Some Issues About Culture and Cultural Tourism

People who are not considered international tourists:

+ People who go to another country to practice their profession (with or without a contract) or to participate in business activities in the destination country (people who receive salaries or have income in the destination country).

+ Immigrants to the destination country.

+ Students studying in the destination country.

+ Border residents, people who reside in one country and work in a neighboring country.

+ Passengers who travel across a country without stopping even if the journey lasts more than 24 hours.

Domestic tourists (domestic tourists) are those who travel outside their usual environment in the country for a continuous period of more than 12 months and the purpose of the trip is not to carry out work for remuneration in the destination . In other words, domestic tourists are those who travel within their own country.

In short, the concept of tourists has more or less different points, but in general they all refer to:

- Departure motive (sightseeing, vacationing, visiting relatives, etc., except for the motive of making money.

- Time factor (pay special attention to the distinction between day visitors and tourists who stay overnight)

- Those listed as tourists and those not listed as tourists

In our country, according to the Vietnam Tourism Law, 2005, in Article 4, Chapter 1: "Tourists are people who travel or combine travel, except for those who go to study, work or practice a profession to receive income at the destination"

Article 34, Chapter V stipulates: “Tourists include domestic tourists and international tourists. Domestic tourists are Vietnamese citizens and foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam traveling within the territory of Vietnam. International tourists are foreigners and Vietnamese people residing abroad traveling to Vietnam; Vietnamese citizens and foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam traveling abroad.”

1.2. SOME ISSUES ON CULTURE AND CULTURAL TOURISM

1.2.1. Concept of culture

Culture is a concept with a broad connotation and many different ways of understanding, related to all aspects of human material and spiritual life. Culture is expressed in ideals of life, in concepts of the world and humanity, in beliefs, in labor and struggle, in the organization of life, the creation of society, and the expression of aesthetic ideals. Expressions of culture can be found in production methods and tools, ownership methods, social institutions, customs, communication between people, in the level of education and science and technology, in the level of creativity and appreciation of literature and art.

Up to now, the concept of culture has been expressed in many different ways by many cultural theorists in the world. The earliest scientific definition of culture was born in Europe by the British cultural anthropologist EB Tylor in his research work on "primitive culture" in 1871. He said: "Culture or civilization, understood in its widest ethnographic sense, means that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society".

Former UNESCO Director General, Mr. Mayo (F. Mayor), proposed a concept of culture that is both general and specific: “Culture includes everything that makes

makes one nation different from another, from the most sophisticated modern products to beliefs, customs, lifestyles and labor.

In Vietnam, ethnologist Nguyen Tu Chi, when studying culture, stated: “Culture does not limit itself to a few manifestations of spiritual life. It is the entire material, social, and spiritual life of each community”. Professor, Doctor of Science Tran Ngoc Them in his work “Searching for the identity of Vietnamese culture” defined: “Culture is an organic system of material and spiritual values ​​created and accumulated by humans through the process of practical activities in the interaction between humans and their natural and social environment”.

In short, culture is a product of mankind, culture is created and developed in the relationship between people and society. However, culture itself participates in creating people, and maintaining social stability and order. Culture is transmitted from generation to generation through the process of socialization. Culture is recreated and developed in the process of human action and social interaction. Culture is the level of development of humans and society expressed in the types and forms of organizing human life and action as well as in the material and spiritual values ​​created by humans.

1.2.2. Ethnic culture

Ethnic culture is one of the basic concepts of ethnology. It is the sum of elements of language, writing, material and spiritual cultural activities, psychological and emotional nuances, customs and rituals... that make people distinguish one ethnic group from another. Ethnic culture is the foundation for the birth and development of ethnic consciousness. When an ethnic group is assimilated, meaning it loses its own culture, ethnic consciousness will eventually fade away.

There is a certain distinction between ethnic culture and ethnic culture. Ethnic culture is the totality of cultural phenomena in the current appearance of that ethnic group, regardless of whether those cultural elements have ethnic nuances or are ethnically neutral. For example, European-style costumes, European-style or Chinese-style dishes, Vietnamese house construction styles are being adopted by ethnic groups in the mountainous regions, forms of Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism... in ethnic groups... are all ethnic cultural phenomena, but do not have ethnic characteristics, while ethnic culture is the totality of cultural elements with ethnic characteristics and peculiarities, it performs the function of consolidating the ethnic group and distinguishing this ethnic group from other ethnic groups. Ethnic cultural elements

Such people, first of all, must mention their mother tongue, costumes, especially women's costumes, beliefs and rituals, oral folk culture, folk knowledge about nature, society, about humans themselves and production knowledge, food tastes, national psychology...

In fact, ethnic culture and ethnic culture do not always have clear and unchanging boundaries. In the process of development, many cultural phenomena are initially just borrowed elements, but gradually become "nationalized" and "localized", becoming ethnic culture, more or less bearing national identity. Moreover, any foreign cultural element that is borrowed is more or less used and recreated in the borrower's own way1 .

1.2.3. Material culture and intangible culture

Material culture is a part of human culture, expressing human life in material form; it is the result of creative activities, transforming objects and materials in nature into objects of use and aesthetic value to serve human life. Material culture pays much attention to the quality and characteristics of natural objects, to the physical shape, making natural objects and materials through human creativity turn into material products to help human life.

Intangible culture is the whole spiritual activities of people and society including knowledge, customs, practices, habits, behaviors, language (including verbal and non-verbal language), values ​​and attitudes, cultural and artistic activities, religion, education, communication methods and ways of organizing society. Knowledge is the leading factor of culture, often measured formally by the level of education, the level of acquisition and application of scientific knowledge, the system of knowledge invented, perceived by people and accumulated, supplemented, improved and constantly renewed through generations.

In reality, material and immaterial culture are always closely linked and can be transformed into each other: it is not by chance that K. Marx said that "Ideas will become material forces when they are understood by the masses" . Therefore, depending on different purposes, the distinction between material and immaterial culture will have to be based on different criteria.

1 Professor Ngo Duc Thinh "Ethnic cultural nuances"

1.2.4. The relationship between culture and tourism

From the concepts and definitions of culture and tourism as mentioned above, it can be seen that the relationship between tourism and culture is a dialectical relationship. Tourism activities contribute to socio-economic growth, create conditions to improve the material and spiritual living standards of the community, and promote cultural development. On the contrary, cultural development, cultural identity is preserved, cultural works are embellished, traditional cultural capital is restored, and the spiritual and cultural life of the people is improved, which will create conditions to attract tourists and increase the growth of the tourism economy.

- Culture is a resource of tourism.

Cultural objects are considered particularly attractive tourism resources. Natural resources attract tourists because of their wildness, uniqueness, and rarity; human resources attract tourists because of their richness, diversity, and uniqueness due to their tradition and locality. Human resources are the main basis for creating rich forms of cultural tourism. On the other hand, cultural awareness is also a factor that promotes tourists' motivation to travel.

Every nation, no matter how small or economically backward, is still capable of contributing worthy cultural values ​​to the common cultural heritage of humanity. Those cultural heritages can become national tourism resources. Vietnam has very favorable conditions for tourism resources. Besides its strengths in natural resources, Vietnam also has a rich store of cultural resources: a long history and culture, thousands of world and national ranked relics, tens of thousands of religious and belief institutions that make every place exude the sacred atmosphere of mountains and rivers, sparkling with historical values, unique human values. Hundreds of folk festivals throughout the country create vitality for relics, places with many different colors of historical culture and spiritual culture. Vietnam has a rich national art heritage with many types of folk songs, folk dances, traditional theater, fine arts, architecture, sculpture... each of which shows the characteristic colors of each ethnic group, each region, each area, especially traditional crafts are very diverse, rich and sophisticated... Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups belonging to many different language groups, representing the language systems and ethnicities of Southeast Asia. The unique features of the ethnic groups are like a colorful flower garden of ethnic cultures scattered throughout the country and still retain the full wildness in customs, religions, beliefs, material and spiritual life... In Vietnam, everywhere people can find a rich, unique and attractive culinary culture according to each region.

Having gone through many challenges of cultural exchange and acculturation, Vietnam still affirms its cultural identity. Through history and communication, no one can deny that the Vietnamese nation and Vietnamese people in general have a tradition of hospitality, love and respect for people, love peace, respect morality, and are loyal and affectionate...

In short, Vietnam has many foundations and conditions to strive to build a solid tourism industry on the foundation of the most genuine and authentic cultural values. In other words, culture is the most solid foundation of Vietnamese tourism on the path of integration with regional and world tourism.

- Cultural tourism products

Tourism products are a type of synthetic product, in addition to tangible material products (material culture), the majority are intangible products (intangible culture) that satisfy the spiritual needs of tourists. Therefore, the use value and value of tourism products have some unique characteristics.

The use value of a tourism product lies in its ability to satisfy the comprehensive needs of tourists during the travel process, on the one hand including basic needs such as eating, staying, and traveling, on the other hand including spiritual needs such as sightseeing, traveling, enriching knowledge, enhancing communication, etc. Therefore, its use value is multifunctional. On the other hand, a tourism product is a combination of material products, spiritual products, and services. The intangibility of a tourism product makes the use value of a tourism product increasingly rich, which can only be achieved through the evaluation and measurement of tourists.

Tourism products are the crystallization of common human labor, the result of human energy and intelligence consumption, and have the same value as general material goods, but tourism products have complex needs and rich content. The value of tourism products can be divided into three contents: material product value, tourism service value and tourist attraction. In which, the value of material products and tourism service value can be determined, while cultural qualities, professional skills, professional ethics of tourism staff, etc. are difficult to build, so tourist attraction is an important content that forms the tourism product. It is both a purely natural attraction and includes the attraction from landscapes, social and human phenomena, etc.

Tourism is a special field of human activity, developed in accordance with the laws of human civilization on new levels. Tourism activities are completely

function of reproducing social labor by increasing the pace of human spiritual life.

On that basis, we can clearly analyze the characteristics of tourism products: the use value of tourism products is not in the physical existence. The object of "buying and selling" is not tourism resources but what is contained in tourism resources is the ability to satisfy the needs of tourists. Therefore, the use value of tourism products does not disappear after each "sale" but on the contrary, the more times it is sold, the more this use value increases. The use value of tourism products is not something that is stable and equal to all buyers. The value structure of tourism products is the profit of the tourism industry, reflecting the characteristics of the formation of the industry's products. Tourists buy the use value of tourism products, that is, buy the ability to satisfy their specific needs. The structure of specific needs is very rich and diverse, including the following main aspects: the need to appreciate the landscape; appreciate the value of culture, history and tradition; The need to rest, search, discover new knowledge and emotions. These needs reflect the cultural nature of tourism activities. In other words, tourism products have cultural content because tourism products are the crystallization of three factors: natural landscape, national identity and achievements of material civilization. Thus, culture is the foundation for creating the quality and effectiveness of tourism products. Cultural values ​​determine the unique features of tourism products.

- Tourism is a means of promoting culture.

Culture is associated with human activities, so it has an exchange nature. Thanks to exchange, cultural activities are spread between regions, areas and countries. Tourism today is the way to recognize the diversity and uniqueness of cultures. Tourism is a bridge of peace. Through tourism, tourists understand more about the culture of the land they visit, creating conditions for people to be closer together.

During the trip, tourists will directly contact with tourism products, diverse and rich cultural forms are factors that determine the quality of the trip, which creates special excitement for tourists.

- Positive impacts of tourism on culture, economy and society

Tourism is both an economic lever and a socio-cultural phenomenon. The rapid development of tourism has a very clear impact on the world economy and human culture.