Da Nang museums: Creating spaces to lure tourists

Update: 21/11/2023
(TITC) - Applying information technology to reach visitors in both breadth and depth, opening new exhibition spaces to increase attraction is the effort of museums in Da Nang City to attract domestic and international visitors

International visitors enjoy learning about Cham cultural space at the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture (Photo: baovanhoa.com.vn)

In order to assist international tourists have a broader comprehensive view of the cultural life of the Cham ethnic community, the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture will soon inaugurate and put into operation a new Cham cultural space which contains many artefacts about the spiritual life, religion, and beliefs of the Cham people in Vietnam from ancient times to present.

As per plan, this new Cham cultural space at the museum will have about 150 artefacts displayed in 6 themes, including beliefs and religious life, traditional writing, costumes, musical instruments, festivals, and craft villages, expressed in models of houses, temples, and religious spaces in the style of the Cham people, specifically, focusing on displaying and introducing the most basic artefacts of the three Cham groups in the country: Cham Brahman, Cham Bani and Cham Islam.

In each displaying area, the museum arranges introduction panels in Vietnamese and English, and also has illustrations of Cham people using the artefacts so that visitors can easily visualise.

Mr. Vo Hoai Nam, officer of the Collection, Preservation and Display Division (Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture), said that the artefacts have been collected by the museum for many years in localities such as Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, An Giang.

What's special is that the new Cham cultural space contains many artefacts that are nearly 100 years old and are still used by Cham people today. With its freshness and attraction, in just a few days of opening, the Cham cultural space has attracted hundreds of international tourists to visit.

Mr. Tran Dinh Ha, Deputy Director of the Museum of Cham Sculpture said, for a long time, people and tourists coming to the museum mostly admire Cham sculptures and architecture, learn about the age, history as well as the preciousness of statues and artefacts. The museum has opened this space to create more diversity and liveliness, attracting visitors to the museum. In particular, through the space, it helps the public have a more complete and comprehensive view of Cham ethnic groups, life, and culture.

Although it has opened to serve visitors, the Cham culture space is only over 90% complete, and the museum is in the process of completing some auxiliary items. It is expected that all will be completed before 23rd November 2023 for the museum to hold an inauguration ceremony to celebrate Vietnam Cultural Heritage Day (23rd November).

Determined that digital transformation plays an important part in preserving and promoting heritage, museums in Da Nang have promoted the application of information technology, using technology as an effective bridge between museums and publics. Da Nang currently has four public museums including Da Nang Museum, Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture, Da Nang Fine Arts Museum, and Military Region 5 Museum. There are also other three public museums and two galleries. Currently, museums are focusing on promoting IT applications, serving tourists in both direct and online forms, the immediate effect is that thousands of artefacts, documents, and heritage relics in Da Nang have been digitised.

The Museum of Cham Sculpture is implementing the work of bringing an autoguide system in Vietnamese and English via QR code into the Cham cultural space to serve the information demands of visitors. In the coming time, the museum will continue to collect and add artefacts to Cham culture. Thereby, contributing to improving service quality and spreading knowledge about Cham culture to a large number of people inside and outside the city. The Museum of Cham Sculpture is also the first museum in Da Nang to have a virtual reality museum tour application integrated and synchronised on the VR360 platform - One touch to Da Nang, an application to promote tourist attractions of the city in 2023.

The Da Nang museums have pioneered the construction and use of digital map information technology applications to serve the conservation and promotion of relic sites in the city. Thanks to digital maps, people can learn and exploit rich and accurate data sources about Da Nang's historical relic system. In addition, Da Nang museums have digitised artefacts and documents currently being stored and displayed…

Tourism Information Technology Center