Cultural heritage in tourism development in Ha Noi the capital

Tạp chí Khoa học Viện Đại học Mở Hà Nội 56 (06/2019) 41-46 41 CULTURAL HERITAGE IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN HANOI THE CAPITAL Vu Thi Phuong Hau*9 Date received the article: 4/12/2018 Date received the review results: 4/6/2019 Date published the article: 28/6/2019 Abstract: Hanoi is the political and cultural center of the country, having more than a thousand years of history with many valuable cultural works. Every year, a large number of tourists come to Hanoi, one of the main tourist attractions is the cultural heritage here. The paper will focus on analyzing the impact of cultural heritage on tourism in Hanoi and thereby providing solutions to develop tourism based on cultural heritage in the coming time. Keywords: valuable cultural; tourism; Hanoi 1. The role of culture to tourism development Today tourism becomes a quite popular synthetic economic sector in the world. In recent years, tourism has been valued as a fast growth branch. Hence, in the message for International Tourism Day 27 September 2007, the General Secretary of UNWTO confirmed: “Tourism is the key bringing the prosperity for both poor and rich countries”. Tourism, from its establishment, linked closely to culture. One of the tourist’s demand is searching new things, widening their knowledge about many fields, including culture. The difference between cultural spaces always stir human curosity and discovery. Therefore, travelling is considered as a cultural satisfied behavior and formed the “cultural tourism” type. During its development process, tourism as a social phenomenon has generated itself cultural characteristics in traveller behaviors. 9* Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics Researchers, managers have already talked much about the relationship between tourism and culture. In the aritcle’s scale, we mention the relationship in following aspects: First, culture is the direct resource for tourism development Three basic types of tourism defined in Tourism Law 2017 are community tourism, ecotourism, cultural tourism. Their growth based on community cultural values with local cutural identity and the participation of inhabitans in exploiting and getting benefit from it. So tourism development mainly based on the exploitation of natural and human cultural resources. Hence, beside other tourism types like ecotourism, sea travel, leisure travel, cultural toursim long has been a favorite chosen type of tourists. Its destinations contain cultural value like artistic architectures, tradition and habit, religion and faith, cuisine, 42 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion festivals Cultural values becoming resource deeply attracted tourists. In last years, with right directions and solutions, Vietnamese tourism focused on exploiting cultural tourism type; contributed to tourist number’s continuous increase. In 2018, there were 15.497.791 foreign visitors coming to Vietnam, rose by 19,9% in comparison with 2017. Together with foreigners, domestic tourists yearly grew. Revenue from tourists endlessly increased each year. Hence, culture became a direct resource for tourism development. The exploitation of cutural values, local cultural shades, ethnical cutural shades created special tourism products, attracted both domestic and oversea tourists. Second, culture is the aim of tourism development The aim of tourism development is purely not seeking the profit, to sustainable tourism development, the most important goal is about human, expoilting effectively natural and human cultural resources, meets the current tourism need while not harm the environment and future generations. Both tourists, tourism enterprises and local community where having tourism resource also get the benefit. In other words, sustainable tourism must for human, towards human, as well as their culture. Third, tourism contributes to motivate cultural exchange process Cultural exchange occurred with many forms, there are willing, peaceful cultural exchange and in conflict, enforcement. Tourism itself is an important channel to conduct the cultural exchange in peace. Through tourism, people have the condition to contact with, learn cultural values from different areas, cultures. tourism promotion is spreading process of each region’s cultural identity At national level, tourism promotion is a method to advertise national trademark to international friends. However, it is needed to notice that the relationship between tourism and culture not only express the positives, but also sometimes, somewhere, there are negatives, constraints. When tourism is admitted as a pure economic sector following the profit whatever it takes, it will impact negatively to the cultural development. It even leads to the danger of exploiting, distorting beautiful relics, tradition, cultural values In realistic, there was a case that because of engrossed following economic benefit, people inconsideratly violated the region of relics, landscapes to build restaurants, hotels, resorts serving tourists. In addition, counter-culture through tourism way intrude and impact negatively to local culture, community, nation. It firstly impacts the lifestyle and other elements of culture, from clothes to language, from manufacture to thinking then expire cultural heritages. In practive, through tourism, traditional culture’s rejection, oblivion phenomenon and copying, imitating grotesquely exotic culture happened. 2. Cutural potential’s exploitation reality for tourism development in Hanoi today In last years, Hanoi tourism branch generally and tourism enterprises particularly focused on investing, upgrading destinations, building products, training to improve manpower level, Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion 43 promoting investment and broadcast tourism by many ways, mobilizing from many capital sources, creating more works, increasing social revenue from domestic and oversea tourists. Hanoi concentrated on investing, developing tourism destination and products. Most of travel units in Hanoi strengthened examination, renewing settled tour programs, creating new tourism products associated with ecotourism, MICE, visiting old villages with interprovincial, supranational travel program. About the business, visitors coming to Hanoi increased a lot, residents as well as travellers. It resulted in developing infrastructure invesment, tourism products in Hanoi together with the wide propaganda, promotion work of capital tourism sector. Diversification of tourism products, from sighseeing, discovering cultural heritages to ecotourism programs, clean tourism is becoming the sustainable development strategy of Hanoi when making it a safe destination in the area and over the world. Tourism sector coordinated with related branches reviewing the scheme, creating invest project list to build new tourism products, operating conference with investors in ecotourism, weekend vacation, collecting list and submitting to Hanoi People’s Committee to decide, introduce the place, invest, build new tourism products’ project in local area. In development statregy, Hanoi specially focused on featured tourism products containing captial tourism’s trademark with the foundation of human cultural, historical resources’ exploitation of thousand-year civilized Thang Long. Hanoi tourism sector defined cultural tourism development in relics, festival, old quarter, village sightseeing, ecotourism, weekend vacation, entertainment, MICE, cuisine tourism, waterway tourism is center. Following the tour, visitors can explore Hanoi old quarter’s characteristics, taste the traditional food like pho, bun cha, bun oc They also choose traditional village tours such as Bat Trang ceramics, Van Phuc Silk, Phu Vinh bamboo and rattan, Quat Dong embroidery, Chuyen My mosaics Hanoi tourism branch actively deployed tourism information activities like: design and upgrade Hanoi tourism website. Build market to publish destination introduction book for tourguides. Edit and publish Hanoi – Quang Ninh – Ninh Bình – Lào Cai – Hải Phòng connected tour. Republish Hanoi Tourism Guidebook. Print and publish Hanoi tourism Map. Enhance giving tourism information at information desks in Noi Bai International Airport, Hoan Kiem Lake, Le Thach Street and Opera House Flower Garden. Invest tourism kiots at hotels, stations, relics, landscapes, public centers with English, Vietnamese for domestic and oversea tourists coming to Hanoi. Hanoi pushed technology application, developed software app serving tourits demand. In recent years, Hanoi constantly signed cooperation program to propagate, advertise the city image on the global CNN channel. Through this program, international friends know more about thousand-year civilized Hanoi. The tourism sector as a representative for Hanoi participated in international organizations like LHC, 44 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion AIMF, City Net, METROPOLIS and tourism fairs. Specialized Tourism Page TripAdvisor voted Hanoi as one of the most 25 attrative destinations in the world in 2019 (The result showed that Hanoi ranked 15th out of 25). TripAdvisor Ranking Chart based on million evaluations of tourists about hotel, restaurant system and destinations in 12 months10. According to Hanoi Department of Tourism, total tourists number visiting Hanoi in 2018 was estimated to reach 26,04 million people, therein 5,74 million oversea tourists, bringing the tourism revenue reached 75.815 billion dong, increased by 11,7% compared with 2017. Statistic stated that oversea visitors coming to Hanoi from around 190 countries and territories, therein Asian tourists accounted for nearly 60% in total, European took approximately 24%, Americas held 9%... In the group of top 10 visitors market coming to Hanoi, the great proportion belonged to European market like: Spain, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Italia, France, New Zealand, England, Switzerland, Germany11. Although the economy facing with many difficulties, travellers visiting Hanoi in 2018 still increased. There were encouraging numbers because once again they confirmed the path of capital tourism sector was that concentrating exploit cultural potential to develop tourism, attract tourists was right. With the current potential, in the economic-social development scheme of 10 Báo Hà Nội mới điện tử ngày 27/3/2019. Hanoi, tourism always has the position of a pointy economic sector. Now relevant departments are creating a breakthrough step to develop completely capital tourism about the scope, extent and service quality, ensuring the sustainability, making tourism really a pointy economic sector of Hanoi in 2020. In general, in recent years, Hanoi invested every aspects to develop tourism. Especially, tend to exploit cultural potential serving tourism development brought a big effectiveness, shifted Hanoi tourism position, contributed to the capital economic development to the direction increasing quickly tourism – service proportion in economic restructuring. 3. Some solutions enhancing capital cultural potential, contributing to raise tourism economic effectiveness To enhance capital cultural potential, to contribute to raise Hanoi tourism economic effectiveness, we need to focus on following solutions: - Building a capital tourism strategy in short-term, medium-term, long- term, therein especially focus on tourism projects in the next 10-20 years, clearly defining key projects with high possiblitity. Hanoi Department of Tourism must have tourism strategy towards developing tourists’ quality instead of quantity, how to make them stay longer. - In addition, Hanoi need to concern more about investing in human resources for tourism therein consider knowledge ability of culture as a essential 11 https://baomoi.com/nam-2018-luong-khach- quoc-te-toi-ha-noi-vuot-du-kien- truoc/c/29173812.epi Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion 45 requirement. Some national experience like China, Thailand, Singapore showed that the successful key in tourism development is because of professional, high quality human resources. Travel employees are required to have wide knowledge about many fields, agility, creativity, knowing many languages, national egotism and profound understanding about capital culture. Today, there are many training centers in tourism major but not satisfy the requirement yet. Therefore, people from other majors take part in working in the tourism field. They are working and learning at the same time makes it not professional. Human resources developing invesment for Hanoi tourism is an urgent and long requirement. Having good human resources, Hanoi tourism can continously develop in the future. - The city need to cooperate with relevant deparments in maintaining, protecting, improving the environment, upgrading cultural works, relics, landscapes in Hanoi. Although Hanoi is the place having the biggest heritage quantity in the country, many heritages are in the degraded condition. So in order to make cultural heritages becoming properties, direct resource for tourism development, the city, Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport need to build short-term, long-term plans for Hanoi relics system’s preservation, setup. - Tourism branch build new, attractive tourism products based on cultural potential of Hanoi. Continue exploit sustainably cultural values, considering them as properties, advantages of capital tourism. Operating good examination, exploitation in cuisine, trade village, spiriutal, historical sites tours in Hanoi. The cultural potential exploitation, turn it to the power, the main resource to develop capital tourism is a right path. It is the solution building advantages of Hanoi compared to other provinces in the develop process. Effective exploitation of capital cultural advantages towards sustainable tourism development not only has the meaning of enhancing tourism but also in the other hand, it contributes to bring special cultural values of thousand-year civilized Hanoi closer to national and international friends, create the revenue to reinvest in culture. References: 1. Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2011), Decision approving "Vietnam tourism development strategy to 2020, vision to 2030", Decision No. 2473 / QD-TTg December 30, 2011 2. Tran Huu Binh (October 2005), "Developing Hanoi tourism towards industrialization and modernization", Bao Du Lich (1-2). 3. Nguyen Viet Thai, Enhancing the attractiveness of tourist destinations in the northern economic growth triangle (Hanoi, Hai Phong - Quang Ninh), Ministry-level Scientific Research Project B2005-39-73 4. Ha Van Sieu (2011), Assessing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges for Vietnam's tourism into the next decade 2011-2020, Research Institute for Tourism Development 5. Nguyen Thi Nguyen Hong (2015), Methods of measurement and technical evaluation of competitiveness of tourist destinations, University of Commerce. 46 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion 6. Metin Kozak, Seyhmus Baloglu (2010), Managing and Marketing tourist destination: Strategies to gain a competitive and edge (Routledge advances in tourism). Author address: Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy; Email: hau_vtp@yahoo.com