Hung Yen (VNA) - In recent times, Hung Yen province's tourism sector has achieved remarkable results through concerted efforts. The number of tourists has increased rapidly, contributing positively to Hung Yen's socio-economic development, laying a foundation for the province's "smoke-free industry" to continue achieving even higher results in 2024 and the coming years.
Hung Yen is renowned for its rich historical and cultural heritages. Currently, the province boasts over 1,800 relics, including 175 national and 271 provincial relics. Noteworthy among them are the nationally recognised relics such as Pho Hien historical relic in Hung Yen city, Thai Lac pagoda in Van Lam district, and An Xa temple in Tien Lu district; seven artifacts and groups of artifacts have been acknowledged as national treasures.
Besides, Hung Yen's cultural heritage is rich and diverse with over 500 festivals, 147 traditional craft villages, 243 units of folklore, proverbs, folk songs, chants, legends, lullabies, and literary rituals.
The people of Hung Yen are known for their friendliness, hospitality, and deep-rooted values, always welcoming visitors with open arms. These advantages have become a significant resource for the development of cultural and spiritual tourism, establishing a brand for the locality’s tourism.
To leverage these strengths, and potential and elevate tourism to a pivotal economic sector in the socio-economic development strategy, the province has been directing sectors and administrations at all levels to carry out various specific activities, including issuing multiple policies and mechanisms to foster tourism development, alongside dedicated projects focusing on developing craft village tourism and enhancing the value of historical and cultural relics relating to tourism.
The sectors and administrations at all levels have also concentrated efforts on building and improving a system of attractive tours, routes and tourist destinations, developing tourism products and utility services to serve visitors. The province has reinforced its provincial-level tourist destinations, focusing on developing and enhancing the skills of tour guides at these spots, and encouraged communities and individuals to develop community-based tourism in craft villages and eco-agricultural areas.
In 2023 and the first half of 2024, the number of visitors to Hung Yen was estimated to reach 1.5 million, and total revenue from tourism was estimated at more than 1.15 trillion VND (45.3 million USD).
Pham Van Hieu, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said the robust growth of the province’s tourism sector in 2023 and the first half of 2024 was the result of endless efforts in tourism promotion over the past years. Tourist destinations have been formed and improved with tour guides and tourism products. Particularly, the focus on developing cultural and spiritual tourism around historical and cultural relics such as Pho Hien special national relic site, Da Hoa – Da Trach relic complex, and Phu Ung temple relic, among others.
Additionally, the province has successfully organised numerous large-scale events such as tourism promotion conferences and the "Hung Yen cultural tourism space - journey of discovery and spreading" event in Hanoi, along with the first Hung Yen cuisine festival in 2024 and a range of activities showcasing tours, routes, and tourist spots, traditional craft villages, OCOP products, and performances of traditional arts like military drum singing, ca tru singing (ceremonial singing), and chau van (spiritual singing).
The province has developed more tourism products. Many groups and individuals have invested in agricultural farms for tourism activities such as sightseeing, photography, and agricultural product shopping as well as places like flower and ornamental plant villages in Xuan Quan, Phung Cong, Me So, and medicinal herb village in Nam Nghia Trai commune, Vinhomes Ocean Park urban area, among others.
Furthermore, to exploit tourism resources along the Red River, on July 6, 2023, the provincial People's Council issued Resolution No. 368/NQ-HDND approving the investment policy for the construction of a road to promote cultural heritage tourism and economic development along the Red River, with an estimated total investment of nearly 9.3 trillion VND. This is seen as a foundation and opportunity for Hung Yen to vigorously develop its tourism sector, aiming to attract over 1 million visitors and achieve nearly 1 trillion VND in tourism revenue in 2024./.
