Finally, after numerous discussions, turning rain in Hue Old Capital into an appropriate tourism product and launching this in the National Tourism Year – Hue 2012 has been bravely incorporated into the plan by the Organisation Board. It is hoped that this new and interesting tourism product will bring tourists romantic and unique experiences. However, how to effectively exploit the product is still a difficult task for Vietnam’s tourism sector.
Rain has long been an inherent attribute of Hue and although there has not been any “development strategy”, rain has become” specialty” of Hue’s tourism and warmly welcomed by tourists during recent years.
Mr Ngo Hoa, Deputy Chairman of Thua Thien Hue People’s Committee, shares that “When I was on a mission to examine Century Riverside Hotel in Hue in a large flood in 2007, it was a nice surprise for to see that tourists kept swimming happily and sat by the river bank watching the river in rain. They told me that it was interesting to watch rain. The temperature of 14-15°C of Hue is warm for European and American tourists. A lot of tourists expressed their interest in Hue’s rain. This shows that if tourism practitioners in Hue know how to exploit, rain will be a promisingly interesting product.”
Agreeing to this opinion, Dr Nguyen Thu Hanh, Chairwoman of the Union of Science for Sustainable Tourism Development, believes that the system of pagodas and garden houses of Hue can be possibly exploited as ideal space for tourists demanding relaxation during rainy days. In addition, there should be a system of restaurants serving appropriate food on rainy days since the rain will help to linger over the meals and thereby offer tourists further chances to enjoy the delicacy of Hue’s sophisticated dishes. With existing advantages, the development of a chain of tourism products during rainy days with lots of supporting activities such as entertainment service or art performance will promise interesting experiences.
So that Hue’s rain can be an effective tourism product, Thua Thien Hue Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism thinks that there needs to be satisfactory investment for a perfect product which has a brand name for promotion and selling.
It is necessary that “Hue’s rain” product bear unique characteristics of tourism. There must be tourism programmes which link historical heritages, cultural relics and natural landscape together. There must be availability of accommodation establishments, food service, transportation service and entertainment service, etc. to attend to tourists’ demand.
On such basis, Thua Thien Hue develops a system of tourism products which can be exploited from Hue’s rain, including developing appropriate experiential and sightseeing tours on rainy days and building roads with green plants and flowers for rain watching…
At the same time, it is also crucial that the province upgrade and design suitable tourist transportation means in rainy weather. Culinary areas where appropriate food on rainy days is served also need to be paid attention.
Furthermore, tourism bases in Hue will collaborate with tea houses since they offer ideal space for tourists to enjoy tea while watching, listening to the sound of rain as well as enjoying other delicate values of rain…
Last but not least, special attention needs to be paid to improving service quality and skills of managers and tourism workers.
Giang Tu
Vietnamese
