New Ninh Binh province boasts huge potential for cultural – heritage tourism

According to a report of Ninh Binh’s Department of Tourism, the province welcomed over 7.2 million visitors in the first six months of 2025, making 80% of the yearly plan. Of whom, 1.04 million were international holidaymakers. Notably, the number of visitors staying overnight was nearly 1.4 million, up 21% compared to the same period last year.

In June, Ninh Binh served over 660,000 tourists and earned nearly 718 billion VND in revenue.

The tourism sector sets a target to serve over 9.1 million tourists in 2025, including 2 million international travellers. With the achieved outcomes, Ninh Binh could easily reach its set target.

Each province has its own strengths

 Known as a land with a history of more than 1,000 years, Ninh Binh has a system of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, documentary heritage, and massive mixed heritage of national and international significance, such as: Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex recognised by UNESCO as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the special relic site of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital, and Bai Dinh Pagoda.

However, what makes Ninh Binh so attractive is not only its resources, but also the way it exploits those resources.

Meanwhile, Ha Nam is also gradually transforming strongly, aiming to become a leading cultural - resort tourism destination in the North, attracting high-spending tourists. The whole province currently has more than 200 accommodation establishments and many large-scale entertainment and resort destinations such as Sun World Ha Nam, walking streets, and international standard golf courses.

In 2024, Ha Nam welcomed about 4.7 million visitors, earning nearly 3.7 trillion VND. In just the first five months of 2025, this number increased by nearly 1.5 times, with nearly 6 million visitors and revenue of more than 4.5 trillion VND.

Similarly, Nam Dinh has a rich tourism resource system, including a 72km long coastline, suitable for developing sea tourism.

Nam Dinh's countryside has characteristics of a lowland area - the Northern Delta with vast rice fields and large salt fields, which are suitable for developing agricultural tourism and community tourism.

Nam Dinh's cultural tourism resources are also truly outstanding with 1,330 ranked and inventoried relics; including three special national relics and more than 80 national relics. Some typical relics, known by many people such as: Tran Temple relic site - Pho Minh Pagoda, Phu Day, Co Le Pagoda, Catholic church system with unique architecture.

Nam Dinh province also has a cultural heritage that has been recognised by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity, which is the practice of worshipping the Mother Goddesses of the Three Realms of the Vietnamese people.

There are many traditional craft villages in the province that are hundreds of years old such as Co Chat silk weaving, Cu Tru weaving, Tong Xa bronze casting, Cat Dang lacquerware, and La Xuyen wood carving.

In 2024, the number of tourists to Nam Dinh reached 1.86 million, with total revenue from tourists reaching 560 billion VND. 

Forming new space of Ninh Binh

At the Ha Nam Tourism Development Investment Promotion Conference in 2025, Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, assessed that the tourism resources of new Ninh Binh province will be enormous, especially with cultural and spiritual tourism products. Large pagodas such as Bai Dinh (Ninh Binh), Tam Chuc (Ha Nam) connected with the Huong Son relic and scenic complex (Hanoi) will make new Ninh Binh province a new Buddhist destination.

After the three provinces are merged, "new Ninh Binh" province will also be located in a strategic position south of Hanoi, connecting major traffic axes of both road and rail.

In total, the three provinces currently have about 1,500 accommodation establishments with 20,000 rooms. Therefore, if there are suitable approaches and tourism products, "new Ninh Binh" tourism will have great competitiveness.

However, the merger of the three provinces also poses many challenges in tourism development linkage. Although the intra-regional and inter-regional transport infrastructure has been improved, the connection between the tourist areas and destinations of the three provinces is still fragmented, and tourists spend a lot of time traveling.

The tourism human resources of the three provinces are still weak and lacking, especially the workforce with good foreign language skills.

According to Bui Van Manh, Director of the Department of Tourism of Ninh Binh province, the main goal of regional linkage is to form a new space, where traffic routes are not simply roads, but tourism products, architectural landscapes, vibrant culture and heritage.

Manh proposed developing products according to thematic axes such as: "Heritage Road: Huong Son-Tam Chuc-Trang An", "Spiritual Journey", and "Green Agricultural Tourism". He suggested studying and developing a dossier to nominate the heritage cluster of Van Long - Kim Bang - Tam Chuc - Huong Pagoda as a world natural heritage.

Truong Quoc Huy, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Committee of Ha Nam province, affirmed: "We identify the difference as the key to attracting tourists. We want to turn the routes connecting Phu Ly with Hoa Lu, from Ha Nam to Trang An into an experiential journey, not just an infrastructure connection. That is the way modern tourism needs to go: Creating emotions and values".

Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism Phan Linh Chi also emphasised the role of regional connectivity in developing themed tours such as "Spiritual Journey" or "Heritage Tourism".

She said that the new province of Ninh Binh needs to promote the application of digital technology, multi-platform communication, develop types such as MICE tourism, green tourism, luxury resorts to enhance its image.

With the current growth rate, experts predicted that the total number of visitors to the three provinces will reach nearly 15 million, including more than 2 million international visitors. Revenue from tourism activities will reach over 13.4 trillion VND.