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Conditions for Developing Traditional Craft Village Tourism



Chapter 1

Theoretical basis of craft villages, traditional craft villages and craft village tourism

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1.1. General concept of tourism

Conditions for Developing Traditional Craft Village Tourism

Nowadays, worldwide, tourism has become an indispensable need in cultural life and tourism activities are being strongly analyzed to become an important economic sector worldwide.

Tourism development brings high efficiency to countries with developed tourism industry. People's life in those countries is also improved. After a long period of formation and development, tourism has been defined as follows: "Tourism is a form of people's leisure time activities related to temporary movement and stay outside the usual place of residence for the purpose of rest, medical treatment, physical and mental development, raising awareness, culture, sports, along with the consumption of natural, economic and cultural values" {14, p15}

At the international conference on tourism in Rome, experts defined tourism as “Tourism is the sum of relationships, phenomena and economic activities arising from individual or group journeys and stays outside their usual place of residence or outside their country for peaceful purposes. The place they come to reside is not their place of work” {12, p12} . According to the 2005 Vietnam Tourism Law, Article 4, Chapter I stipulates: “Tourism is one’s regular activities to meet the needs of sightseeing, learning, entertainment, and relaxation within a certain period of time” {15, p2}

1.2. Craft villages and traditional craft villages

1.2.1. Craft villages

Since ancient times, due to the characteristics of agricultural production requiring a lot of labor, ancient Vietnamese people lived together in densely populated clusters, gradually forming villages. In each village, there were residents who produced handicrafts, which gradually spread to the whole village and commune, creating craft villages and passing on traditional crafts is a very interesting topic, many cultural scholars have researched this issue.


According to Dr. Pham Con Son in the book “Traditional Craft Villages of Vietnam”, craft villages are defined as follows: “A craft village is an ancient administrative unit that also means a place with a large population, organized activities, and its own customs and practices in a broad sense. A craft village is not only a village that specializes in a profession, but also implies that people of the same profession live together to develop jobs. The solid foundation of craft villages is both collective business, economic development, and preservation of national identity and local characteristics” {10, p. 6}

From an economic perspective, in the book: " Preservation and development of craft villages in the process of industrialization and modernization", Dr. Duong Ba Phuong said: "A craft village is a village in the countryside with one or several handicrafts that are completely separate from handicrafts and operate independently. The income from those craft villages accounts for a high proportion of the total value of the whole village" {9, p.13}

1.2.2. Traditional craft villages

Currently, there is still no unified concept of traditional craft villages, but traditional craft villages can be understood as traditional craft villages that make traditional handicrafts. According to Professor Tran Quoc Vuong, a craft village is: "A craft village is a village that, although it grows crops in the style of small-scale farming and raises livestock (chickens, pigs, buffaloes, etc.) and does other side jobs (embroidery, forging, weaving, etc.), has emerged as a sophisticated traditional craft with a professional or semi-professional craft class, with a boss, a deputy boss of the whole region, a number of dedicated workers and deputy workers, with a certain technological process, born in art, die in art", "one art mastered, one life honored", living mainly on that profession and producing handicrafts, these items have fine art that have become commercial products and have marketing relationships with the market in the large area surrounding the capital's urban market and are moving forward to expand abroad" {17, p. 12}

Craft villages here do not necessarily mean that all villagers produce handicrafts, craftsmen can also be farmers who do extra jobs during their free time. However, due to the high requirements for specialization, professional craftsmen have been created, specializing in producing traditional handicrafts right in their hometown. Researching a traditional craft village means paying attention to many aspects in both space and time, meaning paying attention to the systematic and comprehensive nature of that craft village, in which the decisive factors are the village's artisans, handicraft products, production techniques and art.


Traditional craft villages are centers of handicraft production, where artisans and many households specializing in traditional crafts, passed down through generations, have links to support production, sell products in the style of guilds, small and medium systems, even retail, they have the same craft group, members are always conscious of following the village rules, clans, and craft guilds in the historical development process that formed the craft right in their village residential units.

Traditional craft villages often have the majority or a large number of residents doing traditional crafts, even 100% of the residents doing crafts or a few families specializing in the craft for a long time. Their products are not only highly applicable but also high-end, sophisticated, unique, impressive, famous products that seem to be unmatched anywhere.

Nowadays, in the process of socio-economic development, craft villages have truly become small-scale industrial economic units with a very large positive role and effect on socio-economic life.

1.2.3. The role and significance of traditional occupations

Products of traditional crafts are recognized and evaluated from many socio-economic perspectives with extremely great and unique values ​​from ancient times to the present. It is also necessary to realize that in the era of information technology and other high technologies today, no matter how developed, it cannot replace the creativity of artisans, traditional crafts and the value of many traditional crafts still last forever.

- Economic value : Traditional crafts have created extremely useful and unique products, from daily household use to sophisticated items in festivals and temples. Tens of thousands of skilled craftsmen and artisans have created jobs in society and the crafts have been passed down in families, villages or regions, becoming "secrets" of the profession through many generations.

Traditional products not only bring economic value domestically but also bring foreign currency value when exported abroad.

- Regarding cultural and social values : Products of traditional crafts have clearly shown and preserved the unique features and nuances of the nation. The cultural values ​​of the nation represent the thinking of the Vietnamese people, Eastern philosophy, unique customs and practices, national traditions, lifestyles... all expressed through the drawings, models, decorations and structures of the products. That can only be


Only in traditional crafts can we fully express humanistic and cultural values. Handicraft products contain emotions and love for the country's nature through the talented hands of people. This is also the advantage of traditional Vietnamese products when expanding exchanges in the international market and expanding cultural and artistic relations with countries around the world.

1.2.4. Characteristics of traditional occupations

The history of the birth of traditional Vietnamese crafts can be affirmed that it has existed for a long time, closely associated with "the periods of building and developing the country's culture in more than 4000 years of history" . Traditional crafts often originate from the ancestors of the craft villages, living in different localities, who passed on the craft and developed the craft so that those places became famous for the products of the craft villages. Their names will forever be the pride of their descendants following that craft. In the history of culture, there are artisans such as Song Hy (embroidery), Nguyen Minh Khong - Duong Khong Lo (bronze casting), Princess Thieu Hoa (silk weaving), Bui Van Ve (lacquerware) ...

Traditional occupations have the following outstanding characteristics:

- Born and developed on the basis of sophisticated techniques and talent of the hands and minds of artisans passed down from generation to generation, accepted and practiced by all ages.

- Traditional occupations meet the needs of society in localities and throughout the country, so their value and use value are quite high. The highlight is that the raw materials are exploited locally, many occupations have created a reputation for production of a village or a countryside that is known to many places.

- Traditional crafts crystallize many cultural quintessence, creating unique characteristics of the Vietnamese countryside with the habits of working people for generations. In particular, the most prominent are the habits: Using local materials; habits of using manual labor tools; habits of shaping products; habits of decorating with colors, shapes, habits of expressing skills and techniques in operations based on the flexible and flexible use of labor tools in a subtle way with different feelings. This uniqueness has created rich, sophisticated products with high aesthetics, making the products unique and attractive to users.

Traditional crafts create products that contain an integration of knowledge about nature, society, environment, culture, science and technology, and spirituality.


cultural flowers, about beautiful traditions in social life through many eras. Although initially only starting from manual tools, but with skillful talent combined with modern equipment and high technology, it will certainly create a new development step of traditional Vietnamese crafts with high quality while still showing the talent of the artisans' hands, creating the uniqueness of traditional craft products.

1.3. Traditional craft village tourism

Traditional craft village tourism is a type of tourism that is attracting the attention of many domestic and foreign tourists. Modern life today has made life stressful and stressful, people want to return to rural areas, traditional craft villages with nature to relax more and more. So what is traditional craft village tourism? First of all, we must understand what cultural tourism is because traditional craft village tourism is a type of cultural tourism. According to Dr. Tran Nhan in "Tourism and tourism business" , " Cultural tourism is a type of tourism in which tourists want to appreciate the depth of history, cultural relics, and customs that are still present... Including the system of communal houses, pagodas, churches, festivals, customs and habits of eating, staying... {8, p15}.

For traditional Vietnamese craft villages, it is a place that contains a treasure trove of technical experience and professional secrets from the use of raw materials, manufacturing techniques to creative themes in creating a traditional handicraft product. That is the intangible cultural part. In addition, traditional craft villages are associated with community activities, so there are also other tangible cultural values ​​such as: communal houses, pagodas, relics directly related to craft villages, handicraft products of traditional craft villages...

Tourists come to craft villages to learn about the cultural values ​​hidden here. Therefore, traditional craft village tourism has been classified as a type of culture. From there, traditional craft village tourism is defined as follows : "Traditional craft village tourism is a form of tourism, the object of visit is the craft village through which tourists can appreciate the tangible and intangible cultural values ​​closely related to a traditional craft village of a certain ethnic group" [8, p. 74]

1.4. Conditions for developing traditional craft village tourism

Nowadays, people tend to travel towards ancient traditional cultural values, so developing craft village tourism is extremely necessary because it


will bring many advantages for both tourism and production activities in craft villages. Developing craft village tourism brings great benefits to the locality: solving jobs for a large number of local workers; improving people's lives; contributing to preserving the unique cultural beauty of the nation. Traditional craft villages are an extremely valuable humanistic tourism resource. To develop traditional craft village tourism, the following conditions are needed to exist and develop craft villages:

- Convenient for trade: this is a factor for a craft village to develop because it is close to the production site and other product consumption areas, and traffic routes will facilitate transportation and trade between craft villages.

- Near raw material sources: to be able to continuously develop production of craft village products.

- Working habits and production practices of each region and village. To form traditional craft village tourism, the following conditions are needed:

- That craft village must have unique, characteristic products with traditional characteristics.

- Has environmental landscape, near famous scenic spots to connect with tourist tours

- Must have technical facilities and infrastructure to serve tourism.

1.5. The role of traditional craft villages in tourism development

There is a close organic relationship between craft village tourism and traditional craft villages, which interact with each other. Developing tourism in traditional craft villages is an effective solution to develop the socio-economy in traditional craft villages in general in a positive and sustainable direction. On the contrary, traditional craft villages also create a new attraction to attract tourists and have strong impacts on tourism in a common development goal.

- Traditional craft villages are often associated with a rural area. Each craft village is a long-standing cultural, economic - social and technical environment. It is a place to preserve the quintessence of art and production techniques from generation to generation, distilled from talented artisans. Inside the craft villages, there are often purely Vietnamese cultural features with agricultural cultural spaces: banyan trees, wells, communal houses, with folk songs, white storks, green bamboo fences... Behind the bamboo fences are quiet colors, the quintessence of national culture, gentle and peaceful, making visitors feel peaceful and relaxed. It can be said that traditional craft village tourism will be an ideal place for visitors to visit and learn about the values.


cultural values, customs and festivals in modern conditions when industrial production makes the environment noisy to the point of suffocation. In particular, visitors will be surprised to see unique handicrafts that only talented artisans can create and can buy exquisite and unique souvenirs in these villages.

- In addition, the craft village is also a place to produce special handicraft products, with high use value and artistic value, typical of the culture of a peaceful and hospitable countryside and people. Tourists coming to traditional craft villages not only satisfy their need to admire and learn about unique cultural values, but also have the opportunity to buy for themselves or their loved ones exquisite and unique handicrafts, satisfying their great shopping needs.

- Traditional craft villages are humanistic tourism resources that contribute to attracting a large number of tourists, making tourism activities more diverse and rich, creating many attractive options for tourists.

- In addition, traditional craft village tourism also diversifies tourism products.

1.6. The role of tourism in developing traditional craft villages

Tourism plays an important role in the development of traditional craft villages.

- Tourism helps create many jobs for local residents, attract labor from neighboring areas, increase income and contribute to improving people's lives. Due to the development of craft village production, taking advantage of exploiting local resources that are available in rural areas of Vietnam.

- Contribute to increasing revenue and sales of traditional handicraft products in craft villages through sales to tourists. This is also a form of on-site production that is not subject to taxes and limits risks. One of the most effective incentives to stimulate handicraft production.

- Tourism development creates more investment opportunities for traditional craft villages. From there, craft villages have conditions to reproduce, expand raw material production areas, and expand local labor resources.

- Create opportunities to export traditional handicraft products in craft villages through the purchase of products by international tourists visiting traditional craft villages. Make handicraft products of craft villages widely promoted.

- Create opportunities for cultural exchange and integration between local culture and foreign culture.


- Contribute to the economic restructuring in rural areas, shifting agricultural labor to the service sector.

- Stimulate infrastructure development through tourism activities

- Preserving the precious traditional cultural values ​​of craft villages

- Restore and develop traditional crafts that have been lost in the market economy and the process of industrialization and modernization of the country. Thereby contributing to preserving and promoting the traditional cultural values ​​of craft villages. Creating awareness for the community about preserving national cultural identities.

2.7. Summary

Based on the general theory of tourism, craft villages, traditional craft villages, traditional craft village tourism, conditions for the development of traditional craft village tourism, the role of tourism in the development of craft villages and the role of craft villages in the development of tourism. We clearly see the importance of tourism for the existence and development of craft villages as well as the close organic relationship between craft villages and craft village tourism. Traditional craft villages are valuable humanistic tourism resources, the exploitation and development of traditional craft villages will enrich tourism products. Traveling to traditional craft villages, people will always be able to relax and immerse themselves in a space full of fresh rural character. Traditional craft village tourism contributes to changing the face of rural Vietnam, improving the lives of residents in backward rural areas. Traditional craft villages still contain ancient cultural values, which are the core to exploit for tourism activities to develop unique products. In the future, traditional craft village tourism will develop more and more strongly to meet the increasing travel needs of domestic and foreign tourists. However, the development of traditional craft village tourism needs to have a master plan, in the direction of sustainable tourism development, exploitation in conjunction with environmental protection, conservation of social culture and natural environment so as not to lose cultural values, keep the natural environment clean, the social environment stable and civilized. Because traditional craft villages are the crystallization of pure national beauty, containing the thoughts, feelings and lifestyles passed down from our ancestors for thousands of years, creating the cultural identity of Vietnam as the Resolution of the Fifth Conference of the Central Executive Committee, 8th term. Our Party has clearly stated: "Building a socialist society with an advanced culture imbued with national identity."

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