Long An province is making efforts to preserve and promote the value of historical and cultural relics to educate the younger generation about traditions and raise the potential for tourism development from the relics in the area.
Traditional education associated with tourism development
The whole province has 126 historical and cultural relics, 3 historical cultural works, including 21 national relics and 105 provincial relics. The relics not only contribute to educating the people, especially the young generation, about traditions, but also have great potential for tourism development.
In recent years, the province has focused on the management, conservation and restoration of historical and cultural relics. This both demonstrates gratitude and the morality of "Remember the source of water", and creates more highlights to promote the potential for developing tourism at "red addresses".
The Ha Bac - Long An veterans' delegation visits the Memorial Site of Lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho
From 2010-2023, the whole province has about 40 historical and cultural relics that have been restored, embellished, upgraded, and repaired with a total capital of more than 325 billion VND from the state budget and socialized capital. Among them, there is the Memorial Site of Lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho (Ben Luc town, Ben Luc district), the Long Khot Fort Area Relic (Thai Binh Trung commune, Vinh Hung district), the Memorial Site of Regiment 271 (Thanh Phuoc commune, Thanh Hoa district), the Tan Xuan Communal House Relic (Tam Vu town, Chau Thanh district), etc.
Since 2017, the historical and cultural relics have been decentralized to the People's Committees of districts, towns, and cities for management. This helps to enhance the responsibility and initiative of the district-level People's Committees in the management, exploitation and promotion of the value of the relic system in the province. In Chau Thanh district, the construction, repair and restoration of historical and cultural relics are given special attention. Since 2021, the district has invested more than 31 billion VND in renovating martyrs' cemeteries, historical and cultural relics and martyrs' memorial houses. In 2024 alone, the district upgraded and repaired 4 works with a total capital of nearly 8 billion VND.
For Tan Thanh district, in order to effectively carry out the preservation of historical and cultural relics, each year, the district People's Committee allocates funds for cleaning, sweeping and taking care of historical and cultural relics in the area. Thanks to the decentralization of management, socialization, the work of restoring, embellishing and making minor repairs to historical and cultural relics in the district is basically favorable.
The concentration of resources from the province to the locality for investment and restoration of relics contributes to the good implementation of traditional education associated with sightseeing and tourism, making historical and cultural relics an important part of the province's tourism resources. The number of visitors to relics is increasing. If in 2022, the Provincial Museum - Library and relics directly managed by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism welcomed more than 14,000 visitors, in 2023, this number will increase to more than 40,000.
In the first 9 months of 2024, nearly 30,000 visitors came to the Provincial Museum - Library and the relics and cultural works directly managed by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. According to statistics from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the whole province has more than 67,000 students, union members, and youth coming to study extracurricular activities, visit, and experience at the historical and cultural relics.
Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism - Nguyen Thanh Thanh affirmed: "In addition to the meaning of traditional education, the historical and cultural relics also has the potential to develop tourism if more investment is made in ancillary services and tourism products to attract tourists. From tourism development, the goal of traditional education can be maximized; at the same time, it will bring back investment funds for the preservation and restoration of relics".
The preservation and promotion of the values of the historical and cultural relics associated with tourism development contributes practically to the implementation of Resolution No. 5, dated January 4, 2023 of the Provincial Party Committee on building and developing the culture and people of Long An until 2030 and the following years, because the historical and cultural relics is a place to preserve the good traditional values of forefather generations in the process of building and defending the homeland.
Union members and students visit and learn about history at the national historical site of the Southern Regional Party Committee Base and the Southern Resistance Administration Committee (Photo: Tran Thoa)
Remaining concerns
In addition to the continuous efforts over the past time, the restoration and conservation of cultural relics in the province still has certain limitations. According to the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee on the conservation work associated with tourism development in the province, due to the investment in the construction of relics being scattered, lacking focus, and lasting for many years, most projects have not been completed while the first phase items have seriously degraded.
The budget has not met the maintenance and upkeep of relic items. Among them, the national historical relics of the Southern Regional Party Committee Base and the Southern Resistance Administration Committee, the provincial Revolutionary Historical Site are currently damaged, the houses in the original relic cluster, the exhibition house, and the stele house also show signs of degradation.
In addition, the large construction area makes it difficult to care for and maintain ornamental plants and lawns in some national relic sites due to lack of funds and human resources. Socialization and calling for investment in relic sites are still slow due to many legal regulations, leading to some relic sites not having ancillary services such as food, souvenirs, games, etc. This more or less affects the exploitation and development of tourism at the destinations.
The management of historical and cultural relics also faces certain difficulties. Some relics, especially archaeological relics, have been regconized for a long time but have not had plans or projects for restoration and embellishment, such as the Binh Ta architectural ruins cluster and An Son relics. Regarding this issue, Deputy Director of the Provincial Museum, Library - Nguyen Thi Sau said that archaeological relics have their own characteristics. The preservation, investment and exploitation of archaeological relics need to be carried out by competent and professional agencies. Otherwise, archaeological sites are likely to fall into a state of desertion.
With these difficulties, the exploitation and attraction of tourists to the historical and cultural relics sites are more or less affected. According to the assessment of the Provincial Museum, Library, the visits and learning of union members, youth, students and pupils at the Provincial Museum, Library and the historical and cultural relics sites are sometimes formal and superficial. Many groups only visit the sites and the Provincial Museum, Library for a short time and then take the opportunity to visit and travel to other places.
The province has made great efforts in the work of preserving and promoting the values of the historical and cultural relics, but in reality, that journey still has many challenges. To better protect and promote the precious values of the relic sites, the whole community needs to join hands because preserving the sites is a common responsibility. Preserving and promoting the values of the historical and cultural relics is not only preserving the material but also the spiritual values and national identity./.
"To better protect and promote the precious values of the historical and cultural relics, the whole community needs to join hands because preserving relics is a common responsibility. Preserving and promoting the values of historical and cultural relics is preserving not only the material but also the spiritual values and national identity". - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism - Nguyen Thanh Thanh
By Que Lam - Translated by Q. Thien