Phu Yen, a province in the South Central Coast Region, is a historical-cultural land in a very significant position in the nation’s development process. Over 400 years of establishment and development, Phu Yen has preserved and maintained many cultural heritages bearing bold national identity, which is a great resource for tourism development and a solid foundation for Phu Yen international integration in the new time.

Tuy An stone musical instrument, a unique instrument of the ancient Vietnamese, valuable cultural heritage object, precious resource to develop cultural tourism. In photo: Former Vice State President Nguyen Thi Binh (middle) and international guests experiencing the sound of stone musical instrument

Currently, there have been nearly 600 relics in Phu Yen province, including historical, cultural, archaeological sites, places of interest, architectural art, temples, pagodas, churches,… Among these are 22 national monuments and landscapes, 48 ​​provincial monuments and landscapes.

Together with the system of material cultural heritage, Phu Yen province also preserves and promotes lots of intangible cultural heritages with many diversified forms such as traditional festivals, folk games, folk song and folk dance; especially, fishing festival of fishermen in the sea; ‘bai choi’ art; performance art of double, triple drums of Cham and Ba Na people in mountainous area honored as the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, contributing to affirming rich and diverse cultural identity in Phu Yen in the community of ethnic groups in Vietnam.

In terms of natural scenery, Phu Yen province owns many large beaches, clear blue water, fine sand stretching 189km of coastline, associated with many lagoons, bays with beautiful natural scenery, outstanding geological features such as Da Dia reef, Yen islet, Xuan Dai bay, O Loan lagoon, Xep beach, Mon beach - Dien cape, Vung Ro bay, Da Bia mountain, Nua islet. Thanks to the favorable nature, Phu Yen has many culinary specialties such as O Loan blood cockle, snails, Cu Mong lagoon crabs, tuna, Hoa Da pork and paper rice, a-sunny cow; the products of shrimp, squid, sea and freshwater fishes play an important role in making the mark for tourists.

Prior to 2011, Phu Yen tourism was still underdeveloped, not effectively exploiting the value of cultural heritage and inherent potential of the land. Tourism activities are not commensurate with the potential because Phu Yen tourism products are monotonous, unsustainable; the linkage in tourism exploitation and development among tourism destinations, tourism service establishments, localities in the province and other areas in the region and the whole country was still limited. Travel promotion was not professional, not often, not creating the brand for Phu Yen tourism reaching farther.

However, after the Great Anniversary of the 400th year of establishment and development (1611-2011) and the National Tourism Year of the South Central Coast 2011, Phu Yen tourism has made dramatic changes from the concept to the specific work. Localities have focused on implementing new construction, repairing some important infrastructure, serving for socio-economic development in association with sustainable tourism development. Local transportation networks and means of transportation have developed very strongly and faciliated traveling for visitors.

Talking about prosperities in the tourism industry in Phu Yen province, Mr. Ho Van Tien, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, lets known: In 2017, the number of tourists to Phu Yen province increased sharply, with about 1,404,000 turns of visitors. In the first nine months of 2018, the number of tourists to Phu Yen was 1,120,000 turns, reaching 77.2% of the year plan, up 11.5% over the same period last year, of which 32,000 turns of international visitors.

The development of tourism has been contributing to enhancing the economic restructuring; preserving and promoting the value of cultural and natural heritage; creating more jobs, improving people's life; boosting the process of international integration, popularizing the image of the land and people of Phu Yen.

Tourism and cultural heritage have an organic bond. Tourism plays an important role in promoting the image and values ​​of cultural heritage of Phu Yen to domestic and international tourists. Besides, Phu Yen tourism has also participated in conservation activities of cultural values as preserving cultural values ​​requires funding for professional activities such as: collecting, studying heritage; protecting, repairing and embellishing...

Source: Phu Yen Newspaper

Translated by TRINH THUY