I.
The effectiveness of singer Hoa Minzy's MV Bac Bling (Bac Ninh) is not only a music product but also a tourism product. With what is happening, I think that the appearance of Bac Bling (Bac Ninh) is part of a tourism development campaign of Bac Ninh.
The proof is that in early March 2025, Bac Bling (Bac Ninh) launched, quickly reaching nearly 100 million views on YouTube, winning the Top 1 Trending position on YouTube Vietnam for many days, immediately after that, Bac Ninh launched free travel programs with two initial bus routes, each route has two cars serving on Saturday and Sunday.
After that, the demand of tourists increased, with some days the number of registrations reaching 14. To meet the needs, Bac Ninh province has flexibly expanded to 4 routes/day, while applying the online registration form to facilitate coordination.
4 tours connect the prominent destinations of Bac Ninh, including Phat Tich Pagoda, Dau Pagoda, Dong Ho painting village, Do temple, Ba Chua Kho temple, Diem village, Phu Lang pottery... These are also the locations appearing in the MV "Bac Bling", creating special attraction for tourists.
The MV "Bac Bling" is not only a commercial success, but also demonstrates the power of the cultural industry in stimulating tourism. The images imbued with Kinh Bac identity in the MV have aroused curiosity and the desire to explore the heritage of the public. The fact that Bac Ninh province quickly deploys free tours under the MV not only meets the needs of tourists but also helps convert interest on digital platforms into practical tourism actions.
Bac Ninh's methods are worth for localities to learn from. Tourism experts say that the implementation of the free tour "Bac Ninh Cultural Flowers - Heritage Colors" is a testament to the innovation in the local tourism approach.
However, to truly make tourism a spearhead economic sector, Bac Ninh needs to continue to invest in a sustainable direction. One of the important strategies is to build Bac Ninh into a "heritage studio", where there is a specialized space for filming, performing arts and restoring cultural values with clear copyright.
Here, the role of each subject is very important. Hoa Minzy deserves to be an Ambassador of Bac Ninh tourism. Hoa's bright smile when meeting Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the sidelines of the Conference to meet and dialogue with outstanding young people on March 24 is a testament to the confidence, the aspiration to preserve and develop the "national soul" of the young generation. Also at that Conference, in his speech, the Prime Minister mentioned the issue of preserving and promoting national cultural identity.
The head of the Government said that young people need to take the lead in digitizing data on cultural heritages and red addresses, creating an online platform to introduce traditional arts such as: Cheo, Tuong, Cai Luong... Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his joy when the young generation revives ethnic culture through attractive products, not only domestically but also abroad. The MV Bac Bling by Hoa Minzy was mentioned by the Prime Minister as a creative point, inspiring, and renewing a culture imbued with national identity.
This is a very effective invitation for tourists to Vietnam.
II.
Developing tourism from local history and culture is not a new story. The problem is how to reorganize?
More than 10 years ago, UNESCO recognized Nghe Tinh Vi and Giam folk songs as a Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. During that time, it was also recognized that the leaders of Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces also made many efforts to preserve and promote these values such as organizing a series of seminars, developing programs to participate in national festivals, and establishing clubs.
At the same time, teaching Vi and Giam folk songs is regularly implemented in many forms in the community, organizing teaching in high schools; training in the College of Culture and Arts; teaching singing on radio and television; training for teachers and clubs...
But that may not be enough. Those efforts have not been able to turn Nghe Tinh Vi and Giam folk songs into a product, a tourist highlight. Certainly, Nghe An and Ha Tinh are not lacking talented people like Hoa Minzy or Xuan Hinh, Tu Long. The problem is to create motivation and strategy to link tourism development, combining tourism with local history and culture that is still slow.
I once talked with Mr. Hoang Trung Dung - when he was still the Secretary of the Ha Tinh Provincial Party Committee. Mr. Dung was very interested in Ha Tinh developing a complex of Truyen Kieu - Nguyen Du cultural spaces right in his hometown Nguyen Du. Investors are willing to spend thousands of billions of VND to implement, turning the Truyen Kieu - Nguyen Du cultural space into a unique specialty of Ha Tinh. However, that desire still has to wait for the future to answer.
Currently, many localities have built heritage space tourism products with attractive, interesting, and humane stories. Ha Tinh can completely build a similar product because most of the historical and cultural relics in Ha Tinh contain many interesting stories, legends, and legends.
From the stories of Nguyen Du with the Red Mountain hunting ward, singing in the fabric ward of Truong Luu or Nguyen Cong Tru with anecdotes about his life; Quynh Vien sea with anecdotes about Chu Dong Tu and Tien Dung setting off on a Southern boat to find a spiritual master... all can build attractive tourism products, creating a unique cultural heritage space to attract tourists.
In addition to tangible cultural heritage, Ha Tinh is also rich in intangible cultural heritages such as: Ca Tru, folk songs Vi, Giam, Tre Kieu... In particular, the performance space of these types associated with destinations is an advantage for developing cultural tourism.
That is, there is a foundation and a heritage, but to make that heritage an important part of the tourism industry, there are many difficulties.
III.
Hue City has just held the opening ceremony of the National Tourism Year 2025. Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, Chairman of Hue City People's Committee, said that this is an opportunity for Hue to introduce the beauty of culture, history and nature to domestic and foreign tourists. With the theme Ancient Capital, New Opportunities.
This is not only a great honor when Hue City has just officially become a centrally-governed city, but also a strong source of motivation for Hue to continue to preserve, honor and spread traditional cultural values; at the same time, it is an opportunity for Hue to affirm its aspiration to rise up, innovate and be creative, towards a sustainable development future in a new era - the era of the Vietnamese nation's rise".
Activities in Hue focus on the orientation of the Four Seasons Festival: Spring Festival "Spring of the Ancient Capital", Summer Festival "Shining Imperial City", Autumn Festival "Hue in Autumn" and Winter Festival "Hue Winter". Hue expects to welcome about 5.5 million visitors in the National Tourism Year 2025, with revenue of about 10,800 to 11,200 billion VND.
traveling in Hue is too familiar, many people say it. The problem of Hue tourism is how to make tourists who have been to Hue want to come to Hue many more times.
Hue has an advantage, which is that cultural and historical factors create "mental relics" that cannot be fully exploited. My friend, who is from Hue, advised that when traveling to Hue, do not follow Bui Giang's poem: "For now, you are in Hue/ There is still Ngu mountain on the banks of the Huong river" but instead find a deep Hue.
That deep worry, as he said, is "Lang thang di lai to Vy Da village, not to "see the sun when the areca nuts are in the sun" because those who travel will wake up early. Just go ahead and see an alley, wring in to get closer to the Huong River. Then I felt like I was holding a "ticket back to my childhood" in hand. Only one bridge is from the main road: Phu Luu Bridge. There, children still riding a bicycle to school. In front of the school, there are still street vendors, some of whom take their grandchildren to school, buy the child snacks like their grandmother and grandmother in the past...
And there are still vacant lots for children to take the opportunity to play with acrobatics before running into school when hearing the drums. Then there was a sweet announcement, the sound of sandals swaying like when there were no loudspeakers on the noisy cars. The green moss walls seem to have been painted by someone. Just one way away, there, time seems to stop. There is an old Hue.
Then there are still sparsely populated projects in Hue. One of them is Linh Tinh Mon in the Temple of Literature complex. In short, this place is the Temple of Literature of Dang Trong. Including the stele worshiping the elders such as: Nguyen Thuong Hien, Nguyen Khuyen, Vu Pham Ham, Chu Manh Trinh, Phan Thanh Gian...
To keep Hue, if people want to come to Hue, what needs to be kept is the soul of Hue, the core of Hue, not the way people are doing now, which is "packing the color", "renovating" the relics...".
I still believe that Hue - with the National Tourism Year 2025, there will be many old things being renewed, new things being exploited from long-standing historical and cultural relics.
When I decided to book a train ticket for my parents - who have also been to Hue many times - they were all excited and eager to leave. After that journey, I will ask: "Hue is a good thing" and leave to tell many new stories about Hue, about the discoveries because the underground system has never run out.
