Cuu Dinh (the Nine Urns) is a national treasure promoted by Google Arts & Culture
Opportunity for Hue Tourism
As part of comprehensive support program of Google for Vietnamese tourism that is being hard hit by COVID-19 pandemic, on January 21, for the first time, Google Arts & Culture announced the project “Wonders of Vietnam” on its online platform to honor Vietnam’s natural landscapes, as well as tangible and intangible heritage recognized by UNESCO.
This online project includes 35 exhibitions with 1.369 gorgeous photos, bringing in diversified viewpoints to connect people and let them enjoy Hue’s beauty. Here, online tourists can contemplate the beauties of 4 localities in the Central Region including Quang Binh, Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, and Quang Nam.
Tourists all over the world can make online discoveries through exhibitions with the theme of colors, enjoy video introducing the place-names integrating with traditional Vietnam music, or wallow themselves in the beautiful landscapes through panorama pictures.
Mr. Amit Sood, Senior Director of Google Arts & Culture desired that amid the tourism all over the world and in Vietnam having been seriously affected by the pandemic, the important thing is how to diversify Vietnam’s wonders in general and that of Thua Thien Hue in particular in both landscapes and culture for more people coming to experience.
Tran Tuan Viet, a photographer, who made a series of “Wonders of Vietnam” photos shared that his long time coming to the Central Region has helped him known well about the famous destinations in Hue, etc. Since then, he wanted to introduce those destinations to the public to spread Hue images.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Director of Tourism Department said that this is the first time that Hue tourism has been promoted on the famous online platform Google Arts & Culture, which is known as the house of the collections of over 2.000 museums worldwide. Through this platform, Thua Thien Hue gets a great opportunity to perform and introduce vivid images, attractive information about the Imperial Palace, royal tombs, royal court music, antiques of the Nguyen Dynasty, as well as the landscape of Tam Giang Lagoon, the Huong River, and truc chi handicraft products to the public at home and abroad, waking up the curiosity of tourists.
“With the project “Wonders of Vietnam”, tourists can discover the famous destinations of Hue. Hence, eliciting the travel inspiration right after the international tourism activities are re-operated. Furthermore, the joint promotion for 4 localities in the Central Region is also appropriate and it helps to enhance the efficiency of the joint development linkage of the tours, which has been promoted by the localities over the time,” Mr. Phuc expected.
Truong Tien Bridge through the lens of Tran Tuan Viet, a photographer (picture on Google Arts & Culture)
Two missions running at same time
COVID-19 pandemic has made a serious impact on the tourism sector. However, it also opens new trends in the industry activities. With the rapidly growing digital technology all over the world, as well as the new normal situation due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, searching for information on online platforms will be the main trend. The application of digital technology will become indispensable to meet the needs of tourists.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc affirmed that in this promotion campaign, Hue is one of the few selected localities from the elements of the landscape, culture, and especially its ability to effectively prevent pandemic. Therefore, in the coming time, Hue tourism has to get better cooperation with Google Arts & Culture to let them continue to choose Hue to build up its data. It’s because there are still a great number of destinations, as well as the uniqueness in culture, cuisine, etc. of Hue that haven’t been fully transferred in this campaign yet.
At the same time, keeping on implementing effective anti-pandemic measures to confirm a safe and friendly destination. Hue is building up a safe tourism map (Hue Blue Map) to synthesize, indicate the destination, accommodation facilities, and tourism services in the provincial area which have ensured the safety measures following the sets of COVID-19 pandemic safety criteria of the province and related departments.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc said: “Recently, Hue tourism sector continued to be supported by the tourism website “Travel Insights with Google” in promoting destinations, products, and tours. This website also assisted Hue in finding solutions to restore the tourism sector, shaping the new products and services to suit the tastes, and meeting the demands, the interests of tourists. They also gave objective consultancy and suggestions to help tourists feel assured when planning for the trips to Hue”.
By Quang Sang