Efforts to create attractive thematic tours
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The Vietnam Fine Arts Museum recently debuted a tour themed “Lacquer paintings of Vietnam” which has quickly become a magnet for visitors.

During this tour, visitors are given a brief introduction of the history of the art of making lacquer items through documentaries and old objects. Particularly, they can gain an insight into the lacquer painting process, directly try certain steps of this process, and bring home their self-made products which are also unique gifts from the museum.

Director Nguyen Anh Minh said his museum will create many theme-based tours with diverse experiences offered to attract visitors and bring fine arts closer to the public. It is encouraging that the number of Vietnamese visitors has surged by 80% in recent years, and more than 60% of them are young people and students.

In late 2022, the Vietnam Literature Museum launched a literature tour designed in a new approach to introduce the beauty of literature to the community.

Le Cong Nang, General Director of WonderTour, said his company has designed a series of thematic tours for students, including an outdoor experience tour for primary students, a skill-improving tour for students of junior high schools, another of career orientations for those from senior high schools, and a job-experiencing tour for university undergraduates.

Theme-based tours are also available for religious followers and employees of businesses, he said, adding that clients of the company can also try sport tours to engage in the Gyeongju Cherry Blossom Marathon or an e-sport tournament in the Republic of Korea, tours of international fairs, or wellness tours.

Many other firms have opened tours developed specifically for the elderly, war veterans, women, farmers, and blue-collar workers.

Creating competitive edge for Vietnam’s tourism

Many insiders held that developing thematic tourism products will help travel companies devise their own business orientations and the Vietnamese tourism sector create its competitive edge in the international market.

Nang said as over 4,000 firms involved in international travel have to compete with one another, seeking niche markets is essential to their survival. Therefore, developing attractive thematic products for each company is the right way.

He described thematic tourism as a material for the tourism sector to design national products to enhance Vietnam’s competitiveness in the world’s tourism map.

Apart from cultural diversity, the country is also known as a biodiversity centre of the world thanks to a wide range of natural ecosystems like forest, wetland, maritime, limestone mountain, hill, and coastal areas. Therefore, companies can design unique land, water, and even air sport tourism products, he suggested.

Besides, he added, running, cycling, and caravan tours through peach, apricot or plum blossom forests can be developed in the northwestern region. Coastal cities can offer such entertainment and sport activities as diving, boat racing, and paragliding. Some localities like Quang Binh, Ninh Binh, Ha Long, and Ha Giang can even launch film studio tours.

However, thematic tours are still dwarfed by popular products as they require in-depth knowledge on design and depend on advantages and resources of the destinations. Travel companies need to coordinate with specialised units to build suitable tours.

Nang went on to say that thematic tours are tailored to certain groups of travellers, so marketing needs to be conducted in a different way. Each company should target only the most potential group of visitors to design such tours. On the other hand, most existing thematic tours are mainly serving domestic holidaymakers, and there is still a shortage of those for international ones.

If thematic tourism is capitalised on properly, it will generate considerable benefits and contributions to sustainable tourism development, the WonderTour executive added.