Festivals for the community to participate in. It seems that because of the sacred element of traditional festivals, especially traditional festivals dedicated to sages, the festival/entertainment element has been reduced or even banned. Nowadays, whether we like it or not, we need to admit that the need to enjoy festivals in traditional festivals is a real need, growing and needs to be respected. If we consider the factor of attracting tourists, this is an even more important issue. This can be clearly seen when comparing traditional festivals with modern festivals.
Third, can traditional festivals meet the special needs of tourists? In fact, when coming to festivals, tourists have many special needs that no economic law can meet because they are related to people's spiritual life. Because of spiritual/religious beliefs, the special value of traditional festivals can attract tourists naturally and without having to implement too many technical measures. For example, the Hoang Bay Temple Festival (Lao Cai) will suit the spiritual needs of business people, while the Tran Temple Festival is the priority choice of the group of people who develop along the official path... Those are the unique points, suitable for the spiritual and religious needs of the customers.
3.3.2.2. Traditional festivals need to be organized in conjunction with package tourism products.
Only when determining the management of traditional festivals associated with the development of tourism products, managers and organizations can deal with their products professionally. It can be understood that products produced in a material direction will be commodity products, while products created by immaterial means are service products. Traditional festivals are a service product and the object of product services. It is necessary to organize traditional festivals as a complete tourism product, not only to revive traditional festivals but also to truly create resources for local and larger national socio-economic development. Specifically, managers need to:
- Firstly, design the tour itinerary (spiritual tour for whom? Separate tour, 1-day and multi-day tour...) (For example, Tich Dien is associated with Vieng market, Tran temple (Nam Dinh);
- Second, transportation, sleeping and resting services (for example, if there are no hotels, develop home stays);
- Third, culinary culture (specialties, however the problem is that if it's too short, no one will invest in this service);
- Fourth, souvenirs (unique, handmade);
- Fifth, entertainment services (traditional festivals usually do not have activities at night, what needs to be added? For example, in Kiep Bac festival, there is Hau Dong festival, in Tich Dien, there is singing at the communal house of Doi Tam village, the praying ceremony at Doi pagoda, and the burning of cotton trees. Fireworks at the Tich Dien festival yard on the night of January 6 can keep visitors (especially young people) for many days).
3.3.2.3. Local communities have the capacity to manage traditional festivals associated with tourism product development.
Traditional festivals themselves are cultural events, whether approached from a commodity perspective or not. In the past, it was assumed that these festivals had to have some management activities to be able to organize and conduct the festival according to the needs of the community that gave birth to that festival. When traditional festivals become a tourism product, the need for festival management becomes much more important. In particular, those participating in organizing festivals must be knowledgeable about the laws and regulations of the State and locality on festivals and festival organization; have an understanding of the culture and historical origin of the festival; have the capacity to mobilize the masses to participate in preparing, implementing and organizing a suitable festival management board, with a combination of local authorities and appropriate, reputable local personnel. Thus, the first capacity of a community with traditional festivals can be mentioned as the capacity to organize and operate the festival.
Second, is the ability to mobilize and allocate resources (i.e. fundraising) to serve traditional festivals. Fundraising is a term that refers to the mobilization of various financial resources to carry out certain purposes. Fundraising and finding sponsorship are activities that are maintained and planned to discover, access and develop financial resources as well as other necessary resources to serve the preparation and organization of a traditional festival. This work needs to be implemented on the basis of ideas.
and fundraising ethics, including the proper use of funding, respect for the principles of funding sustainability, and effective resource management. For traditional festivals, fundraising and effective use of resources is a demonstration of the maturity of the festival management force. Before becoming a product with commodity elements, these festivals themselves must have a certain financial resource to be able to carry out basic preparation and ceremony activities. When the festival takes place, the opportunity to attract additional resources will compensate for the costs advanced for the preparation work. Attracting resources before, during and after the festival is one of the most important factors that determine whether a traditional festival can become a tourism product that generates resources for residents and localities where the festival takes place. From a certain perspective, for traditional festivals, contributing resources to the organization, maintenance and development of traditional festivals for tourists is a voluntary activity, mutually beneficial (spiritually for tourists and financially for managers). However, the problem is how to make that fundraising activity a voluntary activity from the contributors' fees and use and allocate those resources reasonably, avoiding the situation of "buying gods, selling saints" as well as profiteering from some managers who have a role in the festival. This also reflects the capacity of managers for traditional festivals in the context of little or no support from the state budget for implementation. In fact, if a traditional festival is a tourism product, managers must calculate the costs and revenues as a product production and business activity.
Third is the capacity for cultural creativity. The term culture itself includes creativity. There is no such thing as a fixed culture, but there is always constant change and creativity, not only from the owner who creates the cultural product but also from the cultural adaptation that takes place in the process of cultural exchange and adaptation. For traditional festivals in localities, the cultural creativity of indigenous people is very important, having a decisive meaning in whether or not the local traditional festival can be turned into a cultural tourism product. And vice versa, the "renewal" of traditional festivals on the traditional foundation of the festival
not only gives visitors a new feeling about the festival but also brings new vitality, new feelings about old festivals. Traditional festivals in Vietnam often focus on the worshiping rituals. To some extent, this factor will preserve the traditional features of the festival, but if it stops there, the vitality of the festival will gradually decline. People themselves, especially non-residents, are attached to the cultural space where the festival takes place, they will not have the need for the ritual activities of the festival. They need a more vibrant, more attractive cultural space to satisfy both their spiritual needs and the need to share culture and entertainment. Therefore, this cultural creativity is not only the story of the community of residents who own the festival but also the responsibility of orientation, organization, and practice of the festival management force. The new creative element for traditional festivals, in the current period, is the responsibility of all the forces participating in the festival, but first of all, it is the work of the management force. Therefore, to speak of cultural creativity, from a certain perspective, is to survey and add new elements to the festival; to practice it in a larger cultural space, to attract more tourists with a festival logistics system that is implemented thoughtfully, systematically, and to create many opportunities for resource creation.
Fourth, marketing and communication capacity (from festival quality to event organization and communication through television and press channels). Organizing traditional festivals must be considered as organizing an event. Only when organizing traditional festivals is considered as organizing an event, all issues will be organized professionally, systematically, meeting the requirements of managers (state management and festival management) and the needs of tourists. This issue is a huge challenge for the management force of traditional festivals in localities, which is a group of village elders or prestigious people in the community but completely lacking in the capacity to manage festivals as an event. However, to fulfill this requirement, it is clearly difficult to avoid conflicts of interests and responsibilities of the management forces for traditional festivals in localities.
3.3.3. Participation of parties in traditional festival management associated with tourism product development
After the research process, the thesis came to the conclusion: in the traditional festival management model associated with tourism product development, it is necessary to ensure the participation of at least 3 parties: the State (represented by local authorities at all levels) - Local community with the support of experts/ event organizers - Travel businesses.
The participation of the parties and the requirements of this participation are shown in the table below:
Table 3.2. Participation of parties in traditional festival management associated with tourism product development
The parties
Request | |
1) State (represented by local authorities at all levels) | (1) State management (at all levels) of traditional festivals, direction of traditional festivals (2) Allocate and monitor the use of state budget investment for traditional festivals (3) have representatives/ important roles in the Management Board/ Organizing Committee of traditional festivals (4) Promote and advertise destinations and traditional festivals through official channels of the State (at all levels) |
2) Local community with support from professionals/ event organizers | (1) Core member of the Management Board/Organizing Board of traditional festivals, coordinating participation in various roles, directly or indirectly related to traditional festivals of local residents (2) Manage, operate, and use financial resources/funds/investment capital of the local community for traditional festivals (3) Coordinate management and monitoring of social income from tourism associated with traditional festivals (4) appear as the host of the traditional festival/event host (5) promote and advertise traditional festivals through community channels/methods |
3) Travel business | (1) Design tours and routes associated with traditional festivals (2) Coordinate with local authorities and residents to prepare service infrastructure for tourists. (3) proactively provide professional human resources or train local communities to participate in providing services to tourists. (4) Promotion, PR, marketing of tourism products associated with traditional festivals (5) Providing package and partial tours associated with traditional festivals |
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3.4. Solutions for managing traditional festivals associated with tourism product development
3.4.1. Improving the qualifications of human resources for managing traditional festivals
A core issue of management is to improve the management capacity of grassroots cultural civil servants, especially district, commune and village cadres. It is necessary to organize short-term and long-term training courses for management cadres. The courses are not organized in a perfunctory manner, but need to be truly trained, with periodic tests in both theory and practice. A problem in training is that many cadres sent to study do not study seriously and focus on the subject, giving the excuse that they still have a lot of work to do at the agency or personal reasons, then cope in the tests and are also passed. Such training and coaching methods are really ineffective, costly, perfunctory and formal. Managers must determine that if training is conducted, it must be implemented seriously so that management cadres can absorb all the knowledge imparted and practice proficiently. As long as managers do not take education seriously and are not serious about acquiring knowledge, it will be difficult to create positive change.
Education is the primary tool and strategy for creating positive change. Education will have side effects if the trainees consider attending training courses as a formality: the cost of organizing training courses is expensive but the trainees do not achieve the highest educational results as expected but only partially. Sometimes the managers themselves are satisfied with that low quality, considering it "better than nothing". This is just an excuse for poor and incomplete management. In short, to really create change in management to turn the festival into a tourism product, the manager must be really serious and always demand the highest results from the initial investment. The easy acceptance of everything will lead to laxity in management and that is the root of all failures.
With cultural management, improving the qualifications of managers is more important than anything else. In addition to the general knowledge required of a normal manager, cultural managers need to pay attention to updating new knowledge to approach practice without being surprised. For example, in the research problem of the thesis, while many
The view that tradition and heritage are something immutable, cultural managers have to self-reflect that tradition in general and heritage in particular are like any other social phenomenon, it has movement. That movement is objective if it is consistent with the wishes and interests of the community. As a researcher said: "tradition makes new what is already ; it is not limited to making a culture known , because it identifies with the very life of a community" [60]. In other words, tradition in general and heritage in particular have a dialectical relationship. Managers cannot pretend to be ignorant or "not discuss" the new perspectives arising in the practice of managing traditional festivals.
3.4.2. Building destination brands through traditional events and festivals
When talking about tourism products, we must talk about destination brands. Therefore, if we want to manage festivals to become tourism products, we cannot help but talk about building destination brands. Branding is the affirmation of a product's position in the market, whether domestic or foreign. Branding is the "voice" of the product's value, the influence of that product on consumers. When launching a product, the manufacturer always tries its best to have a brand, a "name" in the market. Branding for tourism products can be built in the usual way, through contemporary art or by the ability to apply world experiences.
So, to manage the Tich Dien festival or the Kiep Bac festival into a tourism product, managers need to consider building a brand for these festivals themselves. Building a brand for a tourism product as well as other business brands, includes creating a visual identity and key messages, making that image and message enter the minds of consumers through impact measures such as advertising, PR, marketing, etc.
Building a brand cannot be done in a short time. For example, to create a brand for the Tich Dien Festival, managers must first restore the festival according to the principles of ethnographic fieldwork, recall the elders, and absorb the opinions of local people. The festival needs to be held in a sacred, solemn atmosphere with many performing rituals. For example, the Tich plowing ritual
Dien to create a big echo, become the "brand" of Ha Nam province, contributing to the diversity in the festival system in Vietnam.
When building a brand for the Kiep Bac festival, managers need to pay attention to the unique features of this festival. According to many tourists, the most unique feature of the Con Son - Kiep Bac Autumn Festival is the procession and military assembly on the Luc Dau River, the river that flows through Kiep Bac Temple. On this river, more than 7 centuries ago, Hung Dao Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan and his soldiers practiced diligently. The jubilant and magnificent military festival scene in the open space, both on the banks and under the riverbed, with dozens of boats decorated with colorful flags and flowers, together performing three performances recreating the victory in the resistance war against the Yuan-Mongol army of the nation. In particular, many tourists coming to the Kiep Bac festival also wish to witness and attend the Kiep Bac Temple seal granting ceremony. Because this place is preserving 4 bronze seals of Duc Thanh: Tran Trieu Hung Dao Vuong chi an, Quoc Phap Dai Vuong, Van Duoc Linh Phu and Phi Thien Than Kiem Phu. After the ritual of worshipping the Saint and secretly praying for the Saint to bless the nation and people, the representative of Hai Duong province's leaders will open the Saint's seal and give it to the people and tourists with the wish that Saint Tran will bless, protect and bring good luck in life...
The traditional festival of Kiep Bac Temple commemorating the death anniversary of the national hero Hung Dao Dai Vuong has long been deeply rooted in the sacred consciousness of every Vietnamese person, becoming a traditional cultural custom of the nation , a sacred meeting place for people across the country. The ancient Kiep Bac Temple Festival had many unique intangible forms performed. However, due to historical changes, many rituals and folk performances were lost. Up to now, the selective restoration and upgrading of festival contents have met the people's need to enjoy culture and beliefs and affirmed the stature, worthy of the position of the famous person, of this special national relic site. Today's Kiep Bac Temple Festival harmoniously combines the past and the present on the basis of inheriting traditional cultural elements, absorbing and filtering new and modern cultural elements to enrich the potential and value of the festival.