Tourist Destination Evaluation Museum of Cham sculpture, Da Nang city, Vietnam

Tuong Nguyen Thanh¹, Thong Doan Thi², An Nguyen Van²     

¹Head Faculty of Geography, at the University of Science and Education – The University of Da Nang, Vietnam

²Faculty of Geography, at the University of Science and Education – The University of Da Nang, Vietnam

ABSTRACT: Evaluating tourist destinations is a very important job, with the aim of classifying tourist destinations to have a basis for encouraging investment and enhancing effective management, upgrade service quality at tourist destinations. In addition, evaluating tourist destinations will help managers plan development strategies and allocate appropriate resources to increase the competitiveness of the destination in the tourism market, as well as enhance the destination’s ability to attract tourists. This study evaluates Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture (Da Nang city, Vietnam) based on the “Set of criteria for evaluating tourist destinations” issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam (2016) under Decision No. 4640/QD-BVHTTDL, December 28, 2016 [2]. Evaluation results show that the criteria of tourism resources, landscape, facilities, local community participation and management of the tourist area are evaluated very well. In contrast, the Museum of Cham Sculpture’s entertainment, shopping, entertainment and food services are limited issues.

KEYWORDS: Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture, Da Nang city, set of criteria for evaluating tourist destinations, tourist destinations, Vietnam tourism.

INTRODUCTION

Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture is a place to preserve the cultural values of the ancient Champa Kingdom. This place has become an attractive destination for tourists when coming to Da Nang city, Vietnam. The Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture contains precious artifacts about the history of the prosperous Champa period. The museum was built by the French in 1915. The idea of building the Museum originated from French archaeologists conducting large-scale archaeological excavations. They needed a place to store and display the found artifacts. The museum was inaugurated in 1919 with 160 antiques. In 1930, the first expansion was carried out because the number of antiques unearthed was quite large. However, in 1946, the French-Vietnamese war broke out throughout the country, so the Museum was heavily looted. After more than 40 years, the Museum expanded its scale for the second time to increase the display area, research room, and antique restoration workshop in 2002. From 2005 to 2016, Da Nang city carried out restoration and upgrading museum level with the support of French experts. In 2011, the Cham Sculpture Museum became a class 1 museum in Vietnam. Thereby affirming the museum’s great role in preserving and promoting the historical values of Champa culture.

The Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture has great significance for the Cham people, Da Nang city and the whole country of Vietnam. This has become the only place to preserve Cham cultural values in the whole country:

For the Cham people: Champa was a strong country from 192 to 1832. To this day, the Cham people are living in the South Central and Southern provinces of Vietnam. Even though they have undergone many changes, the Cham people still maintain their ancient traditions. The museum will be the place to store the most heroic and sacred memories left by the ancestors of the Cham people.

For Da Nang city: Initially, this was just a place to store artifacts found by French archaeologists. Gradually, the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture has become an interesting destination for domestic and foreign tourists. Nowadays, people often tend to search and learn new things in the city they visit. Strong promotion of the Cham Museum will contribute to further development of the local tourism industry. In particular, historical knowledge and cultural values will be passed down forever.

For Vietnam: Cham Sculpture Museum is the largest museum preserving unique values of the Cham people in the country such as: temples, statues, beliefs, religion, traditional craft villages, festivals, music, costumes, writing, patterns. All are extremely valuable legacies left over after more than a millennium has passed.

The Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture is located at the intersection of Trung Nu Vuong Street and September 2 Street, Da Nang City, Vietnam. Opposite is Vietnam Television Center VTV8. Thanks to its convenient location and easy to find, this is a tourist destination that attracts a large number of domestic and foreign tourists to visit.

METHODS

2.1. Introducing the set of criteria for evaluating tourist destinations

The set of criteria for evaluating tourist destinations was issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam (2016) under Decision No. 4640/QD-BVHTTDL, dated December 28, 2016 [2]. This set of criteria was developed to strengthen state management of tourism and encourage investment and upgrade service quality at destinations. Criteria for evaluating tourist destinations include 29 criteria, divided into 6 groups, specifically as follows:

(1) The group of criteria on tourism resources includes the following specific evaluation criteria: Diversity and uniqueness of resources; Resource point capacity; Protect and enhance resources.

(2) The group of criteria for products and services includes the following specific evaluation criteria: Providing information to customers; Information instructions throughout the tourist destination; Present; Tourist information center; System of technical facilities serving tourist accommodation; Services provided to guests in accommodation areas; Restaurant system serving tourists; Food Service; Services for sightseeing, relaxation, exploration, and learning about natural and cultural values; Event, conference and seminar organization services; Shopping service.

(3) The group of criteria for destination management includes the following specific evaluation criteria: General management; Natural environment and general hygiene; Process rubbish; Public toilet system; The social environment; Organizing security and order forces; Plan to ensure security and safety for tourists; Technical facilities.

(4) The infrastructure criteria group includes the following specific assessment criteria: Road system; Signs indicating access to the tourist destination by road and waterway; Internal roads; Power system; Water supply and drainage system.

(5) Group of criteria on local community participation: Proportion of local workers in the tourist area.

(6) Group of criteria on guest satisfaction: Tourist satisfaction through survey questionnaires.

2.2. Research methods

To evaluate Da Nang museum of Cham sculpture, the research team conducted a survey of 02 subjects who are experts, people working in the tourism industry and tourists who have visited museum of Cham sculpture in 2023. Evaluation score The total rating of museum of Cham sculpture is equal to the sum of experts’ ratings and tourists’ ratings.

2.2.1. Evaluation by experts and people working in the tourism industry

– Number of experts surveyed: 15 people;

– Survey content: According to 05 groups of evaluation criteria of the Tourism Destination Evaluation Criteria Set, including:

(1) Tourism resources,

(2) Products and services,

(3) Destination management,

(4) Infrastructure,

(5) Local community participation;

– Evaluation scale: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism [6] has based on the role of criteria groups to allocate the ratio of expert evaluation scores (Table 1). The highest total score of 05 groups of criteria evaluated by experts is 85/85 scores.

Table 1. Distribution of expert assessment scores

Source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism [6]

2.2.2. Evaluate of tourists

– Number of tourists surveyed: 286 people;

– Survey content: Evaluation content given by the General Department of Tourism [6] to tourists includes:

(1) Traffic conditions to and at the tourist destination,

(2) Ensuring environmental hygiene of tourist destination,

(3) Landscape of the tourist destination,

(4) Entertainment, entertainment and sightseeing services in tourist destination,

(5) Accommodation and food services in tourist destination,

(6) Service staff in tourist destination,

(7) Service policies of the tourist destination,

(8) Service prices of tourist destination.

– Assessment scale:

(1) Completely satisfied: 15 scores;

(2) Satisfaction: 10 scores;

(3) Normal: 7 scores;

(4) Dissatisfied: 3 scores;

(5) Very dissatisfied: 1 score.

The highest total score of the criteria group “Tourist satisfaction” is 15 scores.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Results of expert evaluation

The expert evaluation result of the Cham Sculpture Museum (Table 2) is 73.9 scores (reaching a rate of 86.9%), of which: Destination management and local community participation are evaluated by experts with maximum score (100%) and Infrastructure is rated very highly with a score of 14.2 scores (94.7%). Tourism resources are evaluated quite well with a score of 12.2 scores (81.3%).

Regarding tourism products and services: Survey results show that this is the group of criteria with the most points deducted (7.5 scores) and this accurately reflects the fact that the Museum of Cham Sculpture does not have and lack of some services such as: no shopping services or souvenirs; There is no restaurant system, as well as a lack of accommodation and food services to serve tourists during their visit.

Table 2. Results of expert assessment

3.2. Result of tourist evaluation

Through the scoreboard, the average rating of 08 criteria of tourists for the Museum of Cham Sculpture (Table 3) is 9.7 scores (reaching a rate of 64.7%). This rating is greater than 7 but lower than 10, so it can be seen that tourists are quite satisfied when coming to the Museum of Cham Sculpture.

Environmental hygiene of tourist destinations: highly appreciated by tourists, with a score of 13.6 scores (accounting for 90.7%); followed by Service policies of the tourist destination reaching 12.9 scores (accounting for 86%) and Traffic conditions to and at the tourist destination reaching 12.2 scores (accounting for 81.3%). Meanwhile, tourists’ ratings for accommodation and dining services in tourist attractions and entertainment, entertainment, and sightseeing services in tourist attractions are the lowest, with scores of 4.9 scores and 3.6 scores respectively. Because many tourists believe that the Cham Sculpture Museum has no entertainment, shopping, or souvenir services; Lack of accommodation and food services for tourists.

Table 3.Result of tourist evaluation

Thus, tourists’ assessments of the Museum of Cham Sculpture have a large similarity with experts’ assessments. Both subjects gave good reviews on Destination Management and Service Policies of the tourist destination. On the contrary, entertainment, sightseeing and accommodation services in tourist attractions are limited issues of the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture.

3.3. Overall assessment results

The aggregate assessment score of experts and tourists for the Museum of Cham Sculpture (Table 4) reached 83.6/100 scores. In particular, experts have a high evaluation for the Museum of Cham Sculpture, so the rating reaches 86.9%, while tourists only rate it at 64.7%.

Although, in terms of evaluation, both experts and tourists surveyed rated destination management and service policies of the tourist destination higher than entertainment, recreation, and sightseeing services. Tours and accommodation and dining services at the tourist destination of the Museum of Cham Sculpture. However, considered overall, the Museum of Cham Sculpture from the perspective of experts is rated higher than that of tourists. This comes from the main reason: compared to tourists, experts highly appreciate infrastructure; and in the expert evaluation criteria include destination management and local community participation. These are the criteria that the Cham Sculpture Museum tourist destination has implemented very well.

Table 4. Overall assessment results

4. Conclusion on some advantages and limitations of the Museum of Cham Sculpture

4.1. Advantages of the Museum of Cham Sculpture

The Museum of Cham Sculpture is famous for its unique architecture, a convergence of Eastern and Western cultures. Impressed by the design and historical stories surrounding the Champa dynasty have attracted tourists to come here to admire. The space displays historical and cultural values with a total area of up to 6,673 square meters divided into 16 different areas. Currently, the Cham sculpture museum in Da Nang is storing more than 2,000 precious antiques, with about 500 artifacts on display for visitors. The artifacts are arranged into rooms corresponding to the excavated geographical location, including: My Son Room; Tea Room; Dong Duong Room; Department of QuangBinh, Quang Tri, Hue; Da Nang Room; Quang Nam Room; Quang Ngai Room; Thap Mam Room; BinhDinh Room, Kon Tum. Most of the sculptures date from the 7th to 15th centuries. The ancient Cham people used three main materials to create antiques like today: bronze, sandstone and terracotta. The works often truly reflect the culture and beliefs of the Champa country. Each place that once belonged to the territory of Champa will have unique characteristics in shape and architecture. The Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture recreates a prosperous period of the Champa Kingdom. The sculptures clearly reflect the spiritual life and religious beliefs of the ancient Cham people. In addition to antiques with precious historical value, the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture is currently preserving 6 antiques recognized as national treasures, which are: Statue of Bodhisattva Tara, TraKieu altar, and Danang altar. My Son E1 altar, Dong Duong altar, Ganesha statue, Gajasimha statue [3], [5].

Over 108 years of establishment and development, the Museum of Cham Sculpture has many great values in terms of history, architecture – art, science and cultural – tourism value. The Museum of Cham Sculpture is the first museum in Vietnam to display sculptures of the Champa dynasty, a successful combination of French neoclassical style and Cham architecture. At the same time, along with French architectural works on Bach Dang – Tran Phu street, this project has contributed to creating the architectural face of Da Nang urban center. The Museum of Cham Sculpture was born in the context that Vietnam was under French colonial rule and Da Nang city became a French concession after the Edict of the Year of the Rat (October 3, 1888). During the resistance war against the French, this location was the site of a fierce battle between the local armed forces and the French colonialists in the early days of the nationwide resistance against the French colonial invaders. Since then, the Museum of Cham Sculpture has been an indispensable part of the history of Da Nang city and serves as a historical mark expressing the cultural exchange relationship between Vietnam – France, Eastern – Western culture. takes place in the central region of Vietnam. With those great values, the People’s Committee of Da Nang city has recognized the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture as a city-level historical relic in Decision No. 63/QD-UBND dated January 11, 2021. Therefore, the landscape and tourism resources of the Museum of Cham Sculpture are among the criteria highly appreciated by experts and tourists. Besides, it has quite a large capacity, it can welcome over 400 tourists per day (on holidays it welcomes nearly 1,000 tourists/day).

The Museum of Cham Sculpture was officially built in 1915, however the “foundation” for this project was done many years before that. Specifically, the collection of Cham sculptures began in the late 19th century by French archeology lovers, especially those working for the Old School of the Far East (EFEO). All the artifacts found were gathered in one location, at that time called Tourane Park. The idea of building a museum to protect and display traces of Champa civilization also came from here. 1915: The museum officially started construction; 1916: The museum was basically completed; 1919: The museum opened to the public; 1930: The museum was expanded for the first time because the number of excavated antiques increased significantly. At the same time, reshape the tour itinerary according to regional order and this itinerary remains the same until now; In 2002: The museum was expanded a second time, adding display and storage areas, restoration workshops, working and research rooms; 2011: The Museum of Cham Sculpture was ranked number 1 museum in Vietnam, thereby affirming the museum’s great contributions in preserving the values of Champa cultural heritage; In 2016: Da Nang city restored and upgraded buildings and galleries, rearranged functional spaces to ensure requirements for display activities, organization of events, and storage. preserve artifacts, as well as improve the quality of service for tourists who come to visit, research and study. Through many restorations and upgrades, the museum still retains its original beauty. In addition, every year, the Board of Directors of the Museum of Cham Sculpture uses revenue to invest, renovate and deduct a part to support local movement activities, support the construction and upgrading of public works. public program. Therefore, the criterion of local community participation in tourism activities at the Museum of Cham Sculpture is highly appreciated [4].

Regarding infrastructure: The Museum of Cham Sculpture is rated very well because the Museum of Cham Sculpture is located in the center of Da Nang city, so the way to the Museum of Cham Sculpture is very convenient, directly connected to the system. The national transportation system includes 4 types of transportation: road, rail, waterway, and air. The distance from the airport to the Museum is about 3 km; from the train station to the Museum is about 4 km; From the bus station to the Museum is about 10 km and from the port to the Museum is about 12 km.

The domestic electrical and lighting systems are designed and installed with modern, suitable equipment along internal roads, at sightseeing stops and related service areas. In particular, the Museum of Cham Sculpture has an automatic lighting system, with many different colors to create a good impression on tourists. In addition, the Cham Sculpture Museum has a clean water system to ensure the clean water needs of tourists and a complete water system and equipment for fire prevention and fighting, as well as a drainage system to ensure environmental hygiene.

Regarding management, the Cham Sculpture Museum has issued internal rules, operating regulations, and codes of conduct for tourists and officials in tourism activities; Establishing a tourist support department, publicly posting hotline numbers at many points for tourists to conveniently complain, and a Security team to ensure a civilized and professional environment; ready to support and guide visitors with information; Signage and lighting systems are regularly maintained and serviced; The work of ensuring security and order is carried out regularly. These are the successes of the Cham Sculpture Museum that have been recognized by experts and tourists.

Regarding products and services, there is a tourism promotion and guidance department to provide information support for tourists. In particular, in the Museum of Cham Sculpture, in addition to the tour guide explaining at the tourist destination, there is also an automatic voice-over to introduce the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture through a pre-recorded voice. This is the ideal choice for solo travelers or small groups. With just a smartphone, tourists can easily access the application and begin their journey of historical discovery.

4.2. Limitations of the Museum of Cham Sculpture

Besides the advantages and results achieved, the Museum of Cham Sculpture is also facing some limitations that need to be overcome: Over a period of 108 years, due to the impacts of nature and climate, many items of the Museum of Cham Sculpture have been degraded. Meanwhile, the management and proposal of conservation and renovation plans by specialized management agencies are not timely, and there are still confusions and disagreements in proposing solutions. This leads to local repairs, additions, and renovations at some times, causing inadequacies during use. The deterioration of construction items directly affects the historical, architectural, and landscape values, posing many problems in the management and preservation of monuments for authorities. The roof and wall areas of the museum are leaking in both blocks, and the restrooms need to be repainted to serve tourists.

The current scale of the Museum is not commensurate with its potential and inherent value: Through renovations and expansions, with the current construction density, the construction of new exhibition space within the Museum campus is almost impossible. Along with the development of the tourist city, more and more tourists come to the Museum, the large volume of artifacts still kept in the warehouse has not been displayed and introduced to the public, so expanding the display space is an issue that needs to be researched. Besides, it is necessary to develop a number of entertainment, shopping, souvenirs, and food services to serve tourists.

5. Measures to promote value and meet standard criteria in tourism activities at Cham Sculpture Museum

From the survey results and reality at the Cham Sculpture Museum, starting from the strengths and weaknesses analyzed above, we propose a number of measures to both protect, preserve and promote landscape values, has just met the standard set of criteria in tourism activities at the destination of the Museum of Cham Sculpture, specifically:

Collecting artifacts: Continue to collect additional artifacts for Cham cultural display. Regularly research documents, collect information, and search for sources of artifacts related to the Museum’s display topics to build a long-term collection plan to better serve tourists when visiting and researching. at the museum.

Preservation of artifacts: Perform good preservation and periodic cleaning of artifacts, open warehouses to ventilate, ensure artifacts are preserved in a stable environment to avoid damage and deterioration of artifacts. Periodically review the fire prevention system, electrical equipment, and unused supplies in artifact warehouses. Regularly monitor and check the status of artifacts in the warehouse to promptly take measures to overcome harmful factors affecting the artifacts [1].

Tour guide work and learning experience: Ensure and perform well the tour guide work on weekdays, weekends and holidays. Continue to organize training for guides at relics and museums related to Cham culture.

Continue to implement and ensure security, safety of artifacts and environmental sanitation. Build open, official information sources and channels to provide the press and tourism promotion units (featured images of the Museum and collections, typical events; summaries according to the topics such as introduction to National Treasures, achievements in digital transformation…).

Balance and harmony between preserving monuments and developing tourism. Practice over many years has shown that architectural relics that are treated satisfactorily in both aspects of conservation and promotion, preservation and exploitation for tourism development will achieve positive and long-term results. long. This is the most ideal and encouraged tendency to deal with monuments, thus achieving the “dual goal” of both protecting the monument and achieving the goal of tourism development. Expanding the scale of the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture relics at the present time is necessary because the number of artifacts still stored in the warehouse is much greater than the number of artifacts on display outside, causing a waste of a human resource that could serve well for tourism development.

CONCLUSION

Through research, it shows that the criteria of tourism resources, landscape, facilities, participation of the local community and management of the tourist area are evaluated well; The Museum of Cham Sculpture’s entertainment, shopping and dining services are still limited issues in tourism development. Since then, the research team has proposed a number of measures to promote values and strengths, meeting the standard set of criteria in tourism activities at the Museum of Cham Sculpture. The results of this research are also the basis for the Museum of Cham Sculpture to invest in infrastructure and technical facilities, enhance effective work management, upgrade the quality of tourism services to better serve tourists to visit and research, worthy of being ranked 1st class museum in Vietnam.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was financially supported by a scientific research project at the University of Science and Education – The University of Da Nang, Vietnam. Code: T2023-TN-16.

1. DISCLOSURE

The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.

REFERENCES

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2. Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (2016), Decision No. 4640/QD-BVHTTDL dated December 28, 2016 on promulgating the “Set of criteria for evaluating tourist destinations”, Hanoi, Vietnam.
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