Communist Review - In recent years, in Vietnam, various types of tourism, especially heritage tourism in ethnic minority areas, have constituted a driver for positive changes, facilitating the socio-economic development of localities. However, heritage tourism also causes several negative impacts on the preservation and promotion of heritage values. Therefore, the synchronous implementation of solutions to maintain the balance between heritage tourism development and cultural heritage conservation constitutes an urgent issue in Vietnam at present.

1-Heritage tourism is experiencing steady growth and plays an increasingly important role in the world economy, especially in developing countries, including Vietnam. This is a type of tourism developed on the basis of exploiting cultural heritage values, contributing to preserving and promoting traditional cultural values. There exist different types of heritage tourism such as spiritual tourism, historical tourism, cultural experience tourism, ...

Spiritual tourism (religious tourism) is a popular heritage tourism, attracting a large number of tourists because it meets the needs of travelling, learning about beliefs and religions through rituals of individuals and community. Spiritual tourism can be divided into spiritual tourism in mountainous, coastal or plain areas (such as religious routes along the Red River, the Lo River, spiritual trails toward Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, etc). It can also be classified by season (such as spring or autumn pilgrimage...). Each type of religion and belief, such as Buddhism, Daoism, Mother Goddesses Worship, Christianity and so forth has its own characteristics in terms of visitors, services, destinations, forms of event organization, types of pilgrimage (Festivals in Hung Temple, Ba Chua Kho Temple...). Those places are essentially cultural heritages, including temples, shrines, pagodas, churches... Besides, pilgrimage routes also become heritage resources thanks to their historical role in religious practice. Forms of worship, religious rites, festivals performed at revered places also become part of the intangible cultural heritage. They are really a spiritual and cultural heritage resources that attracts thousands of people to join, such as the pilgrimage to the Hung Kings Temple on the occasion of the Death anniversary of the Hung Kings (Phu Tho province) or to Ba Chua Temple of Sam Mountain (An Giang province), National Mother of Tay Thien (Vinh Phuc province)...

Historical tourism is a type of heritage tourism that satisfy tourists' needs and wants of learning about the history of the country's construction and defense. Those are journeys toward the source, such as travel to the revolutionary base of Viet Bac, of the Southeast area, or old battlefields...

Cultural experience tourism meets the needs of discovering culture of tourists, especially young people, urban residents and it is becoming a trend of tourism today. Many domestic and international tourists want to experience agricultural culture, discover farming techniques, local knowledge, such as farming methods in the mountainous areas (how to make terraced fields...), traditional crafts (silver carving of the Mong and Dao people, brocade weaving of the Tay, Thai, and Muong people; pottery making of the Cham people and so on).

Moreover, in Vietnam, visiting a system of museums, such as National Museum, Museum of Ethnology, Women's Museum, Royal Fine Arts Museum of Hue... or travelling in the old quarters, ancient villages and capitals such as Hoi An ancient town, Hue imperial city, Hanoi old quartiers, Duong Lam ancient village … is also a part of heritage tourism. Heritage tourism not only has the function of discovering and improving understanding, but also plays a role in educating the cultural traditions of the homeland, the patriotism and national consciousness for each citizen.

2-Ethnic minority communities in Vietnam hold an extremely rich and diverse cultural heritage system which constitutes an important tourism resource, a huge potential and comparative advantage for tourism development. Most of the mountainous provinces and ethnic minority areas were vital revolutionary bases during national resistance wars. Today, they have become a system of revolutionary historical relics, such as the ATK (safety zone) Dinh Hoa (Thai Nguyen province) and the ATK (safety zone) Son Duong (Tuyen Quang province), well-known Dien Bien Phu battlefield which resounded throughout the five continents and was world-shaking, relics in Inter-zone V, Truong Son - Central Highlands...

In addition, ethnic minorities are home to cultural diversity with unique and attractive cultural features. This is a valuable cultural resource that directly creates specific heritage tourism products, such as typical products of the Mong, Dao, Xa Pho, and Tay peoples on the top of Sa Pa mountain (Lao Cai province)...; Tourism products reflect adaptation to the environment. Some examples of magnificent terraced fields are in Mu Cang Chai (Yen Bai province), Hoang Su Phi (Ha Giang province) or Bat Xat (Lao Cai province). Farming on sloping ground, on terraced fields or in stream valleys all creates a breathtaking beauty to attract tourists... Thus, the diversity and richness of ethnic cultural heritage has created attractiveness for heritage tourism.

Cultural heritage imbued with the cultural identities of different ethnic groups is also a resource to build tours, such as the Northwest arc tour connecting 6 Northwest provinces, attracting visitors by their exotic nature and the cultural richness of nearly 30 ethnic groups or the tour "Crossing the Heritage Lands of the Viet Bac Region", the tourist route to learn about the space of gong culture in the Central Highlands...

Thanks to a rich cultural heritage system, as of 2019, the Northern Midlands and Mountainous regions and the Central Highlands have had about 170 destinations of community-based tourism, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists. Some typical examples of community based tourism are the Thai in Men village (Thanh Nua commune, Dien Bien district, Dien Bien province) and Ang village (Dong Sang commune, Moc Chau district, Son La province), the Ha Nhi community in Y Ti commune (Bat Xat district, Lao Cai province), the Muong people in Lac village (Chieng Chau commune, Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh province) as well as the Mong people in Cat Cat village (San Sa Ho commune, Sa Pa district, Lao Cai province), the Dao people in Nam Dam village (Quan Ba commune, Quan Ba district, Ha Giang province),...

Ethnic cultural heritage provides new types of services to tourism. At community-based tourist sites, people create new means of transport for visitors, such as riding a buffalo cart or a horse to a guesthouse to visit monuments in the village. In some community tourism villages in Sa Pa, people cross the stream by rattan bridge, some places even organize the visit of fields for young men and women on stilts. Culinary service has really become a creative field, promoting traditional culinary heritage. Coming to the village of the Mong, the Thai, the Dao, the Muong..., visitors have opportunity to enjoy the typical cuisine of each ethnic group and also experience the cooking of special dishes like Thang co (horse meat), men men (ground maize) of the Mong people, fermenting of the Tay and Ha Nhi, seven-color sticky rice of the Nung ... Not only organizing the experience of sleeping in traditional houses, some tourist destinations have the initiative to organize sleeping in tents and trees. It can be seen that, in all stages of tourism business, cultural heritage plays a pivotal role, contributing to the growth of tourism, creating unique features and identities of tourism products.

Heritage tourism in ethnic minority areas drastically affects the day-to-day activities of local residents. Foremost, it enables livelihood transformation and income enhancement for ethnic communities participating in tourism chains. For instance, the Dao people in the communes of Ta Phin, Ta Van, Nam Cang,... (Sa Pa district, Lao Cai province) have switched from rice monoculture to tourism. Every year, places of interest of the Dao receive more than 40,000 visitors, the total revenue is estimated at more than 20 billion VND. In 2017, the average income from heritage tourism of each Dao household living in Ta Phin, Ta Van was about 25 million - 60 million VND. By 2019, this number increased to 50 million - 75 million VND.

The provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang, Vinh Phuc... have planned and built relics in the belief system of Mother Goddesses so that they become attractive spiritual destinations for domestic and foreign travelers. Important revenue source for visitor attractions has helped the restoration and embellishment of historical sites in the region.

Besides, thanks to tourism development, numerous cultural heritages that were previously lost have been restored, such as the medicine profession of the Dao people, the brocade weaving of the Thai people in Mai Chau (Hoa Binh province),... Tourism has aroused people's pride in national traditional culture, promoted the image of Vietnam and its people to the world.

However, heritage tourism also makes some negative impacts on the cultural heritage system. Cultural heritages, when becoming tourism products, go through the process of “commercialization”. If the Thai want to sell their brocade patterns to tourists, they must convert them into bags, phone bags, pillowcases,... Only if the fire dance rituals of the Pa Then and Dao people is theatricalized as performances can it become tourist products. It means ritual part with sacred liturgy must be removed, fire dance part must be separated from the whole belief system, only musical performances and fire dance are still remained. Thus, the process of “commercializing” heritage has turned it into tourism products. This process takes place not according to the seasons but mainly changes to meet the needs of visitors.

In fact, the number of tourists visiting spiritual and artistic destinations is often very high. In the past, many village festivals only welcomed villagers or a small number of local visitors. On the contrary, at present, they experience the overcrowding of pilgrims. Besides, some tourists do not follow the rules and codes of conduct stipulated by local authorities, causing disorder of festivals. This overcrowding also leads to consequences for environment and cultural lifestyles of local residents. More seriously, the tourism commercialization is increasing in some spiritual relics, the cultural heritage management is still inadequate; some individuals take advantage of cultural heritage (especially spiritual culture) to gain illicit profits (building fake temples, fake statues, organizing illegal superstitious activities...).

For the growth of community-based tourism, spiritual tourism, historical tourism, experience tourism and so forth, the most crucial factor is to uphold the role of heritage owners. Currently, in villages and hamlets that inherit rich tourism resources, inhabitants there still live in poor circumstances and lack capital to develop a tourism business. As a result, they are obliged to cooperate with businesses and enjoy low and unstable profit rates. The unfair and inequitable benefit-sharing between businesses and local communities demotivates inhabitants to participate in the chain of sustainable tourism. The role of local people in preserving and promoting cultural heritage values is not efficiently promoted. At the same time, this presents countless challenges in solving social problems in ethnic minority areas today.

3-Reality shows that preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage in the development of heritage tourism is an important and urgent issue for socio-economic growth. In order to achieve the “dual goals” of developing tourism while preserving and promoting cultural heritage, the top priority should be given to clearly defining a sustainable vision that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of actors participating in tourism activities, without prejudice to its long-term sustainability(1). Sustainable tourism development needs to be based on the four key pillars: culture - environment - society - economy. It is necessary to obtain social consensus that heritage conservation is the first priority and it cannot be “sacrificed” to develop tourism at all costs. A special attention should be paid to the tourist destination life cycle, avoiding rapid and unplanned growth in visitor numbers. It is essential to develop a strategy for the best use of environmental resources, identify the environmental and ecological landscape as a prerequisite for future tourism growth; take account of intertwined interests of actors involved in the tourism value chain, in which the role of local communities must be emphasized in benefit sharing. Moreover, for sustainable tourism, it is crucial to deal with gender issues, seasonal unemployment and coercive behaviors. It is necessary to ensure long-term economic activities, orient the local community to both maintain the traditional economical model and participate in the tourism business. The profits generated from tourism must be distributed fairly, contributing to hunger eradication and poverty alleviation in localities, striking a balance between the traditional economy and tourism development.

A selection of key policy considerations is highlighted as follows:

Firstly, in terms of institutions and policy making.

In the immediate future, it is urgent to supplement and amend the Law on Cultural Heritage and the Law on Tourism; supplement provisions stipulating the role of communities in heritage conservation and their interests in tourism development. Clearly state provisions on the balance between cultural heritage conservation and tourism growth.

Develop a flexible and effective policy on monument restoration and heritage preservation. Decentralize heritage management to local authorities and communities in accordance with practice. Formulate policies on socialization of heritage conservation and restoration, in which provisions on the rights and responsibilities of investors and local authorities are regulated. Develop regulations on transparency and accountability of funds to ensure an effective management.

Secondly, in term of tourism planning

Localities need to build and complete the planning of community-based tourism and heritage tourism sites so that residents do not arbitrarily build tourist destinations by themselves (homestay, for instance). It is required to consider the implementation of tourism activities at some relics and cultural heritages that are vulnerable and distorted during the development process. In tourism planning, a particular interest should be taken to encouraging responsible tourism associated with community culture, respecting cultural diversity and the integrity of intangible cultural heritage.

Thirdly, in term of tourism product development.

A number of principles should be observed:  1- Designers must take traditional culture as the foundation and develop cultural and creative products with cultural symbols of each ethnic group, each region (symbols in space, time, ethnic history,...), thereby enhancing the value, increasing the attractiveness and competitiveness of tourism products; It is necessary to avoid the similarity between tourism products as at present; 2- Harmoniously combine the diversity of products and the specific theme of a cultural tourism product (An attractive cultural tourism product should implement the common core standards of truth - goodness - beauty, while also bringing particular and attractive traits); 3- Drastically fight against fake goods in building ethnic minority cultural tourism products. Cultural performance, ceremonies and cultural activities of ethnic minorities must respect the objectivity and authenticity of ethnic cultural traits and symbols. It is absolutely forbidden to falsify traditional cultural activities for the purpose of attracting tourists.

Fourthly, in term of building a mechanism for coordination and benefit distribution from heritage tourism.

Construction of heritage tourist sites is a completely new job for residents and at the same time a complex business model. Therefore, building heritage tourism requires the involvement of four “actors”:

Local people who are owners of tourist attractions should be encouraged to creatively participate in heritage tourism activities. It is compulsory to create heritage tourism management boards with practical and democratic regulations to ensure effective tourism development. Residents can benefit appropriately, thus reducing multidimensional poverty.

Businesses are partners to bring visitors to tourist destinations. Thanks to them, a new heritage tourist destination can be developed. They play the role of visitor suppliers and also investors who train local inhabitants on how to organize and do business to explore heritage potential. Therefore, policy makers should implement a mechanism to encourage investments in heritage tourism.

Consultants who are scientists, research organizations on culture, ethnicity, heritage ... play the role of researchers and advisors for resident, local authorities, and businesses to build effective and sustainable heritage tourism models.

Local public agencies provide guidance and propose specific mechanisms and policies for heritage tourist sites in ethnic minority areas and strike balance between inhabitants and businesses.

Thus, the close cooperation between residents, businesses, scientists and public agencies constitutes a driver to establish an organic and intimate relationship. Practices in heritage tourist sites in ethnic minority areas have shown that, without one of these four “actors”, heritage tourism cannot “take off”.

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Heritage tourism has been making remarkable progress in Vietnam ethnic minority areas in recent years. Nevertheless, reality also sets requirements. For heritage tourism growth, it is essential to focus on preserving and promoting the values of ethnic cultural heritages; develop tourism products with specific and attractive traits, suitable to the economic, cultural and social characteristics of each region and each type of visitor. Heritage tourism planning needs to be sustainable and effective so that tourism in general and heritage tourism in particular can truly become a key economic sector and an important driving force for new rural construction, consequently reducing multi-dimensional poverty./.

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(1) Clause 14, Article 3, Law on Tourism, Law No. 09/2017/QH2014 approved by the 3rd session of the 14th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on June 19, 2017 which took effect from January 1, 2018

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 970 (July 2021)