Research Projects on Kiep Bac Festival (Hai Duong)

for the locality. However, there has not been any work that approaches this festival from the perspective of managing a cultural heritage to serve tourism development. Therefore, the survey of the Tich Dien festival (Doi Son, Duy Tien, Ha Nam) is an open direction for the thesis.

1.1.4.2. Research works on Kiep Bac festival (Hai Duong)

Research on Kiep Bac often follows three directions:

Firstly, there are research works on the values of Kiep Bac Temple and Kiep Bac Festival such as Kiep Bac Temple Festival past and present by Nguyen Thuy Lien, Con Son - Kiep Bac Relic Site, historical and cultural values by Nguyen Khac Minh, Kiep Bac Temple Festival by Nguyen Van Vinh, About Kiep Bac Temple by Le Quang Chan, Scientific dossier of Kiep Bac Temple Festival by Con Son - Kiep Bac Relic Management Board.

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In the second research direction, the authors consider Kiep Bac temple as a famous destination in the system of institutions belonging to the Mother Goddess Worship belief of the Vietnamese people. Some typical works are Hau Dong - a traditional spiritual ritual in the Kiep Bac temple festival by Nguyen Van Cuong, Thanh Dong - viewed from Kiep Bac temple by Vo Hoang Lan, The honor of the famous general Tran Hung Dao in some festivals about Duc Thanh Tran by Nguyen Quang Le, Studying the phenomenon of Duc Thanh Tran belief by Pham Quynh Phuong or Duc Thanh Tran belief through Kiep Bac festival by Phung Bich Sam. These works all aim to understand the most attractive spiritual value of Kiep Bac temple and festival, which is the custom of worshiping Hung Dao Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan in the concept of "August is the death anniversary of the father, March is the death anniversary of the mother" of the Mother Goddess Worship belief of the Vietnamese people.

The third approach is to see the Kiep Bac festival as a resource to exploit and develop tourism. However, there are not many research works on this issue. There is only one work that guides the planning and policy development of the People's Committee of Hai Duong province, the Project to develop tourism in the Con Son - Kiep Bac relic site into a national tourist area by 2015, with a vision to 2020.

Thus, the issue of how to manage the Kiep Bac festival so that it effectively serves the local socio-economic life and how to exploit it as a heritage to effectively serve tourism development is an open direction for this thesis to study and research.

1.2. Theoretical basis for traditional festival management associated with tourism product development

1.2.1. Conceptualization

1.2.1.1. Tourism products are built based on exploiting traditional festival values (referred to as tourism products based on traditional festivals)

Based on the definition of tourism products stated in the 2017 Tourism Law and the UNWTO's view on the composition of tourism products, tourism products based on traditional festivals can be defined as a system of services and values received by tourists associated with their experiences related to traditional festivals. In some cases, traditional festivals can be considered as tourism products when the values of traditional festivals meet the needs of tourists and the traditional festivals themselves meet the criteria to be managed as tourism products. This statement will be further clarified in Chapters 2 and 3 of the thesis.

The composition of traditional festival-based tourism products consists of three components: 1) Festival-based tourism infrastructure, that is, the infrastructure of the traditional festival itself and the tourism area containing that festival; 2) Tourism resources, that is, traditional festivals, physical factors and related physical fees used for tourism organization activities and tourist experiences; and 3) Technical facilities, services, labor and management of traditional festival-based tourism.

Detailing the tourism product based on traditional festivals in the “service set” approach includes: I) the core service or basic service of the tourism product, what tourists expect most during the trip: observing, participating and directly experiencing cultural and social activities related to traditional festivals; J) the “jewelry” service or supplementary service is the tourism infrastructure including entertainment systems, landscape architecture, souvenir stalls, etc. at the traditional festival space and nearby; K) the “creative” service with distinction and appeal increases the value of the tourism product. This is an important factor for tourists, especially “picky” tourists, to choose. First of all, it is tourism resources,

advertising services, PR, reputation, brand, luxury, etc.: this is the place to show the "brainpower" of tourism products based on traditional festivals, helping tourists experience in a way that only tourism can create;

H) The period of time of tourists' product consumption needs. This is the period of time that must be provided promptly and on time to meet the needs of tourists: it is part or all of the time the traditional festival actually takes place plus the time tourists enjoy tourism services based on the traditional festival.

In addition to the common characteristics of tourism products such as: Synthesis, diversity, multi-level; Non-reservability, non-storability; Non-transferability, non-division; Simultaneousness of production and consumption activities; Intangibility, easy to change, heterogeneity; Non-transferability of ownership; Novelty for both the subject (tourist), the object (environment, landscape, resources) and tourism broker (tourism business), festival tourism products based on traditional festivals have their own characteristics: A) have clear timeliness and seasonality, which can cause difficulties in organizing mass tourism; B) are greatly influenced by the local "ready to welcome" attitude and "opportunity to access and participate" in traditional festivals due to the agreement between the local community and the tourism industry.

1.2.1.2. Traditional festival management model associated with tourism product development

In terms of model theory, according to the Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe, 1988), “a model is a very concise form of expression, in a certain language, of the main characteristics of an object, to study that object” [63, p. 663]. In other words, a model is a generalization at a high level and can be applied when analyzing and evaluating an object. There are three requirements when building a model: basic, simple, and clear. The goals of building a model include: Facilitating understanding by eliminating unnecessary components; Supporting decision making by simulating what might happen in a scenario; Explaining, controlling, and predicting events based on past observations.

For the traditional festival management model associated with tourism product development, the thesis will clarify and propose the contents of festival management.

Traditionally associated with tourism product development and the requirements detailed from those management contents. This part will be an important theoretical contribution of the thesis and is presented in chapter 3.

1.2.2. Managing traditional festivals from the perspective of preserving cultural heritage

1.2.2.1. Viewpoints on cultural heritage conservation

Ashworth [98] summarized the reality of heritage conservation in many countries around the world into 3 viewpoints and corresponding to them are 3 heritage conservation models.

Preservation as is: This is a view based on the museum's view of preserving tangible culture. This view holds that products of the past should be preserved in their original form. This view developed from 1850 and prevailed for a long time, almost playing a dominant role in heritage management methods.

The main features of this view are as follows:

- Regarding the purpose: In principle it is simple, easy to understand and is an ethical requirement; The ultimate purpose is to preserve everything that can be preserved.

- Regarding resources: Heritage resources are an immutable basis: relic sites have a certain historical basis; Products are identified and created on the basis of the origin of heritage.

- Regarding criteria for selecting heritage: Selection criteria depend on the nature of the heritage (historical significance, architectural beauty, etc.); In principle, selection criteria can be decided objectively through collective consensus; The authenticity of the heritage is the ultimate determinant of value.

- Regarding interpretive products for heritage: Conserved sites/artefacts have a market and a global, stable and univocal meaning.

- Regarding conservation strategy: There is an inherent contradiction between conservation and development; The effects of conservation that are counterproductive will generate secondary problems; Increasing the use of conserved products in the current period must be consistent with management work and if necessary, limit demand.

Conservation on the basis of inheritance: The view of conservation on the basis of inheriting the unique values of the past seems to be a fairly popular trend among scholars.

Nowadays, when discussing heritage in general and heritage management in particular, this theoretical perspective is based on the fact that each heritage needs to fulfill its historical mission in a specific time and space. When that heritage exists in the present time and space, that heritage needs to promote its cultural and social values in accordance with current society and must eliminate what is not suitable for that society.

Discussing this point of view, Ashworth argues that not only artifacts or buildings but also collections and other heritages are preserved based on inheritance; The selection criteria do not depend on the intrinsic nature of the heritage but also on external factors that are not intrinsic to the heritage; Conservation based on inheritance is concerned not only with the form but also with the functions of the heritage. [98, pp. 176-177]

Preservation - development: This is the current viewpoint that is dominating the academic world as well as the cultural management world in many developed countries in the world. This viewpoint is not concerned with the debate on how to preserve the original, what to inherit from the past, but focuses on how to make heritage live and develop its effects in contemporary life.

This conservation - development model is shown in the following points:

- Regarding purpose: Multi-purpose, and the purpose considered to be the main one is chosen by the community, no purpose is considered to be the ultimate one (note: scientists or managers cannot replace the community in choosing purpose or value).

- Authenticity: The authenticity of heritage lies in the experience and therefore cannot be determined objectively.

- Regarding cultural structure: Based on traditional structure but can also renew it or expand it reasonably.

- About resources: Resources are created by the needs of the product market.

Needs create resources and thus resources are unlimited.

- About function: Multi-function.

- Regarding preservation methods and approaches: Quite flexible, can follow traditional folk methods, can combine modern elements.

1.2.2.2. Managing traditional festivals from the perspective of preserving and developing cultural heritage

From the three perspectives of cultural heritage conservation stated above, if traditional festivals are considered cultural heritage, the theory of traditional festival management in Vietnam is supplemented as follows:

The view of intact preservation is actually supported by many scholars, especially museum experts, in the field of tangible cultural heritage. For traditional festivals (an intangible cultural heritage), determining which elements are original will encounter difficulties. Many village communities whose festivals in the past did not have complete rituals, were not large-scale... learned rituals and performances from other festivals to make their village festivals "more magnificent" and attract more visitors. However, some researchers condemn the mixture of traditional and modern elements and demand the elimination of that crude mixture. Because it is very difficult to determine which elements are original and which are derivative elements in the development process of the festival, and thus, intact preservation cannot be determined.

President Ho Chi Minh, in his work New Life, has put forward clear views on inheritance: “What is old and bad must be discarded, what is old and not bad but troublesome must be modified to be reasonable, what is old and good must be further developed”. That view belongs to the view of conservation based on inheritance. Conservation based on inheritance is very convenient because we only choose reasonable elements to promote. However, the issue worth mentioning here is which elements are chosen to promote and which elements are not chosen to promote. This view acknowledges the change of heritage, but holds that each cultural heritage has a historical mission in specific spaces and times, their positive aspects must be promoted to suit the needs of the times, on the contrary, the negative aspects must be eliminated. Practice in Vietnam has shown that, with this conservation perspective, many traditional festivals only have the "festival" part left, many cultural forms associated with ancient beliefs, many valuable folk performances are considered superstitious and banned from practice. Obviously, heritage conservation according to

This point of view will inevitably lead to the consequence that many traditional cultural forms that are inappropriate in the eyes of contemporary people will be removed and the heritage will no longer be intact.

In reality, both intact preservation and inheritance-based preservation have their own advantages and limitations. If the intact preservation perspective has difficulty in determining which elements are original, which are derivative, and which elements are preserved in the original; then the inheritance-based preservation perspective has difficulty in determining which elements are truly valuable and need to be inherited and promoted, which elements are no longer suitable and need to be eliminated; it is also necessary to warn that such elimination may result in the loss of cultural values that have not been deeply and thoroughly understood.

From the above analysis, the perspective of preserving and developing cultural heritage is the key theory that the thesis uses to research the proposal of managing traditional festivals associated with developing tourism products, aiming to maximize the "use purposes" of traditional festivals in modern life, importantly, both "developing" traditional festivals and "developing" the economic - cultural and social life of the locality.

Through research, the thesis finds that this theoretical viewpoint receives consensus from Bui Hoai Son's viewpoint of festival management as heritage. Accordingly, Bui Hoai Son proposes five solutions for traditional festival management from the perspective of heritage management, which have been specifically and in detail mentioned in the overview section 1.1. 2. Some viewpoints on festival management and traditional festivals.

1.2.3. Traditional festival management from the perspective of stakeholder management

This is a new viewpoint based on the recognition of the objective rationality of the conservation - development perspective for cultural heritages, including traditional festivals. This viewpoint is developed based on the following observations: 1) Most local communities with traditional festivals have the need to develop festivals to serve the socio-economic life, improving the living standards of local residents; 2) Not all traditional festivals can be considered as events, they must meet certain criteria, the most important of which is the appeal to a large, diverse public.

Expressing directly the view that traditional festivals are events and that it is necessary to manage them based on stakeholders, Bui Quang Thang 17 clearly stated that the contents of traditional festival management and organization belong to four main distinct groups of subjects (participants: people in local communities, tourists, the press and sponsors).

Pamela SY Ho and Bob McKercher present three “scenarios” that reflect the gaps between stakeholders that are one of the main factors hindering the successful development of cultural tourism products from heritage.

The most common scenario is that the stakeholders operate separately, doing only their part. The site managers view site development as an internal matter while the tourism operators implicitly assume that their task is to promote the effort. Thus, product development and marketing are carried out in complete isolation by the two parties. Neither party knows what the other is doing. The site managers are unaware of the market demand and the tourism operators are unaware of the cultural and symbolic values of the site. Without communication between the parties, false images are formed by inaccurate messages being transmitted to tourists. The second scenario is that the stakeholders do nothing to serve the tourists. The site managers simply present and manage the heritage assets while the tourism operators take tourists to the site and leave them to their own devices. Lack of information, services and infrastructure makes it difficult for tourists to use the product to satisfy their experience needs. In the final scenario, heritage managers develop tourism individually without consulting with tourism operators to grasp market demand, information and tourism behavior. With different mechanisms, lack of knowledge in tourism management, lack of market information, products are often not developed successfully. Without input from the tourism industry, product development and marketing efforts are often ineffective and inefficient [127, pp. 255-266].

17 Bui Quang Thang (2011), Organizing traditional festivals as event organization, http://vicas.org.vn/articledetail.aspx?sitepageid=579&articleid=361, accessed on January 25, 2014

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