Promoting the value of intangible cultural heritage

One of the key tasks set out in Resolution No. 09 is to develop diverse tourism spaces and products with the province's distinctive brand. Among the identified cultural tourism products are activities at the special national relic site of the tombs and temples of the Tran Dynasty kings in Tien Duc commune (Hung Ha). Since 2023, the Tran Temple Festival has been organized at the provincial level. Every year, tens of thousands of local people and visitors from all over the country come to pay tribute to the great contributions of the Tran Dynasty kings and their ancestors and participate in traditional festival activities. From being organized at the provincial level, the ceremonial and festival activities have attracted the participation of a large number of people in preserving and promoting traditional festivals.

Mr. Tran Huu Nam, Secretary of Hung Ha District Party Committee shared: After each traditional festival, the festival organizing committee holds a meeting to review experiences so that the following year's organization will be better than the previous year, thereby continuing to affirm the value of the Tran Dynasty's cultural heritage in Thai Binh. Through the activities during the festival days, it contributes to propagating and educating the tradition of patriotism, love for the homeland, national pride and self-respect for generations and a sense of responsibility in participating in preserving, promoting and exploiting the value of cultural heritage associated with attracting investment; at the same time, promoting the potential and strengths of tourism development of the province.

Not only the Tran Temple Festival, traditional festivals in the province are also invested in and organized in an increasingly systematic and civilized manner, both promoting traditional values ​​and promoting the typical products of the homeland, attracting the attention of a large number of people and tourists from all over. At the Keo Pagoda Spring Festival, instead of being held for one day as before, from 2024, the festival will take place for 4-5 days with many exciting activities, creating an impressive destination for spiritual and cultural tourism for a large number of local people and tourists from all over the world right in the first days of the new year.

Mr. Truong Van Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, informed: Every year, with two festivals, the special national relic site of Keo Pagoda is always an attractive destination for tourists. In recent festival seasons, with the expansion of the scale of the festival, including many games, folk performances are recreated and many new festival activities have attracted a large number of people to participate, thereby contributing to the preservation and promotion of the cultural values ​​of the architectural art and spirituality of the relic.

Opportunities for economic development of tourism

According to statistics, in recent years, the province's tourism business has made a lot of progress, the number of tourists and social income from tourism continues to increase. If in 2022, the whole province welcomed more than 705,000 visitors, revenue of 423 billion VND, then by 2023, the number of tourists increased by 15.5% compared to 2022, revenue is estimated at 500 billion VND. In 2024, the total number of tourists in the whole province is estimated at 950,000, an increase of 20% compared to 2023; revenue from tourism activities is estimated at 700 billion VND. The provincial tourism week took place from June 25 to July 2, 2024, including many unique cultural, sports and tourism events, with highlights being decorative hot air balloon performances, water puppetry performances, and art programs that attracted about 100,000 visitors.

Many interesting destinations for school-age children have been developed. In the photo: Sunny farm tourist experience area at Thai Binh Agricultural College.

To facilitate reputable tourism service businesses to promote their products to tourists, in 2024, the Provincial Tourism Information Portal has integrated the introduction of electronic booths with the goal of becoming a reputable and trustworthy electronic trading platform, a bridge between consumers and tourism service providers.

Regarding the development of intra-provincial tourism, Mr. Truong Van Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism shared: In recent years, the Thai Binh tourism industry has received attention from the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee in terms of planning, implementing projects, infrastructure development projects, products and propaganda, promotion, tourism promotion... especially intra-provincial tours. In order to develop tourist destinations in the province into attractive tourism products for tourists, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has coordinated with the Tourism Association, travel agencies, management boards of tourist areas and spots to build attractive tour programs, actively promote and bring the image of friendly Thai Binh tourism to domestic and foreign tourists. At the same time, attention has been paid to issuing documents and regulations on preserving and promoting the sustainable value of historical and cultural relics in sustainable tourism development; regulations to encourage community and resident participation in tourism activities, contributing to creating more jobs, increasing income, improving life, thereby raising awareness of responsibility to protect cultural and historical values.

On June 13, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha signed Decision No. 509/QD-TTg approving the Tourism System Planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2045. According to this plan, one of the driving forces for development is to promote tourism in the Red River Delta region, and more broadly the entire Northern region, combining diverse and complementary cultural and historical tourism products with sea tourism and world heritage. With the strong implementation of Resolution No. 09, it will create leverage to develop tourism into an important economic sector, creating products suitable to market demand, enhancing the reputation and position of Thai Binh tourism industry.

Tu Anh