Students visited and experienced at Uncle Ho Memorial House at Duong No Village (Photo taken prior to the COVID-19 outbreak)

Untapped advantages of tourism

During 10 years, President Ho Chi Minh and his family lived in Hue, bequeathing a system of extremely precious monuments and sites associated with his childhood. On December 31, 2020, the system of President Ho Chi Minh memorial monuments in Thua Thien Hue was ranked as a special national monument by the Prime Minister.

The museum and system of President Ho Chi Minh memorial monuments have brought into play the role of a red address for revolutionary tradition education. However, no attention has focused on the association of the museum and system of monuments with tourism development. Aside from the number of visitors from all walks of life, pupils, students, agencies, departments, branches, unions..., coming to offer flowers, report achievements, make  the study or  sightseeing tours, most tourists come to visit merely because of their spontaneous needs, not from the planned tours associated with tourism activities.

President Ho Chi Minh memorial house monument and a number of satellite monuments located on Mai Thuc Loan Street are on the narrow inner city street banning 30-seat cars, having no parking, which limits the reception of visitors. There are few accompanying services. The monuments have no souvenir and refreshment stalls and do not connect with local tourist products to improve the quality of destination.

Ms. Le Thuy Chi, Director of the Ho Chi Minh Museum of Thua Thien Hue, said that with the particularity of the museum and the system of monuments in memory of famous Ho Chi Minh, top priority is given to the task of serving politics, serving visitors all for free; all activities are done with the state budget.

Therefore, the investment funds for marketing and maintaining the team of collaborators to promote the destination are almost nonexistent. Moreover, the system of monuments about Uncle Ho is located on the narrow terrain, in a residential area with no conditions for expansion, no land fund for planning a service area for tourists. Source of investment funds for renovation and embellishment has been given attention but not synchronized.

Attractive products developed

In order to effectively step up the conservation, embellishment and promotion of this system of monuments, the Provincial People's Committee has just approved the project "Promoting the value of President Ho Chi Minh monuments in Thua Thien Hue for tourism development".

The system of President Ho Chi Minh memorial monuments will be embellished, and its attractive tourist products developed (Photo taken prior to the COVID-19 outbreak)

The project sets the targets in 2021:  creating and piloting the tourist products suitable for visitors such as the tour to visit President Ho Chi Minh memorial monuments combined with cultural and historical monuments and tourist products in the localities; developing the program of offering incense and flowers in memory of President Ho Chi Minh on the occasion of May 19 in the community; organizing the experience activities for visitors.

By 2025, the system of President Ho Chi Minh memorial monuments will have been basically renovated and completely embellished. Ho Chi Minh Museum in Thua Thien Hue will be renewed in exhibition and will become an attractive destination in the province's system of tourist attractions.

With the tour "Following Uncle Ho in his youth in Hue", based on the historical and cultural values, the geographical location of the monument, the capability to meet the needs of facilities, human resources, Thua Thien Hue Ho Chi Minh Museum will coordinate with the Tourism Association, travel businesses to conduct surveys of tourist attractions, routes, and products, namely organizing attractive tours that can be offered to tourists.

Notably, the orientation of developing tourist products is targeted at visitors: Vietnamese veterans, students, pupils, domestic visitors, international visitors such as Thai, Korean, Japanese ones...

The project will expand the exhibition space at the cluster of President Ho Chi Minh memorial monuments in Duong No Village in the direction of creating connection, organizing additional exhibition spaces: showcasing the development history of Duong No Village as well as typical cultural artifacts of agricultural residents; organizing an outdoor exhibition system along the road parallel to Pho Loi riverside from Duong No village communal house to Uncle Ho's memorial house, which creates landscape, cultural space and connects the monuments.

Concurrently, the project will renovate the monument of Ms. Hoang Thi Loan burial place at Ban Mountain; revise the contents of the traditional and Uncle Ho commemoration and tradition room at Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted; renovate and embellish the landscape of Phan Dang Luu Flower Garden (location of France - Viet Dong Ba Primary School). The project also focuses on continuing to renew the exhibition of Ho Chi Minh Museum in Thua Thien Hue, boosting the activities of thematic exhibition, exploration at the museum to attract visitors...

Story and photos: MINH HIEN