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| The royal citadel in Hue City, a world cultural heritage site |
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee on July 31 this year recognized Vietnam’s Thang Long Royal Citadel as a world cultural heritage site. The site won the recognition thanks to its three outstanding characteristics, its age, the continuity of the citadel as a power center and the variety of relics it contains.
This is the newest member of Vietnam’s 10 natural, cultural and intangible cultural world heritage sites. It is now on the list of cultural experiences that tourists will look at when they are deciding how they will spend their time and money on their Vietnam holiday. However, according to travel companies, authorities need to improve tourism services and information around the heritage sites.
Grueling heritage tours
Nguyen Van My, general director of Lua Viet Travel Co. and Tavitour, shares with the Weekly that in the past, Thang Long Royal Citadel was one of the options included in tours to the northern region, but few tourists visited the citadel because they did not have enough information. “We have plans to add more tour programs to Hanoi,” My says. “But, we still have the same problem as other agencies. Although the citadel has just been recognized by UNESCO, there is little information available for tourists.”
Dinh Van Loc, director of Danang City-based Viet Da Travel, agrees that more information needs to get out there. Loc says that the recognition will increase the profile of the capital, but the main part of the citadel is only open to public by the end of this month. “There is no plan and no information to serve tourists in the future. We haven’t promoted it much to foreign tourists.”
Meanwhile, HCM City-based tour operator Vietravel is holding a promotion program to destinations in Vietnam, including heritage sites, following the 2010 National Tourism Promotion program, but it is waiting for more information to add more programs next year.
My, Loc and representatives from other travel companies are also waiting for more information from authorities so that they can add to their tours the newest UNESCO world cultural heritage.
The travel companies all agree that world heritage sites across Vietnam are valuable lures for tourism, but good services and products linking the heritage sites with other destinations and cultural attractions are few and far between.
This is the reason why tour operators just spend half of a day or a day at a heritage site during trans-Viet tours. My Son Sanctuary, another UNESCO-listed world heritage site in the central province of Quang Nam, is an example. After a short walking tour of the most interesting stone carvings and architecture, the tourists re-board the bus and leave My Son to visit another place of interest. Apart from the heritage site itself, My Son has little to offer in the way of souvenirs or food and refreshments.
The royal complex of Hue City, Hoi An Town of Quang Nam Province and Phong Nha-Ke Bang in Quang Binh Province are very well known to tourists, but they are still lacking the information that brings the stories of these amazing pieces of Vietnam’s history to life.
“I think heritage sites in Vietnam are only using 20-40% of their tourism potential,” Nguyen Van My says. “I hope that the Thang Long heritage will be a new choice,” Dinh Van Loc says. “But, the authorities should develop other vestiges and cultural values originated from the feudal period to create a heritage link for visitors.”
Heritage is the nucleus
My says one of the feasible ways to solve the problem is to look at the heritage as the nucleus in the atom while all the surrounding landscapes, cultural sites and attractions are the electrons buzzing around. Besides long-term investment in heritage sites, it is necessary to develop human resources who have the knowledge and heart to communicate the story of the sites to tourists.
The valuable but extremely fragile heritage sites will experience some decay with exposure to the elements and the processions of visitors, so authorities should be vigilant about their preservation. Travel companies should also be aware that they and tourists themselves have a part to play in seeing that no damage comes to the sites. “Each staff is a promoter,” the Vietravel representative says.
Le Thanh Vinh, director of the Institute for the Conservation of Monuments, says heritage conservation and tourism development go hand in hand. When the heritage sites are conserved well, they will attract more tourists and boost tourism development, especially cultural tourism. The other side of the coin is that tourism development will contribute to popularizing the cultural heritage sites and build their reputation. So, harmonizing tourism and conservation is a must, including organizing services in the areas around them.
In her visit to Vietnam early this month, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova congratulated Vietnam for winning the World Cultural Heritage title for the Thang Long Royal Citadel. UNESCO has always stood by and supported Vietnam in its development cause, the UN development agency’s chief told VOV News. During her stay, Bokova underlined that the memorandum of understanding she had signed with Nguyen Thanh Son, chairman of the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO, would reinforce the strong ties between Vietnam and the organization through concrete programmatic work plans for the next five years.
The agreement recognizes Vietnam’s progress in the “Delivering as One” UN reform process and charts major areas of collaboration in UNESCO’s support to Vietnam between 2010 and 2016. These include improving the quality and relevance of education at all levels and enhancing biosphere reserves, climate change mitigation and adaptation, science education and evidence-based policymaking for social transformations.
With the support of UNESCO and contribution of the community, the tourism sector can improve the information and services in and around heritage sites. More visitors would mean more revenue to protect and develop the cultural value of the sites.
The Thang Long Royal Citadel has been named a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the UN cultural and scientific body, according to a statement on the government website Sunday. 
