Research on religion in the Northern Delta: proposals to link religious culture with tourism culture

products. From there, build unique tourism products that are imbued with the identity of each locality. In addition, localities need to have close links with each other, focus on investing in building new products, building key tourist areas and routes. Cultural tourism and spiritual tourism are the main unique tourism products of the Red River Delta. Because the most prominent feature of the Red River Delta is the wet rice civilization, historical relics associated with national heroes in the struggles for independence, protecting and building the Fatherland, associated with beliefs and religions, and the region also preserves many intangible cultural heritages, including 2 heritages recognized by UNESCO...

3.2.4. Learning from the experiences of some countries

India is known as the land of religion. This country is the birthplace of the world's major religions, of which Buddhism is prominent, so scattered throughout this country are thousands of Buddhist relics and famous places related to Buddhism. With more than one billion Buddhists around the world, India has naturally become one of the most attractive destinations for spiritual tourism. Understanding this, the Indian government has paid attention to building a policy linking Indian tourism with Buddhist spirituality.

To attract tourists to Buddhist sites, the Indian government has established new air routes from the capitals of important states directly to Buddhist holy sites, and added independent trains for pilgrims to the land of Buddha. In the vicinity of holy sites, they have built many hotels of all kinds and apartments for rent so that tourists can stay for many days here. Restaurants also have many types of Asian food to help tourists who are not used to the taste of Indian food to eat easily. To complete, they have also established medical service points, responding promptly and ensuring the health of tourists.

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Although the Indian government is very interested in investing in developing tourism technology, it does not allow commercial factors to dominate spiritual tourism. In other words,

On the one hand, the government creates adequate and convenient facilities for tourists such as upgrading roads, establishing more means of transportation, ensuring environmental sanitation in public places and train stations, especially in areas near Buddhist sites, but on the other hand, it encourages and creates conditions for Buddhist churches around the world to open meditation courses in the premises of Buddhist sites, helping tourists purify their bodies and minds during their days in the land of Buddha.

For example, the Bodh Gaya Stupa is one of 84,000 Buddhist temples and structures built by Emperor Ashoka about 218 years after the Buddha entered Nirvana in India. The entire Bodh Gaya complex is surrounded by a fence with Gupta-era Buddhist architecture, ensuring both security within the campus and compatibility between the two architectural periods of the past and present. To turn Bodh Gaya into the most sacred Buddhist site, the Indian government chose the full moon day of the fourth lunar month, the day of Buddha's birth, as a Buddhist pilgrimage day. The pilgrimage festival to Bodh Gaya is televised and reported live around the world .

Or in China, to develop this type, they have restored many temples and built additional supporting structures... For example, the area of Confucius Temple - Confucius Forest - Confucius Palace in Shandong, which has a history of over 2,000 years, people still continue to build additional supporting structures to beautify the relics. Or the A Phong Palace in Xi'an of the Qin Dynasty, which was burned down by Xiang Yu 200 years BC, no longer exists, but is now almost completely restored to its original state. Or in West Lake, Hangzhou, they have just added many more towers. They also rebuilt the Yue Fei Temple, recast the statue of Qin Hui and his wife (the statue originally existed from the Song Dynasty in the 11th century but was damaged long ago) in a modern art style.

Besides, China is a country that knows how to exploit history thoroughly. For example, at the Yue Fei Temple, they built a scene of Yue Mu writing on Yue Fei's back. The statue was built in life-size, the explanation was quite good, both confirming and confirming.

worthy of history, yet soaring with the yeast of folk legends. Or in Suzhou, at Hu Qiu - the tomb of He Lu - just by a tiny well, they make tourists stop to listen to them explain a thrilling story or an egg-shaped stone is also created as a stopping point. Just like that, a tree stump, a tomb is also added to a history that is of course thrilling to hold tourists' feet.

3.3. Specific solutions

Although spiritual cultural tourism in Vietnam in general and in the Northern Delta in particular has not been clearly defined, if there are specific promotion solutions, it will soon become a type of tourism that attracts a large number of tourists.

3.3.1. Establishment of a specialized committee on spiritual and cultural tourism

First of all , if we want to develop this type of tourism and turn this activity into a specialized part, a tool to support the propagation of religion, we need to urgently establish a specialized committee on spiritual and cultural tourism. This committee can be under the General Department of Tourism (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), in close coordination with the Government Committee for Religious Affairs. This committee will be responsible for organizing and operating sightseeing tours to spiritual and cultural tourist destinations such as pagodas, temples, Catholic churches, and responsible for compiling textbooks and tourist guidebooks, training tour guides with professional qualifications and foreign languages, capable of organizing and guiding pilgrimage tours to holy sites and festivals.

It is important that tourism managers as well as religious leaders need to see the enormous potential of pagodas and religious churches as well as their role and position in the spiritual life of all Vietnamese people. They are not only places for spiritual activities but also places for cultural and religious activities of village communities. Once they see that importance, surely religious leaders cannot help but

Paying attention to appropriate investment in relics, in which investment in tourism development is indispensable.

This committee must develop a strategy to develop this type of tourism and needs financial support, calling on agencies, organizations and private individuals to support this tourism development project.

3.3.2. Establish travel companies specializing in spiritual and cultural tourism with a team of professional tour guides.

Second , it is advisable to invest capital to establish tourism companies specializing in the field of spiritual culture. These companies will be responsible for organizing tours to famous temples, pagodas, shrines, churches, etc. in the provinces of the Northern Delta nationwide and possibly abroad. Temporary tourism specialists can be monks, nuns, or students who have graduated from tourism or are working for tourism companies. After selection, they will be trained in a short-term course.

In the long term, in addition to the specialized board on spiritual cultural tourism, it is also necessary to establish a separate tourism vocational school specializing in this type of tourism to train a team of professional staff, specializing in researching spiritual cultural tourism, organizing tours and guides serving this type of tourism. If possible, Buddhist academies or monasteries should have a major in spiritual cultural tourism. This department will contribute to training specialists and tour guides to serve the long-term development requirements of tourism.

3.3.3. Establish a specialized committee to receive and guide tourists at tourist attractions.

Monuments on the list of famous tourist attractions need to have a specialized committee to receive visitors, guide tourists to visit, worship and organize events on lectures, cuisine, and ceremonies according to the requests of tourists. Those appointed to this committee must have specialized knowledge of tourism, cultural and spiritual tourism, have organizational skills and must be fluent in foreign languages. Pagodas on the list of famous tourist attractions need to invest in construction.

Service facilities for tourists such as: Reception rooms, cinema rooms, motels, canteens, post offices, photo booths, filming booths, souvenir shops, parking lots... For each of the above services, it is necessary to arrange staff with professional skills to serve tourists. Brief information about the temple such as: Introductions, brochures, postcards, booklets in many languages need to be printed in large quantities to serve tourists' learning about the temple.

When there is a tour to a certain location, tourist companies need to contact temples and churches to arrange a tour guide for tourists, in order to have smooth coordination, thereby serving tourists better.

3.3.4. Thoroughly solve problems at tourist destinations

Another point that needs to be thoroughly addressed is: Begging in front of the temple, in the temple grounds; buying and selling all kinds of nonsense fortune-telling books; competing to attract customers to buy goods; building shrines and temples and attracting visitors to worship... need to be thoroughly addressed (this phenomenon almost never happens in Catholic churches).

If we know how to take advantage of the strengths and overcome the weaknesses mentioned above, spiritual cultural tourism will develop strongly in the near future.

3.3.5. Some other solutions

It is necessary to fully grasp the historical sites and evaluate each site to classify them into groups such as sites that have both cultural value and the potential to attract tourists; sites that only have value for tourism but little cultural value or vice versa...

It is necessary to identify the target market for each heritage resource (monuments, festivals) in the area. That means it is necessary to study how each heritage resource is suitable for different tourist participants.

Coordinate tourism planning with urban planning to unify construction projects so as not to affect the landscape environment. Planning historical sites based on tourism planning will bring valuable relics back to life.

into tourist attractions while integrating with plans to restore and preserve relics.

There should be a cultural orientation in tourism business at historical sites and scenic spots to avoid commercialization of cultural relics and customs. Prevent uncultured phenomena in tourism business at historical sites.

There needs to be a plan for human resource development in line with tourism development in the area. Thoroughly implement the motto of using culture to develop tourism and vice versa, develop tourism to preserve and maintain cultural identity.

3.4. Summary of Chapter III

Spiritual cultural tourism is a very attractive type of tourism for the tourism economy. Vietnam has enough religious facilities to carry out religious tourism, pilgrims can worship, contemplate in solemn respect, preserve the innocent identity in the practice of beliefs.

However, in reality, in Vietnam, this type of tourism is just emerging and developing spontaneously. That requires us to have both a macro-level strategy and specific measures. If there is a feasible strategy and thorough application, this type of tourism will quickly develop its strengths throughout the country in general and the Northern Delta in particular. It is necessary to implement synchronous measures so that when tourists come to religious and spiritual sites, they will see the unique religious features of the locality, see, feel, and contemplate. Spiritual cultural tourism will truly help tourists approach the "spirituality" and "soul" of Vietnam.

CONCLUDE

Religion has existed for a long time in human history and was introduced to Vietnam quite early. Religion has made a great contribution to the development of culture and society. Religious spirituality contributes to preserving human morality and stabilizing social order. It has added an institution to "keep society in order" along with the law and public opinion. Every religion advises people - followers, to do good, avoid evil, accumulate virtue, love people, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty. Religion teaches people to cultivate themselves, manage their families, and sets standards in the relationships between king and subject, father and son, husband and wife, teacher and student. Most of the above contents are teachings of religious founders (God, Buddha, Saint Ala ...), becoming standards and models to regulate the behavior of people and followers. Any religion or belief, in its essence, never aims at evil or cruelty, but always encourages doing good, reaching for beauty and nobility for the benefit of oneself and the community. Through the material and spiritual activities of people, beliefs and religions have imbued the national culture with many colors. Religious worship facilities are often the places where religious followers perform rituals and worship, and at the same time, they are also places to preserve traditional culture, making the national culture have eternal vitality.

Because of the above cultural values, religion has long been a need of the majority of people. Even in Vietnam, the number of religious followers accounts for more than 1/4 of the population. If including those who follow the religion of their ancestors, most of them have a religion and belief. Therefore, religion is not only a need of individuals but also of society.

Today, the influence of religion on Vietnamese cultural and social life is very large. The introduction and development of thousands of years of culture has left our country a huge heritage, which is the system of communal houses, pagodas, temples, churches present in all villages and communes, and unique religious festivals. This is also a priceless resource for us to develop spiritual and cultural tourism. Because everyone knows that when material life is increasingly improved, society

The more modern people become, the more they need to improve their spiritual life. Therefore, the development of spiritual tourism in the near future is an inevitable need, especially for a country with many types of beliefs and religions like Vietnam.

Spiritual tourism to holy sites will help people to release painful emotions, cultivate the mind and spirit of wisdom. Spiritual tourism is essential for the human spirit in modern society. It includes both the journey of searching for traditional cultural values and finding oneself. Awakening the enlightened life of tourists at spiritual sites is the goal of spiritual tours.

For the Northern Delta, which has a huge treasure trove of historical and cultural relics and rich religious festivals, it is a potential land for the development of spiritual and cultural tourism. If there is a national strategy to raise the level as well as specific solutions, the Northern Delta will become a spiritual and cultural tourism that attracts a large number of believers and domestic and foreign tourists.

Research on religion in the Northern Delta: proposals to link religious culture with tourism culture - 8

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