The Curse of the Tourism Festival
Today’s Thanh Nien News has an interesting article about the use of ‘Tourism Festivals’ to attract tourists (at least the article doesn’t use “lure”, the sinister word often used by the local media when discussing tourism - given the sharp practices that go on in some sectors of the local tourism industry, it’s often pretty apt!).
“Many countries organize tourism festivals when tourism is slumping to ensure that they can attract as many customers then as when the business is booming” says the article. Do they really? I’ve never heard of any other country organising ‘tourism festivals’, as the very idea of a tourism festival would be enough to kill off tourism to that destination, at least for the duration of the festival itself.
It’s not that tourists dislike festivals; on the contrary, if the festival is a traditional one celebrated by the local people over several generations (such as Hong Kong’s Dragon Boat Festival), it is of great interest to tourists. Or if it’s a music festival, be it an all-encompassing one such as Glastonbury in the UK, or a specialist one such as the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland, tourists will flock there to hang out, drink beer, listen to live music and meet up with like-minded visitors.
Sadly, most of Vietnam’s festivals do not fit either criteria, the assumption being that traditional local festivals are of no interest to foreign tourists, and live rock/jazz music, and their usual accoutrements, still being largely viewed as ’social evils’. So festivals are generally rather kitsch affairs, aimed halfheartedly at overseas visitors but attracting mainly excitement-starved locals. Any live music is likely to be Vietnamese love ballads (unlistenable to most foreign ears) or Celine Dion covers. Ever been to a flower festival here? Here’s a flower display. Here’s another one. OK, I get the picture. When’s the band on? Oh…
One of the festivals cited in the article is something called the Nha Trang Sea Festival. Here is a sample of this exciting event:
The event this year will introduce a street festival including pedicabs of flowers, tandems, carriages decorated with flowers which will parade the streets, a beer festival with the participation of the beer firms present in Vietnam.
In addition, a festival of picture embroidering will be held with unique rites by the XQ Nha Trang Company, which has built a house to worship embroidering ancestors at 64 Tran Phu Street.
In addition, exhibitions on pottery, calligraphy as well as artistic performances and fashion performances will take place during the Nha Trang sea festival. Ending the Nha Trang festival will be the day of walking.
The worship of embroidering ancestors? Saigon Beer? Calligraphy? A ‘day of walking’? None of it likely to have foreign visitors rushing to book flights, and none of it remotely associated with the sea.
Why not follow Phuket’s lead and get on the Asian yachting circuit? Get the rich yachties into town, get some live jazz going down on the seafront, and the place would be jumping. Embroidery doesn’t quite have the same pulling power…
