According to the plan, by the end of 2020, the district will complete and implement QR-Codes at 25 historic sites and landscapes in the area. When using a smartphone with wifi or a 3G / 4G connection to scan the QR-Code, the destination’s informational content will be displayed on the phone via a link with the website of the district portal, helping provide information about monuments and destinations to visitors without the presence of a guide.
Previously, in mid-October, the Department of Tourism of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province also implemented QR-Codes at 48 tourist destinations, relics and museums in the area. At the same time, the QR-Code application used by Ho Chi Minh City has been mounted on the nameplates of some central routes, allowing residents and visitors look up historical characters or events associated with the streets themselves s.
The application of QR-Codes at some monuments is considered to be the kind of creativity needed in the promotion of the destination, bringing practical effects to visitors. Instead of needing to go in groups and contacting a guide in advance when visiting the destination as before, the QR-Code application allows visitors to receive information automatically, or to be informed in the most complete and convenient way ,ensuring the accuracy of cultural, historical, and architectural information. The integration of the QR-Codes related to artifacts and tourist attractions will help visitors learn and refer to more information than traditional methods of transmission. At the same time, it is especially useful in overcoming the issue of the many foreign guides who misrepresent Vietnamese culture, history and its territory and people.
Currently, many domestic attractions have applied digital technology to support automatic interpretation through QR-Codes, such as Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature), the National History Museum, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi; the Independence Palace in Ho Chi Minh City; the Hue Imperial Citadel, King Tu Duc's tomb, King Khai Dinh's tomb and the Thien Mu pagoda in Hue imperial relic site; the Lam Kinh special national relic in Thanh Hoa province. Ho Chi Minh City has also deployed a QR-Code application with a system of 25 museums, receiving very good reviews from experienced visitors.
However, in order to really promote the efficiency of QR-Code application, the key is still to digitize information related to monuments, museums and destinations at a website address that is automatically connected to the phone after scanning the QR-Code. Instead of just providing a simple and boring informational piece on relics on the website, information pages (posted on the portal of the locality, the tourism industry) introducing tourist attractions automatically connected with QR-Codes should be designed vividly, with a rich level of information, images and video clips introducing historical sites and landscapes. According to the leaders of the Hanoi Tourism Department and the People's Committee of Ba Dinh District, services such as hotel reservations, food services, entertainment and travel in the area will also be tagged with QR-Codes to create an "electronic travel handbook" for visitors.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made tourists tend to visit destinations in smaller groups, so the need to scan QR-Codes to find out about relics and destinations is increasing. The tourism industry needs to take advantage of this opportunity and invest in the best amenities for visitors, by quickly digitizing all travel data and developing the extensive application of digital technology. This is also an activity that will contribute significantly to the development of smart tourism.
