The new tourist sites are the mother of pearlinlaid and lacquer product making village in Chuyen My commune and thetailoring village in Van Tu commune.
Chuyen My commune has long been famous formother of pearl inlaying with all of its seven villages specialised in makingmother of pearl inlaid products, lacquer items and mother of pearl materials.
Local craftsmen produced millions of items ofall sizes each year, ranging from wooden beds, cupboards, tables and chairs tolacquer paintings. The craft has been generating considerable economic benefitsfor local residents.
Meanwhile, Van Tu commune is known as the onlyplace in Vietnam to have suit making as a traditional craft. There are about1,500 households in the commune at present, up to 70 – 80 percent of which arespecialized in suit making.
In recent years, the development of tailoringhas helped raised local households’ income to 500 million – 700 million VND(21,500 USD – 30,200 USD) each year, some even earn billions of VND from thiscraft.
The designation of the two villages as touristsites is hoped to develop not only the local crafts but also create moretourist magnets for the capital city of Hanoi.
The municipal People’s Committee tasked the twocommunes’ authorities with managing and developing tourism in the villages inaccordance with the Law on Cultural Heritage and relevant legal regulations.
The capital city boasts 1,350 craft villages,which account for almost one-third of the total number across Vietnam, with 305of them recognised as traditional ones. It is also home to 47 of the 52traditional crafts nationwide.
According to the municipal People’s Committee,the annual revenue of the 305 traditional villages is more than 20 trillion VND(861.5 million USD) on average. Local per capita income is around 4 million – 5million VND per month.
Despite the big number of craft villages, onlyfew of them have been listed as tourist destinations.
In Phu Xuyen district, the fact that manylong-standing craft villages haven’t been officially recognised has somehowmade it hard for them to become more popular among travelers. As a result,their potential has yet to be fully tapped.
In its craft and craft village development planuntil 2020, Hanoi listed several projects prioritised for investment, including17 on developing tourism in craft villages. However, only two of the 17villages have successfully developed their traditional crafts in associationwith tourism, namely Bat Trang ceramics village and Van Phuc silk village. Thework hasn’t been carried out in the 15 remaining villages.
Among local traditional craft villages, Hanoiauthorities classified seven as villages that need preservation and culturalheritage value to be brought into play; 10 as villages for tourism and in needof long-term preservation and development; and 17 as villages in need oflong-term preservation.
To develop tourism in craft villages, Hanoiwill select those recognised as traditional craft villages thanks to their richcultural identities, attractive surrounding, and favourable transport system tobuild them into sample models, then expanding to other villages.
The Hanoi craft village association has selectedpotential ones such as Thach Xa bamboo dragonfly-making village in Thach Thatdistrict, Chuon Ngo village in Phu Xuyen district, Du Du wood sculpture villageand Chuong conical hat making village in Thanh Oai district.
According to the municipal Department ofTourism, Hanoi welcomed about 23.8 million visitors in the first 10 months of2019, up 9.7 percent year on year. They included more than 5.3 millionforeigners and nearly 18.5 million Vietnamese travellers. The city raked insome 83.16 trillion VND (3.6 billion USD) in tourism revenue during the period,rising 31.3 percent from the same period last year.
It hopes to attract about 28.6 million tourists thisyear, including 6.7 million foreigners and 21.9 domestic visitors./.