1. Series of activities commemorating great poet Nguyen Du
A wide variety of activities were organised on a large scale in celebrating of the 255th birth anniversary (1765-2020) and 200th death anniversary (1820-2020) of the world cultural celebrity - Great poet Nguyen Du, affirming his merits and talents and honouring his great contributions to the national culture and humanity.
A series of national symposiums were held throughout the country, along with the seventh Nguyen Du Literature Award and the screening of multiple documentaries, movies, ballet and plays about Nguyen Du and his masterpiece “Truyen Kieu” (The Tale of Kieu) were warmly welcomed by the public. In addition, calligraphy on “The Tale of Kieu”, exhibitions on Nguyen Du's life and career, and contests on his masterpiece’s recitation took place in many places across the country.
2. Dak Nong Geopark recognised by UNESCO
On November 24, 2020, the UNESCO awarded the title of Global Geopark to Dak Nong Geopark in Dak Nong Province, making it the third global geopark to be officially recognised in Vietnam (after Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark, Ha Giang Province and Non Nuoc Cao Bang Geopark, Cao Bang Province).
The park covers an area of over 4,700 km2, accounting for more than two-fifths of Dak Nong Province, featuring some 65 heritage sites including craters, a system of 50 caves created by volcanoes running a total length of 10,000m, and waterfalls. The volcanic cave system there is considered the largest in Southeast Asia. The park also has many unique cultural features of indigenous ethnic minorities such as M'Nong, Ma and Ede. The diversity and richness of the outstanding geological value of the park not only shows the natural beauty but is also a factor in forming the history and culture of Dak Nong. Currently, the province has identified 44 destinations and formed three tourist routes.
3. Congresses of literature and art associations held nationwide
From mid-November 2019 to the end of November 2020, there were 10 literary and artistic associations in the central level successfully organised their congresses, with many young leaders of associations elected at the events, featuring the rejuvenation in the leading boards at such associations and laying new hope in a new stage of development for the nation’s literature and arts.
4. National symposium on "Building the value system of modern Vietnamese national literature and arts"
The seminar was organised by the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts to clarify the theoretical and practical issues regarding the current value system of the Vietnamese culture, while proposing solutions to promote the development of the national modern cultural value system in the near future.
5. For the second consecutive year, Vietnam honoured as Asia’s leading heritage, cultural, culinary destination
In November last year, Vietnam was named as Leading Heritage Destination, Leading Cultural Destination, and Leading Culinary Destination of Asia at the prestigious World Travel Awards (WTA) 2020. This is also the second consecutive year Vietnam has been honoured at the three categories, showing that culture, heritage and cuisine are prominent factors bringing about international titles for Vietnamese tourism.
On the occasion, WTA also granted the world's top awards for 10 items of Sun Group, affirming its lead as the nation’s top brand in the field of tourism and entertainment, with many impressive works creating class for Vietnam tourism. In the context that the tourism industry suffering heavy losses due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Vietnam's tourism winning these prestigious awards is a premise for the local tourism to recover post-COVID-19, especially when the country opening its borders for international visitors.
6. Stimulating domestic tourism launched nationwide
In the context that the COVID-19 pandemic has halted international tourism, promoting domestic tourism is a fundamental solution to gradually restore the tourism market. Vietnam has launched its biggest domestic tourism stimulus campaign ever with the strong participation of local authorities, tourism associations and many travel agencies across the nation, providing reduced price products with guaranteed quality on the basis of putting safety for customers first. From which, the importance of domestic tourism has been revaluated to meet the requirement of sustainable growth on the basis of restructuring the tourism market. In addition, the need to switch to promoting and doing business on a digital platform to deploy a campaign to stimulate demand in the context of reducing human resources and ensuring safety against the pandemic affirms that digital transformation is an inevitable trend of the whole industry and also a vital requirement for Vietnamese tourism businesses.
7. Building performing art models on digital platforms
In 2020, due to COVID-19, many performing arts activities directly shifted to online performances. Artists, art organisations and theatres maintained their art activities through their YouTube channels, fanpages and various online stages. Adapting to the circumstances and meeting audiences’ needs to enjoy the arts, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism piloted a number of online competitions, festivals and art programmes that attracted a large number of artists and receive positive response from the audience. Thus forming the basis for the ministry to build and expand the model of art activities in a digital environment, adapting to the current technologies and gradually building and completing a project for Vietnamese art activities operating on a digital basis.
8. Vietnam Fine Arts Exhibition 2020
The Vietnam Fine Arts Exhibition 2020 was hosted by the Department of Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition (under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) in coordination with the Vietnam Fine Arts Association (for every five years). In the context of the pandemic causing huge difficulties in all aspects of social life, the gathering, selection and display of nearly 500 works of arts including graphics, painting, sculpture, art installation, video and other contemporary art forms was a remarkable effort of the Vietnamese art community. The works on display at the exhibition were judged by experts to have a variety of creative ideas and diverse forms of expression and convey today's life through the arts, covering many "hot" issues such as the environment and the changes in spiritual life and contemporary culture.
