Proposing Orientation and Solutions to Improve the Efficiency of Exploiting Construction Works and Architecture

The target customers are people of your religion or no religion, traveling for the purpose of sightseeing to broaden their minds, following a tour program to learn more about Catholicism. As for non-Catholic customers, they often travel in the form of tourism, traveling with family or relatives or young people who want to explore and experience.

Activities visitors can participate in

For Bui Chu Cathedral: when visitors come, they can join the monks to visit the works, visit the children in the orphanage, encourage charity work or offer incense to the martyrs. They can participate in activities with the Bui Chu Diocese Youth Group such as cultural exchanges, campfires, or major ceremonies of the group. Visitors can also participate in youth congresses if they come on the right day.

For Phu Nhai Cathedral, in addition to admiring the shrine, visitors can also burn incense for the martyrs here.

For the Phat Diem stone church complex, visitors can participate in the mass if you come during the holidays or festivals. Visitors can also participate in the mass, in the cultural activities, the campfire of the youth of Phat Diem diocese, participate in the mass for Eucharistic Children, or visitors can participate in the congresses organized by the Bishop of the diocese.

Maybe you are interested!

There are no activities for tourists to participate in at Chau Son Monastery. However, the monastery is a place with many crafts that tourists can learn about and buy products as souvenirs and gifts for their families.

Annual tourist arrivals

Every year, the number of tourists coming to Ninh Binh is quite large. According to statistics in 2017, Ninh Binh tourism industry welcomed 7 million visitors, increased by 9%, estimated revenue reached 2,450 billion VND, increased by 41% compared to 2016.

According to information obtained from the tour guide department in Phat Diem, the number of visitors to Phat Diem stone church is about 300,000 annually. In 2017, the number of visitors to the stone church complex was 315,000. The information is calculated based on the number of visitors registered for tour guides at the tour guide department.

The number of visitors to Nam Dinh province's tourist attractions is still modest. From 2000 to now, the number of visitors to the province's tourist attractions has increased by an average of 10.6% per year, reaching an estimated 2.25 million visitors in 2017. According to the assessment of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nam Dinh, the number of tourists visiting the province has recently tended to increase gradually. However, there are no exact statistics on the number of tourists visiting churches in Nam Dinh province, firstly because the churches have not focused on opening their doors to welcome visitors, visitors here are mainly the parishioners or visitors such as researchers, students, youth groups, secondly, most travel companies have not paid attention to bringing visitors to visit and experience these architectural works.

2.3.3. Church management work at the locations

In every project organized and put into tourism development, the indispensable thing is the management of the organization. The same goes for Catholic projects, each project is managed by those in charge as prescribed by the Catholic Church. As presented in the organization section, each parish has a priest in charge; at each church there is always a priest in charge of all the work in the church and the religious life of the parishioners; at the cathedral, the diocesan bishop is in charge of management. At churches there are always general regulations such as: everyone must dress politely when entering the church, wear a shirt with a collar, when attending mass, turn off the phone or put it on silent mode. Visitors to the church are not allowed to climb, run around in the church; are not allowed to pick flowers or break branches in the church. Everyone must throw trash in the right place.

Church management at Bui Chu church

Bui Chu Cathedral is the center of the diocese and is where the Bishop governs. This over 100-year-old church annually welcomes many tourists and pilgrims on major holidays. Besides the vibrant activities of Christians, the Bishop also has some regulations to preserve the structure as well as the solemnity of the church. There are many monuments here,

Visitors can bring incense and flowers to burn. Visitors can be guided by the nuns here. The church does not have a parking lot. Visitors can only park temporarily in the church grounds or the parish house.

Church management at Phat Diem stone church complex

Phat Diem Stone Church is known by many people and is visited by pilgrims. Therefore, for a long time, the stone church complex has organized activities to help visitors understand more about the church. Currently, Bishop Giuse Nguyen Nang is in charge of all activities of the complex. In addition to activities and management of the diocese according to church law, the Bishop also cares about preserving the beauty and sacredness of the stone church complex.

All activities to help visitors understand the church accurately are still maintained and promoted by the Bishop, such as printing brochures, selling souvenirs and supporting on-site guides for visitors. The guiding work is assigned to the nuns and seminarians. In addition, when coming to the stone church complex, visitors are not allowed to trample on the grass, litter, climb or sit on the structures, or go up to the bell tower without permission. These are some of the church's regulations to protect the landscape and the sacredness of the church.

Church management work at Chau Son monastery.

Churches often have common management regulations, however, Chau Son Monastery is different. Because this is a closed monastery where monks gather, all practice activities take place here, so the management of Chau Son Monastery is managed by the Monk Priest Superior. Under the Priest, there are many monks with positions in charge of managing each part of the monastery. In managing Chau Son Monastery, the Monk Priest Superior focuses on the practice of the monks but always opens the door to welcome all visitors and parishioners who want to learn about the monastery. From there, they have separated into two different spaces: one is the space for monks to practice, contemplate and live; the other is the space for all visitors and parishioners who want to come to the monastery. Visitors can park their vehicles in the monastery, visit all the grounds, the church and the Fatima prayer garden. In addition, the contemplative order has sent a few

Monks welcome guests to show hospitality. At the prayer garden, there are always monks taking care of the prayer garden, guiding visitors and reminding them if they act in a way that is not sacred. There are also regulations posted to remind visitors such as not walking on grass, not walking on gravel, not creating unsightly standing postures that spoil the beauty of the sacred place.

2.3.4. Advertising and propaganda work at locations

The above mentioned religious architectural works are not intended for tourism, so there are almost no forms of advertising and propaganda. Cathedrals and dioceses always have websites to communicate all activities of the diocese, to help believers know more about their home diocese and other dioceses. Websites are not intended for tourism, so there are not many advertisements about the church, but focus on the religious activities of the church. Only Phat Diem stone church promotes to tourists to know more about the architecture by printing books introducing the church and supporting instructions from nuns and seminarians.

2.3.5. Limitations

In addition to the positive points, in the process of exploiting tourism at the above Catholic architectural works, there are also the following limitations. Catholic churches in Vietnam are built with the main purpose of serving the religious needs of local parishioners. This is a place of worship, organizing Catholic ceremonies, and training the faith and morality of believers, so the exploitation of tourism is not much focused on by the church. Therefore, if it is a large religious work that people come to visit, the local priests will organize support to explain, but there are almost no forms related to promoting and developing tourism.

For large and special architectures such as Bui Chu Cathedral and Phat Diem Stone Church, which are known as beautiful churches and visited by many tourists: there are always nuns or seminarians guiding and acting as interpreters for everyone. Because the church is not a business, at the destinations, there are no tickets or people checked.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to visitors being able to freely enter and exit churches (sacred places). When visitors enter and exit without control or protection, it will cause some situations such as littering.

Catholic architectural works have their own regulations for visitors and parishioners to maintain the sacredness of the church. However, bringing tourists here has unintentionally had negative impacts. Tourists can be Catholic or non-Catholic. The fact that visitors come during mass and move around freely has somewhat damaged the solemnity and beauty of the church. In the church, there are two rows of seats for men and women, but visitors still sit together.

Churches are always open on weekdays for everyone to come to the church, while monasteries are open on Sundays. However, groups and tourists freely come regardless of the lunch break and prayer time of the destination, affecting the lives of the monks. Not to mention that some groups intentionally come during lunch break to avoid being reminded. This often happens at the Phat Diem stone church complex. Many tourists are curious about the daily life of the priests and have entered the presbytery, the priests' residence, affecting the lives of the monks.

On major holidays or festivals, the large number of visitors will cause noise and disorder. Dressing inappropriately for the ceremony, not suitable for entering the church, will cause loss of aesthetics and majesty in the shrine. Especially when entering the Fatima prayer garden at Chau Son monastery and the Kinh garden at Bui Chu Cathedral, visitors move freely, talk and pose in many inappropriate ways for a sacred place, losing the beautiful meaning of the landscape.

A large number of visitors without security forces will lead to damage to the architecture: for example, picking flowers, breaking trees, trampling on grass, or climbing on and outside the church.

Most of the above mentioned structures do not have large parking lots for tourists (except for Phat Diem stone church complex). This is also a disadvantage for architectural works when put into tourism exploitation.

2.4. Summary

In chapter 2, the author introduced some typical Catholic architectural works that can be exploited to develop tourism in Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh. At the same time, he tried to understand the current situation of tourism in Ninh Binh and Nam Dinh provinces along with the above-mentioned unique churches and proceeded to evaluate and analyze the advantages and disadvantages. From the current situation, advantages and difficulties just presented will be the basis for the author to propose solutions and measures to exploit and develop tourism in chapter 3.

CHAPTER 3. PROPOSED ORIENTATIONS AND SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF EXPLOITATION OF PUBLIC WORKS AND ARCHITECTURES

EDUCATION IN NAM DINH AND NINH BINH SERVES TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

3.1. Tourism development orientation for Catholic architectural works

Vietnam's tourism industry has a development strategy until 2020, with a vision to 2030, with the following orientations: focusing on investment to improve the capacity and quality of tourism supply, increasing investment in infrastructure, promoting and building tourism brands. At the same time, the trend of developing science and technology in the world with the 4th industrial revolution requires the tourism industry to digitize into smart tourism. In Resolution 08/NQ-TW dated January 16, 2017 of the Politburo on developing the tourism industry into a spearhead economic sector; striving to make the tourism industry professional, with a relatively synchronous and modern technical infrastructure system, high-quality and diverse tourism products, imbued with national cultural identity, competitive with countries in the region and the world. Vietnam strives to become a country with a developed tourism industry by 2030. Based on the national tourism development orientation, each locality also sets out its own development orientations suitable to the actual situation of its locality.

3.1.1. Orientation of tourism development in Nam Dinh

Along with the development of Vietnam tourism, Nam Dinh tourism has also gradually developed. Currently, in Nam Dinh, there are many tourism products exploited, with local characteristics. The number of tourists visiting tourist attractions from 2000 to present has maintained an average growth rate of 10.6%/year, estimated at nearly 2.3 million visitors. However, the growth rate of visitors tends to slow down because tourism products in Nam Dinh are still monotonous, although Nam Dinh province has a lot of potential and richness in cultural and tourism resources. Therefore, tourism experts all direct Nam Dinh to focus on investing in cultural forms and products with unique characteristics such as spiritual tourism because there are over 400 Catholic churches here that have been built and preserved in their original state quite well, along with a system of communal houses, temples, and pagodas of other values.

Besides, Nam Dinh also needs to strengthen promotion and connection with travel businesses and surrounding localities; Invest more in infrastructure, services as well as human resource quality to increase the growth rate of tourists to Nam Dinh.

3.1.2. Tourism development orientation of Ninh Binh

With the main advantage of natural tourism resources, Ninh Binh tourism industry aims to develop sustainable tourism, protect the environment and nature, build Ninh Binh into a safe, civilized and friendly destination; thereby making Ninh Binh tourism a spearhead economic sector, strongly promoting the development of the industry, with high competitiveness in the region and internationally. However, Ninh Binh also has great potential in terms of typical religious architectural works of Buddhism and Catholicism, so Ninh Binh tourism industry has every opportunity to exploit and develop further. Currently, Ninh Binh is aiming for a specific goal of striving to welcome 7.5 million tourists by 2020, with total tourism revenue reaching 3,000 billion VND, creating jobs for over 20,000 workers, including over 6,000 workers directly in the tourism sector.

3.1.3. Tourism development orientation for Catholic architectural works

Religion is always a sensitive issue, but that does not mean we should avoid or not discuss the aspect of exploiting religious values in tourism development. We can consider religion as a resource (a type of resource) for tourism development, not just a normal resource but an “intellectual resource”. The development of spiritual tourism opens a new door for the tourism industry, especially for the target of Christianity - a religion originating from Judaism, with a long history, culture, and architecture, which is an advantage for tourism development.

It can be said that currently, with the second largest number of followers, Catholicism has a solid position in the religious culture of the Vietnamese people. The time Catholic architecture has been in contact with our country is not long, so the architecture of Catholic churches is forming a unique Vietnamese architectural style, with unique features.

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