in sections such as: cuisine; community tourism spots, craft villages; cultural tourism spots, spiritual festivals, historical relics...

With knowledge and experience from many years of research and teaching about culture and tourism, lecturer Nguyen Thi To Lich, Faculty of Cultural Affairs and General Subjects, Provincial College of Culture and Arts is the person who directly wrote the introduction about the land, people of Thai Binh, and tourist attractions on each specific route. She said: Although the process of implementing the research topic has invested a lot of time and effort, it has not only taken place over the past 2 years but is currently still being perfected from feedback from travel agencies and domestic and foreign tourists. By applying digital technology, the group of authors can monitor the number of visits to the travel guide, and at the same time know which information is of great interest, from which they can research and supplement, enriching the source of information provided by the guide.

Putting research into practice

With a passion for the research topic and a desire to contribute to spreading the beauty of the land and people, and developing tourism, after the scientific work won second prize at the provincial competition and consolation prize at the national competition, the Provincial College of Culture and Arts has connected and shared the Thai Binh province tourism guide with tourism associations of provinces and cities in the northern coastal region. At the same time, at major events of the province such as the cultural exchange program - connecting Vietnamese - Korean businesses "Thai Binh Homecoming day" taking place in December 2023, the school has printed thousands of bilingual Vietnamese - Korean brochures for visitors at the event. In addition, the school is also actively coordinating with a number of manufacturing units to research gifts with QR codes about the Thai Binh tourism guide.

Tourists access tourism information by using smartphones and tablets with internet connection to scan QR codes.

Lecturer Hoang Thi Huong, Faculty of Cultural Affairs and General Subjects, Provincial College of Culture and Arts shared: With the function and task of the Faculty being to train in tourism, lecturers have regularly used the tourism handbook as an in-depth, comprehensive document on current aspects of provincial tourism to explain and guide students. In addition, students also learn how to use, look up, and receive information from the handbook quickly and effectively. Practically serving the needs of students to explore tourism in Thai Binh, the group of authors presented the school library with a provincial tourism handbook. Thanks to that, before each trip, students can scan the QR code of each specific route, and at the same time search for information according to their needs such as finding places to eat, stay, and buy local specialties...

After the process of bringing the provincial tourism guide to tourists, the Provincial College of Culture and Arts hopes to receive the consensus of the Provincial People's Committee and businesses interested in the tourism sector to continue in-depth research with the goal of creating more practical experiences for tourists. In particular, the school aims to research and create high-quality videos introducing each tourist destination, piloting the application of integrated technology to support tourists such as building an online map to manage tourism spaces, developing interactive maps and online service booking functions, creating links with tourism websites... and publishing the guide, sending it to consumers.