VietNamNet Bridge – The ancient capital city of Hue has been
warned that it may not have a sustainable tourism development if it continues
wasting Hue’s nature and characteristics.
It’s obvious that Hue has become
a famous tourism destination. Travelers to Hue can try food specialties, enjoy
the Huong romantic river’s landscapes and have meals in kingly manner.
Especially, they can wear kings’ clothes or take pictures with the “kings.”
However, experts have warned that
the king-style services have been overexploited, which would make the
Vietnamese kings’ images turn trivial in the eyes of travelers.
Kings getting commonplace
It seems that no country with
Oriental traditional culture has exploited the kings’ lifestyle to design
tourism products.
Meanwhile, the kings’ lifestyle
in the Nguyen dynasties has been abused by the travel firms in Hue City to
attract tourists. Thrones, imperial mantle, royal meals and imperial boat have
all been used as the methods to lure travelers.
Tourists just need to spend
45,000 dong to become a king to sit on a throne. In the last 2012 Hue Festival,
some travelers even took pictures in the imperial mantle in a ridiculous manner
outside the Royal Palace. Especially, a European woman had her photo taken
while she was sitting on the king’s thigh in pants.
As a result, the image of the
Vietnamese kings has become trivial in the eyes of foreign travelers.
Travelers would only have to
spend certain sums of money to be served with imperial meals with the dishes in
the Nguyen dynasties. The images of western men and women in imperial mantles
trying “the kings’ dishes” have distorted the westerners’ knowledge and
understanding about Vietnamese kings.
Meanwhile, the thing Hue should
do is to maintain its imposing characteristics of a capital city and protect
the images of the sacred imperial city in the eyes of Vietnamese and foreign
people, even though it is no more the center of feudal dynasties.
Overcharging spoils Hue’s tourism
The travelers to Hue would have
the opportunities to travel on boat on the Huong River and listen to Hue’s
traditional lyrics. However, the tickets to the traditional lyrics performances
sold at many hotels in Hue are “illegal tickets,” not the tickets issued by the
competent agencies.
The hotels in the city cooperate
with transport firms to look for clients. The owners of the boats who serve the
travelers’ trip on the Huong River and organize artistic shows earn 40,000 dong
from every traveler, while the hotels get the other 40,000 dong.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Tan Thuong,
Director of the Center for Hue Lyrics Performance has affirmed that since 2006,
the center has been the only unit allowed to sell tickets to Hue traditional
lyrics shows.
It is the pagodas, palaces and
the “Hue’s characteristics” which has beautified the city, attracted tourists
and built up a tourism brand to Hue. However, the city has been wasting the
Hue’s characteristics. If the characteristics disappear one day, Hue would not
be the attractive destination in the eyes of tourists any more.
What does “Hue’s characteristics”
mean? The question proves to be very difficult even for Dr Thai Kim Lan.
However, in people’s thoughts, Hue’s characteristics mean the specific manners
that only exist in Hue.
Currently, tourism is a key
economic branch of Thua Hien-Hue province, which makes up 45 percent of the
locality’s GDP, the proportion higher than that of any other cities and
provinces in Vietnam.
According to Phan Tien Dung,
Director of the provincial Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism, the
proportion would be raised to 50 percent by 2015.
To Quoc
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