Looking at the breathtakingly beautiful photos of craft villages from all over Viet Nam, I imagined the images of Nam O fish sauce, Cam Ne mats and Non Nuoc stone full of vibrations spread across social media. However, that dream is still a long journey, there are many things needing to be done for the development of craft village tourism in Da Nang.

The Quang Phu Cau incense stick craft village has done very well in developing craft villages associated with tourism. Photo: L.G

Developing craft villages associated with tourism

I love photography and cultural tourism, but it wasn't until last year that I had the opportunity to participate in photo tours, a type of tourism that combines two elements: travel and photography. Without resting, we were engrossed in a tight schedule that was somewhat different from regular tours, sometimes departing at 2 a.m. to get to the shooting spot in time to wait for dawn, sometimes staying up late wandering somewhere to "expose" (a technique in photography)...

Without beautiful clothes, we chose convenient clothes for climbing the mountain to see the golden rice fields of Tam Coc (Ninh Binh Province) as golden as silk from above, to wade in the mud with the Mong people cultivating on the terraces, to cling to the craggy motorbikes in La Pan Tan, Che Cu Nha and De Xu Phinh (Mu Cang Chai District, Yen Bai Province). And there are many more days than that - days of travelling, understanding and loving the culture imbued with the nation's identity more.

The diversity, uniqueness, and uniqueness of each region's culture always makes me happy after every trip, and even happier when witnessing many destinations, especially craft villages, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists. A typical example is the incense stick craft village of Quang Phu Cau in the capital city of Ha Noi.

People here know how to exploit the advantages of craft villages to earn extra income from visitors’ spending and collecting fees from crating settings for photo shooting by arranging bunches of incense sticks in all colours of red, green, yellow into beautiful, eye-catching shapes, from the shape of the country to the national flag, or the Christmas tree.

The pioneer in developing tourist attractions associated with craft villages, making Quang Phu Cau famous far and wide, is the owner of the incense stick production facility: Nguyen Huu Long. Initially, when expanding the workshop yard to create art space from incense sticks, he did not think the effect would be so high.

“This creativity was fortunately combined with a boom in social networks, prompting photos taken here to spread strongly. As the number of tourists comes more and more, to meet the needs of tourists, I continue to invest in more stairs so that visitors can have beautiful angles from above, said Mr. Long.

From just being a side job during leisure time, making incense sticks has now become the main source of income, bringing economic efficiency to about 3,000 households in the village. Photography and tourism have contributed to preserving, developing and promoting the more-than-100-year traditional craft village.

Also attracting tourists thanks to the way the product is decorated like a work of art, the Thu Sy village in the northern province of Hung Yen brings the image of a typical northern countryside village. Baskets are tied into bunches like bamboo flowers and hung on the porch, blending with the tiled roofs and three-room houses in the dim smoke, creating a peaceful scene.

At the same time, that basket became a giant flower on bicycles in the middle of endless green rice fields. Many photos were born amid picturesque, simple everyday life, helping Thu Sy village become more and more widely known.

Photography promoting tourism

Viet Nam is strange and familiar, static and dynamic, unique and colourful, and has been introduced to the public and friends around the world by many photographers, including a few prominent names such as Cao Ky Nhan, Khanh Phan, Devil Coc Tu, Nguyen Ngoc Thien. But not only professional photographers, now anyone can contribute to promoting Viet Nam's scenery through photos.

Obviously, recently, fanpages with creative content about photography have always received great love from the online community, for example: “Take pictures everywhere”. These photos have in common is normal, meaning that they tell very ordinary life stories through images.

Somehow, any place can become a poetic ‘tourist attraction’ from old apartment buildings to endless green corn fields, from small alleys to new straw piles in the middle of fields, from famous specialities to everyday dishes. The pervasiveness of photography is already great, now combined with the coverage of social networking sites, helping places no longer "stay in place" but fly far and wide, urging everyone to "pick up your backpack and go".

Because of this, photo tour is a tourism trend that many companies are interested in developing, meeting the diverse needs of customers. After nearly 10 years of working with photo tours, Mr. Tran Quy Thinh, Head of the Photography and Tourism Club, said that when organising photo tours, he is often interested in local culture and identity through craft villages, traditional festivals, typical local cuisine so that each member participating in the trip has more information and knowledge about regional and local cultural identities. Through that, they can take beautiful photos thanks to genuine emotions.

The Nam O fish sauce has been given a "new look" from the brand name and packaging to investment in images and videos. Photo: Provided by the writer

Need more cooperation

Participating in many trips, travelling along craft villages in the North and South, I excitedly waited for the opportunity to discover the cultural identity of my hometown. Mr. Tran Quy Thinh shared that when building a tour programme in the central region, he often has to combine Da Nang with neighbouring localities.

Most domestic and foreign photographers choose the Da Nang tour because they love the special images of red-shanked douc langurs in Son Tra or Huyen Khong Cave in the Marble Mountains Tourists Site.

Meanwhile, the stops in the Hue and Quang Nam provinces are more diverse, such as making ten-colour nets, boiling and treating mussels in Quang Nam; drying bamboo fans, casting fishing nets/casting hooves/letting lanterns on Nhu Y River, agarwood craft village, Thanh Tien paper flower village, Ru Cha forest in Hue.

However, there are still enthusiastic hearts somewhere who are constantly trying to revive craft villages in Da Nang, typically Mr. Bui Thanh Phu, 40, the Director of Hong Huong Fish Company Limited. With the agility of youth, he found every way to bring the more than 400-year-old Nam O fish sauce brand closer to tourists.

He boldly invested in beautifying the production facility and making videos introducing thuis time-honoured craft village and products, collaborating with travel companies to bring tourists to visit and experience the traditional fish sauce production process, organising a photo contest ‘Traditional beauty of the Nam O village’, creating fish sauce coffee. Thanks to that, more and more tourists come to the village to visit and experience it, but frankly, the change in the craft village has not really made a breakthrough.

There is still regret about the Cam Ne edict that was once present in the inner court of the Nguyen kings and is now on the verge of oblivion, the once famous Cam Le dried sesame seed cake with only has a few production facilities for the time being.

The problem of preserving and developing traditional craft villages is not the story of one person or one business household, but requires a synchronous system of solutions as well as more attention and support from all levels of government. Hopefully, in the near future, the map of tours will thicken the destinations of Da Nang and craft villages in particular.

Writing by LE GIANG – Translating by A.THU