The ancient capital of Hue is where many traditional cultural rituals of the Vietnamese people are kept almost intact. Therefore, when coming to Hue, visitors cannot ignore the Imperial Citadel to experience wearing traditional 'Ao dai' costumes, participate in restored ancient royal ceremonies, or make traditional products such as hats and paper lotus flowers, and gain a deeper understanding of the typical traditional craft villages in the ancient capital of Hue.
One of the activities of the tourism stimulus chain in Hue is the traditional art performance programmes of the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre at the Hue Imperial Citadel (Dai Noi), serving visitors free of charge.
Deputy Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre, Nguyen Phuoc Hai Trung, said that the centre was trying to create unique products and services and renew the heritage site with artistic performances and exhibitions associated with Hue Imperial Citadel area, along with cultural events of Thua Thien Hue Pprovince following the orientation of the Four Seasons Hue Festival.
Positive signs from domestic tourism in 2022 and the first months of this year have been creating momentum for the Thua Thien Hue tourism industry to recover strongly.
In recent years, Hue has become an attractive tourist destination, attracting more and more domestic and foreign tourists. In 2023, Thua Thien Hue tourism has set the target of welcoming 3 million to 3.5 million visitors. To achieve this target, the Hue tourism industry has been focusing on building unique tourism products with branding based on the foundation of Hue culture.
According to researchers, Vietnam's culinary cultural treasure has nearly 3,000 dishes. Hue alone has contributed up to 1,700 dishes, many of which have become famous specialties both at home and abroad.
In recent years, Hue has become an attractive tourist destination, attracting more and more domestic and foreign tourists. In 2023, Thua Thien Hue tourism sets a target of welcoming 3 to 3.5 million visitors. To achieve this target, Hue tourism industry has been focusing on building unique tourism products with its own brand on the basis of Hue culture as the foundation.
However, the slow branding, establishment of intellectual property rights for Hue culinary products, and the improper processing of many Hue royal dishes in the original way have affected, even reduced the value of typical culinary lines of Hue Ancient Capital.
According to leaders of the tourism industry in Thua Thien Hue, although there are still many limitations and difficulties in building a brand of Hue typical tourism products, there have been many bright spots when many businesses, organisations and individuals in the locality focused on building and promoting Hue tourism brand to domestic and international consumers.
Nguyen Van Phuc, Director of the Department of Tourism of Thua Thien Hue Province, said that in addition to heritage tourism, lagoon discovery, or community tourism, visitors to Hue in recent times have also been experiencing a number of night tourism products.
However, Thua Thien Hue tourism needs to strengthen, maintain, and further improve the quality of existing products while at the same time deploying new unique and different tourism products to compete with other destinations, he added.
According to Nguyen Van Phuc, the current tourism trend is shifting to discovering and experiencing the unique cultural features and unique nature of the destination. Therefore, Thua Thien Hue - with the strength of being a heritage city of Vietnam - needs to exploit and promote the best inherent values, taking cultural heritage tourism as the core to build green, safe, friendly tourism products for both domestic and international tourists.
Hue Imperial Citadel - the destination that makes up the unique tourism brand of Hue.
Nguyen Thanh Binh, Standing Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue Province, said that with the goal of building Hue into a major tourist centre of the central region and the whole country, and beyond, a city of festivals and Asia's cultural and tourist hub" by 2045, Thua Thien Hue province is trying to restructure and innovate to upgrade and perfect professional, modern and high-class tourism services.
According to the Standing Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue Province, the province has determined to focus on developing heritage tourism as the core.
Accordingly, the province will focus on organising day and night tourism service activities in the complex of Hue monuments (especially the Hue Imperial Citadel area); recreating the royal cultural space step by step; exploiting cultural products through Hue Festivals; encouraging light destination promotion, linking with major tourist centres of the country and the central region; and improving the quality of tourism human resources.
