Known as the most vivid museum of revolutionary war historical relics, Quang Tri is preserving more than 500 relics and clusters of revolutionary historical relics, including special national historical relics, containing many values about the war, such as Hien Luong-Ben Hai banks; Truong Son Road-Ho Chi Minh Road; Vinh Moc Tunnels, Vinh Linh tunnel village system; Quang Tri Ancient Citadel and memorial sites of the 81 days and nights event in 1972.
Quang Tri is also home to the 72 martyrs' cemeteries, the resting place of more than 60,000 heroes and martyrs, who heroically sacrificed their lives to regain independence and freedom for the country, including the two national cemeteries of Truong Son and Route 9.
This is an invaluable resource for the locality to develop a type of tourism to learn about the history of the revolutionary war, contributing to educating patriotic traditions for today's generation.
Recently, Quang Tri has pioneered the development of the tourism brand "War Memories and a Desire for Peace", with spiritual tours, and memories of old battlefields and soldiers.
In particular, Quang Tri's unique DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) tourism model has created a unique highlight for local tourism, making a strong impression on international tourists, especially foreign veterans who fought in Vietnam.
Perhaps no place on the S-shaped strip of land has as a density of revolutionary relics and profound meaning as Quang Tri. However, the exploitation of activities to learn about war history, and to appreciate the values of peace in Quang Tri, is still not commensurate with the potential and has not created a unique and different tourism brand. That is why Quang Tri cherishes the determination to build a destination brand for peace.
A festival carrying a message of peace will be held in Quang Tri for the first time, called "Festival for Peace 2024", aiming to gradually build Quang Tri into a cultural space and a destination for peace, attracting investment resources for tourism development, improve the quality of tours and routes, and make tourism a key economic sector of the province.
With the theme “Joining hands to build a peaceful world”, the Festival For Peace will open on the evening of July 6, 2024, at the special national monument Hien Luong-Ben Hai Banks, with a special art programme on the multi-space real music stage.
Along with that, a series of unique and meaningful programmes and events will be organised in July to create sacred emotions, express gratitude to fallen heroes, and pray for world peace.
Notably, a cycling event for peace will be held on June 29-30, at the Hien Luong-Ben Hai Banks National Historical Relic Site and the Special National Relic of Quang Tri Ancient Citadel, expecting about 1,000 cyclists from domestic cycling clubs and Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
In addition, the International Culinary and Cultural Festival will take place from July 12 to 14, with many exciting activities, such as the international kite art exchange, a demonstration of Vietnamese culinary quintessence, music and street art. Music nights include Trinh Cong Son’s "Song of Peace" (evening of July 13) and the international music exchange programme "Melodies of Peace" (evening of July 20), with the participation of many domestic and international artists from the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US and China.
The highlight of the Festival is the "Aspiration for Peace" Programme (evening of July 26) with main activities such as the incense and flower offering, and praying ceremony on the north bank of the Thach Han River and the Quang Tri Ancient Citadel special national relic site.
A wide variety of other events will be held in response to the festival, including the art programme entitled “The 17th Parallel - Aspiration for Peace", organised by Nhan Dan Newspaper, on the evening of July 19, the Marathon Tournament on June 15-16, the Cultural Festival of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups, national sports competitions and an International Trade Fair.
Hoang Nam, Vice Chairman of Quang Tri Provincial People's Committee and head of the Festival Organising Committee, said the Festival for Peace is an open festival, with only an opening ceremony and a series of meaningful activities, without a closing date. The goal is that any time tourists set foot in Quang Tri, they will feel the special emotions of the land.
“We expect this to be a completely new tourism product in Vietnam, only available in Quang Tri, initiated by Quang Tri and everyone working together to create it. The province would organise the festival so that tourists not only love Quang Tri the first time they visit but also return many times after" - Hoang Nam emphasised.
The project to organise the Festival for Peace was planned by Quang Tri Province five years ago. To prepare to welcome hundreds of thousands of domestic and foreign tourists during the Festival, Quang Tri prepares the best conditions for infrastructure, taking into account the use of student dormitories, military barracks, and people's houses to meet needs.
In anticipation of a sudden increase in the number of tourists, the province also built a plan to link with two neighbouring localities, Quang Binh and Thua Thien Hue, to welcome visitors.
Many experts suggest that, during and after the Festival, Quang Tri needs to promote links between destinations and travel businesses, to form tours for peace based on the strengths of spiritual tourism, combined with other local natural and human tourism resources, to diversify products and experiences for tourists.
