Promoting the potential to attract investment in tourism

The Resolution of the 20th Provincial Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025, set the goal of "developing tourism into an important economic sector of the province". In recent times, all levels, sectors and localities have made efforts to promote the potential and diversify destinations in the province, contributing to attracting investment in the tourism sector.

The Keo Pagoda Festival in autumn preserves unique sacrificial rituals.

Tourism product development

With its potential and advantages in terms of cultural traditions, history and natural resources, Thai Binh is developing marine tourism, eco-tourism, spiritual tourism and community tourism, and experiences. In particular, spiritual tourism is considered a type of tourism with many strengths. With nearly 3,000 ancient cultural institutions, notably 2 special national relics: Keo Pagoda, Duy Nhat Commune (Vu Thu); the tomb and temple complex of Tran Dynasty kings, Tien Duc Commune (Hung Ha), spiritual tourism is developing in Vu Thu, Hung Ha, Quynh Phu districts... attracting many domestic and foreign tourists to visit, sightsee and worship.

Developing the potential of spiritual tourism, at the Tran Temple Festival and the Keo Pagoda Festival in the fall of 2023, many businesses and units have joined the festival program. In addition, at the Keo Pagoda Festival in the fall of 2023, which took place from September 10 to 15, the People's Committee of Vu Thu district organized a fair to introduce and promote OCOP products, including 24 booths of 48 entities and key products, typical characteristics of a number of localities and businesses in Thai Binh province, Vo Nhai district (Thai Nguyen province) and Hanoi city. The system of goods and product types participating in the fair is diverse and rich, bearing the unique characteristics of each region and locality, creating an impressive shopping space and experience for visitors when coming to the festival. Joining the bustling crowd, Mr. Tran Quang Lang, a tourist, said: Although I come to Keo Pagoda every year, this year I am excited because the festival atmosphere is very solemn, joyful and exciting. The local government organizes the festival to preserve the unique features of traditional culture. In addition to witnessing the rituals, visitors can also visit the fair, watch music and dance performances, water puppetry... Hopefully the festival will be organized on a larger scale and methodically like the last festival, and many domestic and foreign tourists will know about it.

Currently, community and experiential tourism is also a type of tourism that is being developed in the province. This type of tourism creates tourism products to serve tourists mainly based on the foundation of agricultural production activities. On August 24, 2022, the Provincial People's Committee issued a decision approving the project on agricultural and rural development associated with tourism in Thai Binh province for the period 2022 - 2025 and until 2030. The objective of the project is to exploit the strengths of agriculture, craft villages, culture and ecological environment of localities to improve the quality of material and spiritual life of rural people; effectively use resources to develop agricultural and rural tourism in Thai Binh to become an attractive destination, a priority choice for domestic and foreign tourists; build and maintain the brand of Thai Binh agricultural products in the domestic and international markets through tourism activities.

Supporting localities that are developing community and experiential tourism, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has recently organized many training conferences, professional training and provided documents to serve the tourism sector in line with the needs of the establishments. Participating in the training conference for the communes of Dong Cac, Nguyen Xa, Phong Chau (Dong Hung), People's Artist Bui Van Ro, Khuoc Cheo Village shared: With the support of authorities at all levels, functional sectors, artisans and people of Khuoc Cheo Village will promote the advantages of intangible cultural heritage, contributing to making tourists want to return to visit and experience Dong Hung more.

Developing tourist market

Identifying that in tourism development, promotion is considered a key activity to attract tourists to experience the products, in recent years, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has organized many farm trips and seminars to introduce to large and reputable domestic travel companies the province's outstanding tourist destinations, including seminars on orientation for developing Thai Binh tourism products, seminars on building a model of organic salt production using traditional methods in Thuy Hai (Thai Thuy) combined with eco-tourism, resorts... In addition, every year, it actively participates in tourism promotion conferences, exhibitions, and tourism fairs in many localities in the country to promote the potential and products of Thai Binh tourism. Along with information activities about destinations on various platforms, Thai Binh tourism promotion publications have been carefully prepared to introduce to tourists a panoramic view of tourism in the province such as: Thai Binh tourism map, Thai Binh tourism guide, Thai Binh tourism destination publication - Thai Binh Tourism Destinations bilingual English - Vietnamese...

Thanks to that, the province's tourism business has made many improvements, the number of tourists and social income from tourism have continuously increased. If in the first 6 months of 2022, after implementing measures to restore and reopen tourism, the number of tourists is estimated at 395,044, revenue is estimated at 265.2 billion VND, then in the first 6 months of 2023, the total number of tourists is estimated at 452,659 (up 14.6% over the same period), mainly domestic tourists; revenue is estimated at 312.3 billion VND (up 17.7% over the same period). Thai Binh's tourist market is mainly domestic tourists, coming from provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh... with the need to visit relics, experience festivals, and relax on weekends. The international tourist market mainly comes from Northeast Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea... with the purpose of researching historical and cultural relic architecture, eco-tourism, community tourism, experiencing craft villages...

Along with the efforts of the functional sector, some destinations have actively promoted tourism products, attracting the attention of tourists. At Nam Cao linen weaving village (Kien Xuong), Nam Cao linen weaving cooperative has organized to bring artisans of the village to participate in product introduction programs domestically and in some markets such as the US, France, Germany...

Ms. Luong Thanh Hanh, Director of Nam Cao Linen Weaving Cooperative, shared: Since the beginning of the year, the craft village has welcomed about 15,000 domestic visitors and 10,000 international visitors, with tours taking place during the day. The advantage in developing tourism in Nam Cao Linen Weaving Village is that international visitors learn about the products through media channels or through the cooperative's product introduction program in other countries, so they come to visit and learn about the craft village. With the support of authorities at all levels, the cooperative is currently actively implementing concentrated production areas and sightseeing experiences, which will help visitors have more activities related to the lives of local people and stay longer in Thai Binh.

Tourists experience the work of artisans in Nam Cao linen weaving village (Kien Xuong).

In the activities of attracting tourists to visit and experience as well as domestic and international units and enterprises to learn and invest in the tourism sector, in parallel with the work of developing diverse products as well as enhancing tourism promotion, the current advantage in Thai Binh is the relatively convenient traffic system connecting destinations; historical and cultural relics are being restored from the state budget and socialized to facilitate people and tourists to visit and experience; administrative reform and improvement of the investment and business environment are increasingly focused on... With the efforts of all levels of government, functional sectors and from each citizen, we believe that Thai Binh will soon become an attractive destination, thereby practically realizing the goal of "developing tourism into an important economic sector of the province".