Vinh City Tourism - Untapped Potential!

(Baonghean) -Being a place with tourism potential with historical relics, famous landscapes and convenient transportation system, where many famous travel companies and agencies are located, but currently, Vinh City has not built a rich and attractive tour system and inner-city routes for tourists. Vinh City tourism is still heavily focused on being a transit point with other regions such as Cua Lo, Nam Dan, and the West.

Ho Chi Minh Square Night

Vinh Citadel

A corner of Vinh city.

In early April, Mr. Phan Van Hanh, a Vietnamese expatriate from the Czech Republic, returned to his hometown Nghe An, taking his wife and children on a trip to see the beautiful scenery of his hometown. After resting at Cua Lo beach and visiting Uncle Ho's hometown, his family returned to Vinh City with the purpose of exploring the city. After half a day of hiring a taxi to take his wife and children to visit Ho Chi Minh Square, Quyet Mountain, Quang Trung Temple and Vinh City Central Park, his family did not know where else to go. When contacting travel agencies about a tour to explore Vinh City, he only received polite refusals and invitations to other tours such as Nam Dan, Cua Lo, Pu Mat National Park, etc. "Before returning to Nghe An, I was always proud to introduce to my wife and friends the attractive tourist destinations in Vinh City. However, when traveling in the city, we were quite disappointed because we did not know where to start, who would help us explore, and the self-visited places were still sketchy in content and form," Mr. Hanh confided. Finally, after a week of visiting his hometown, he and his wife and children went to Da Nang and then to Da Lat for a trip.

Sharing the same feeling, Mr. Nguyen Bui Thai - Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam - Thailand Friendship Association of Nghe An province, who regularly connects and organizes Thai tourist groups as well as overseas Vietnamese to visit their hometown, commented that the tourist attractions in Vinh City are still monotonous and not really attractive. “We often have overseas Vietnamese groups visiting their hometown. If everyone is moved when visiting Uncle Ho's hometown and feels comfortable and impressed by the clear blue beauty of Cua Lo beach, Vinh City has not made much of an impression. Tourist groups returning to Vinh City only walk around for about 30 minutes to 1 hour in Ho Chi Minh Square every time they return to Vinh City without knowing where to go next or how to go,” Mr. Thai affirmed.

Nghe Tinh Soviet Museum in the ancient citadel area.

Singing folk songs on Lam River.

For a long time, Vinh City has been promoted as an attractive destination for tourists with potentials and advantages that not every locality has, such as: a convenient transportation system with all types of roads, railways, airways, waterways; a system of famous historical and cultural relics such as: Ho Chi Minh Square, Hong Son Temple, King Quang Trung Temple, Can Linh Pagoda, Vinh ancient citadel gate, and the Nghe - Tinh Soviet historical relic cluster. In particular, Vinh City has a system of historical and military museums including: Nghe An General Museum, Nghe - Tinh Soviet Museum, Military Zone 4 Museum, which preserves artifacts related to the country, people, history, and culture of Nghe An, artifacts discovered in Nghe An through the archaeological sites of Lang Vac, Quynh Van cultural sites, Dong Truong cave, Tham Om, artifacts related to the boiling period of Nghe - Tinh Soviet as well as documents of the army and people of Military Zone 4 during the two resistance wars of the nation. Besides, Vinh City also has many attractive shopping centers such as: Big C supermarket, Metro, Vinh Market, electronics supermarkets along with a system of restaurants and hotels that meet international standards, ...

With such potential and advantages, when looking back at the current tourism situation of Vinh City, there are still not many real bright spots. Mr. Nguyen Huu Bac - Director of Thai Son Travel Company, one of the travel agencies that regularly organizes tours from Nghe An to other countries in the region and vice versa, said: Currently, the tours and tourist routes in Vinh City are too monotonous and not attractive to tourists. In the journey of building the company's tours, Vinh City is only a destination, a transit point for tourists from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Laos, Thailand to explore other places such as Cua Lo, Uncle Ho's Homeland, Dong Loc Intersection.

Tourists who want to stay in Vinh City for a long time do not know where to go, what to do, or what specialties to buy. “Normally, international tourists when traveling are very interested in museums, which preserve cultural and historical objects of the land they explore. However, the museum system in Vinh City has not really taken part in attracting tourists. Museums abroad and some other cities are “living” very well from tourism revenue, but the museum system in Nghe An is the opposite, still too heavy on state administrative mechanisms,” Mr. Bac affirmed and said. Those responsible have not really revived the artifacts, historical relics have not really been associated with the community, with promoting the image of the country and people of Nghe An.

Currently, some travel companies have only built very short tours: Ho Chi Minh Square - King Quang Trung Temple - Hong Son Temple - Can Linh Pagoda - Ong Hoang Muoi Temple - BigC Supermarket, Vinh Market. However, this tour mainly serves domestic tourists, following the direction of spiritual tourism. The number of visitors is only high in the spring, and on normal days it is very quiet. "The managers of cultural and historical relics in the city are on the sidelines in tourism, have no experience in attracting tourists, and do not have attractive and interesting promotional programs. Because of the poor organization and promotion, tourists coming to Vinh City can only walk around, there is no place to spend money." - Mr. Vo Quang Hoa, Director of Truong Son Tourism Company said.

Passengers on plane at Vinh Airport.

Vinh Market

Mr. Tran Quoc Lam - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Song Ngu Son Joint Stock Company said that in Vinh City, the exploitation of tourist attractions is not really effective. “In my opinion, if we invest in tours and tourist routes, we will definitely attract tourists. For example, in Hue, tourists all want to cruise on the Huong River, listen to royal court music, then in Vinh City, we can build a tour on the Lam River from Vinh City to Cua Lo beach, visit the Nguyen Du relic site, go to Nam Dan district, Uncle Ho's hometown combined with introducing the "specialty" of Vi Dam folk songs, which is very attractive, but so far no unit has been able to do it. Our ambition is that after bringing the Lan Chau - Song Ngu eco-tourism complex, resort villas, sports, and entertainment project to Cua Lo Town, Vinh City will be a highlight, a real destination for tourists, where tourists can experience and explore the city", Mr. Lam confided.

Faced with the reality of poverty and monotony in tourist tours, Vinh City has made many efforts to call on travel companies to build tours to explore the city, but so far no company has been interested. Mr. Bui Quang Phuong, Head of Vinh City's Department of Culture, said that currently, in terms of tourism, the city has only performed well its function as an accommodation center, distributing tourists to other locations in the province. Travel and tourism companies have not yet built specific tours in the city and have not had any specific promotional campaigns to introduce tourists to the city's destinations and the tourist destinations themselves have not turned themselves into real destinations for tourists but are still relying too much on state mechanisms as well as the attention of functional agencies.

In addition to the difficulties in tourism infrastructure, the biggest difficulty Vinh City is currently facing in developing tourism is human resources. The professional tourism team is still lacking and weak. Mr. Nguyen Huu Bac believes that if museum staff and managers of relics in the city are properly trained in tourism marketing, soft skills, presentation skills and are willing to devote themselves to enhancing relics, turning historical relics into highlights, making an impression on tourists, they will certainly attract more tourists to the city.

In particular, Vinh City needs to learn from the success of other centers such as Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An in socializing investment in tourism. Practice shows that if the government and functional agencies, those responsible know how to link the development of the tourism industry with the responsibilities and interests of companies and travel agencies, and give them open and transparent mechanisms, the tourism industry will certainly develop on its own. "The success of the tourism industry is not only attracting visitors but also making visitors spend money, want to stay in the city and want to come back many times after that. Vinh City has not been able to do this," said Mr. Nguyen Huu Bac.

Nguyen Khoa