Extending the journey from east to west

Hoi An Ancient Town and My Son Sanctuary are two World Cultural Heritages recognized by UNESCO in 1999. After 25 years, these two destinations still maintain their role as the "core" of Quang Nam's tourism ecosystem.

The Hoi An - My Son route tour is especially popular with international tourists and has been included in the list of must-see destinations in Vietnam.

According to tourism businesses, in addition to the brand attraction, Hoi An and My Son have natural and cultural connections, plus the short travel distance (less than 40km), and increasingly convenient traffic since the completion of Giao Thuy bridge, which inevitably helps this tour route develop further.

Further west, the Dong Giang Heaven Gate Tourist Area (nearly 90km from My Son Temple Complex) officially opened after 2 years of operation with a series of gradually completed typical products, which is expected to extend the Hoi An - My Son - Dong Giang Heaven Gate tour.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Tan - Chairman of the Board of Directors of FVG Group, the investor of Dong Giang Heaven Gate Eco-tourism Area, said that when investing in the northwestern mountainous region of Quang Nam, he recognized that regional tourism linkages would still face many difficulties. Therefore, from the beginning, he determined to invest synchronously in 4 criteria: discovery tourism - spiritual tourism - resort tourism and promoting the cultural identity of indigenous people. In which, maintaining and developing the cultural identity of the Co Tu people is considered the core and consistent orientation throughout the development process.

“We expect that with the historical and cultural tourism brand of Hoi An, the unique architecture of My Son Temple Complex, plus the unique product chain of Dong Giang Heaven Gate Eco-tourism Area, we will form a high-class tourism triangle of Quang Nam in the near future,” said Mr. Nguyen Anh Tan.

The Dong Giang Heaven Gate Eco-Tourism Area hopes that the 1.6km-long cable car line will be put into trial technical operation this June before being officially put into operation, creating a breakthrough in persuading tourists to extend their journey from Hoi An - My Son to the highlands of the province.

Mr. Ho Quang Buu - Acting Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said: "It can be said that the Hoi An - My Son - Dong Giang tourism route is an extremely unique and rare tourism route in the region with many special values ​​​​both in nature and culture. Destinations on this route are actively creating many new products, hoping to develop strongly in the future".

Need more power

Quang Nam province's planning for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, identifies Hoi An - Dien Ban - Dai Loc as the province's No. 1 driving force. It can be seen that the "triangle" Hoi An - My Son - Dong Giang Heaven's Gate also partly follows this route and promoting the above tourism axis in the future is feasible.

However, the obvious barrier is still the rather difficult traffic infrastructure. For example, from Hoi An to My Son, it is easy to travel via DT610 or DT609 (through Dien Ban and then turn to Giao Thuy bridge) to join DT610 in about 1 hour.

However, it takes nearly 3 hours to travel from Hoi An to Dong Giang Heaven Gate Eco-tourism Area even though the distance is only over 100km.

The reason is that the project to upgrade and expand DT609 from Dai Hung commune (Dai Loc) to Ma Cooih commune (Dong Giang) which started in early 2023 has not yet been completed.

Once the DT609 route from Dai Loc - Dong Giang is upgraded, the number of visitors to Dong Giang Heaven Gate will increase significantly because this is the shortest route connecting Dong Giang with the heritages of Quang Nam, including from Da Nang City.

The story of expanding the Hoi An - My Son connection is not new. Previously, some peripheral areas of these two destinations were connected to the itinerary, especially the destinations in Dien Ban but they did not attract tourists. Dong Giang Heaven Gate will have a lot of work to do if it wants to be connected to this heritage journey.

According to Ms. Pham Que Anh - Vice President of Quang Nam Tourism Association, Director of Hoi An Express Trade - Service - Tourism Company Limited, the cable car is a new highlight to attract visitors, but Dong Giang Heaven Gate also needs to study and add more green areas, water parks, and increase integration of local activities to create attractiveness for international visitors.

“In the coming time, if we want to promote this tourism axis, the relevant parties need to deploy the connection of the Hoi An - Dong Giang traffic route. At the same time, Dong Giang Heaven Gate also needs to combine Hoi An - My Son destinations to build a 2-day - 1-night or longer product package and invite businesses operating in the international market to survey. Strengthen information promotion, stimulus programs to attract visitors to Dong Giang Heaven Gate, especially domestic visitors in the North, South and international regions” - Ms. Que Anh said.