Artists perform on a water floor in the stage within the “Tinh hoa Bac Bo” show in Hanoi. (Photo: thequintessenceoftonkin.com)
Currently, the strong development of the tourism industry has made the
number of visitors in many countries, including Vietnam, constantly
increase. This situation is praiseworthy, but also requires frequent
innovation from the tourism industry in finding new destinations and
making unique experiences to attract tourists, thereby helping boost the
sector’s growth towards stable and sustainable development.
The combination of tourism and theatre has been considered a new
direction for a range of travel businesses, promising to bring about
positive effects. Under this combination, two benefits can be seen
immediately. Firstly, a dynamic and modern stage model based on
crystallising the characteristics of the national culture would
contribute effectively in promoting tourism of each country. Meanwhile,
through tourism, theatre genres would be expanded to a large number of
the audience, and artists would have more space to be creative.
In fact, over the past years, many art forms, including the stage, have
contributed significantly to the success of the tourism industry in many
countries. In some countries, the stage has been chosen as the key to
serve tourists, reflected in the art performances that are the main
theme of the tours. Evidence for that can be seen through the fact that
many tourists buy tours to enjoy ballet in Russia, Noh drama in Japan,
Peking opera in China or Cabaret performances in Thailand.
In Vietnam, in the design of tours, besides the linking with historical
monuments and scenic spots, some travel businesses have added enjoying
the traditional theatre arts, such as cai luong (reformed opera) and don ca tai tu (Southern amateur music) in the Mekong Delta, tuong (classical) drama in Binh Dinh, ca kich (traditional royal theatre) in Hue, bai choi (singing while playing cards) singing in Quang Nam, xoan (spring) singing in Phu Tho and quan ho (love
duet singing) in Bac Ninh, in their tours. Recently, the two unique art
programmes that have attracted the attention of many domestic and
foreign tourists are the Tinh hoa Bac Bo (Quintessence of Tonkin) in Hanoi and the Ky uc Hoi An (Hoi An Memories) show in Quang Nam.
The common feature of these two programmes is the use of scene design
and stage lighting which is elaborately choreographed with the
combination of both traditional and modern arts, under the effective
support of sound and lighting that impress the audience. Through these
shows, visitors not only enjoy a variety of unique traditional arts but
also have the opportunity to understand and love the destinations’
culture.
The new direction is expected to soon bring about high efficiency in
practice, contributing to promoting the strong development of the
tourism and theatre, thereby making a positive contribution in promoting
the image of the Vietnamese country and the people to the world.
However, it must be acknowledged frankly that, at present, the travel
agencies' introduction of art performances on their tours is still
largely in a spontaneous and fragmented manner with a range of
limitations, resulting in a quite monotonous and unattractive content.
From such a situation, there must be a methodical strategy to make the
combination of tourism and theatre more effective.
For the tourism industry, experts have suggested to proactively "order"
the art units and tourism agencies in enhancing the integration of
artistic enjoyment activities in organising their tours. On the artists'
side, there is a need to constantly innovate thinking to build
high-quality art programmes imbued with national identities, while being
able to adapt to all conditions to perform well in serving the public
with different audience types.
Source: Nhan dan online