Intensively Tapping Tourism Products

Thua Thien - Hue province is proud to possess 1,000 historical and cultural relics, more than 500 festivals, and two UNESCO world cultural heritages, namely the Complex of Hue Monuments and the Royal Court Music. Lang Co is rated one of the most beautiful bays in the world. Tam Giang - Cau Hai lagoon system is considered the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia. Cultural and humanistic values are potentials for Hue’s tourism economy. These give Hue an attractive and unique identity.

 

Tourists will not only visit the former capital, listen to royal court music or sailing along Huong River full of folksong rhythms but, above all, live and sense Hue culture. Now, Hue people are commemorating the defeat of Hue to French colonist invaders more than a century ago (May 25, 1885). This event only is enough to tell visitors about the glorious history of Hue. Visitors have the chance to witness the livelihoods in the ancient village of Phuoc Tich, discover Tam Giang Lagoon, Lang Co Bay - one of the most beautiful bays in the world, or go to traditional markets. Hue is generously blessed with many natural beauties but the people make it more beautiful, more attractive and more unique to visitors.

 

On the path to become a centrally governed city, especially a cultural and tourist centre of the country, Thua Thien Hue has been carrying out many tourism development projects and programmes, particularly programmes to raise public awareness of national cultural identity preservation and promotion. Hopefully, in the near future, we will have more new tourism products to impress and excite visitors.

 

 

At present, inter-region products like former Vietnamese capital interconnection or northern central heritage connection are being given priority for development. Some lines of unique tourism products have been formed, such as festival tourism (wrestling in Sinh and Thu Le villages), cottage industry discovery (Phuoc Tich, Bao La, Thanh Tien communes), spiritual tourism, medical treatment and natural experience, etc.

 

Hue is also a venue for MICE tourism, evidenced by 200 national and international conferences in 2005 and over 400 conferences at present, or at least one meeting of national or international scale a day. This is our another success. High-grade vacation is particularly developed in Thua Thien - Hue province. Banyan Tree Group of Singapore has invested Laguna Hue project. The group decided to invest in three places of interest in Southeast Asia, namely Bali (Indonesia), Phukhet (Thailand) and Chan May Lang Co (Vietnam). When the project is inaugurated in October 2012, the first 400 fully-occupied rooms will be put into use and 1,800 rooms will be put into use by 2013 together with the associated golf course. In the Canh Duong - Lang Co area, there are 26 projects with nearly VND50 trillion (US$2.5 billion) of investment capital, 540 motels and hotels, and 11,000 rooms.

 

All these illustrate the fact that Thua Thien - Hue is tapping and utilising its tourism potential very well. This success is also evidenced by the rise of tourism industry’s contributions to GDP from 30 - 31 percent in 2000 to 45 percent at present, with annual industry growth of 12 - 15 percent and revenue growth of 15 - 25 percent. Particularly, in the first six months of this year, visitor arrivals to Thua Thien - Hue increased 21 percent and tourism revenue climbed 26 percent.

 

What concerns us most is the very fast degeneration of historical and cultural relics. We actually need VND500 - 600 billion a year to restore and protect heritages in Thua Thien - Hue province but we can afford just VND50 - 60 billion. This is really a daunting difficulty for us because we will gradually lose these resources if we cannot prevent the degeneration, which of course adversely affects Hue a lot.

 

In addition, we lack human resources for tourism development, specially branding professionals. Traffic connections are not completely advantageous as Phu Bai Airport is not a full international airport while Hue - Da Nang Highway is due for completion by 2015.

 

To resolve these problems, close and concerted coordination and efforts of all relevant bodies are needed to bring tourism economic resources into full play. We will mobilise all resources to preserve and promote intangible cultural heritages, particularly the Complex of Hue Monuments. Protecting tangle and intangible cultural heritages is the responsibility of the State, the community and visitors all together.

 

This was a successful festival, especially as it was associated with the National Tourism Year 2012. Through this event of national and international significance, we had more conditions to introduce tourism products and brand names of the province and the region. Opened on April 7 and closed on April 15, the Hue Festival 2012 themed "Cultural heritage with integration and development - Meeting place of historical cities" was really a highlight of the National Tourism Year 2012.

 

We created a more spectacular, better, more community-centred and more professional festival. The success of Hue Festival 2012 has gradually raised the image and position of Vietnamese and Hue culture on the international arena, earning respect and affection from countries and visitors across the world for the people and culture of Vietnam.