Vietnam is a country with many advantages to develop this type of tourism but has not developed it commensurate with its inherent potential.

Tourists experience bell meditation at Tam Chuc Tourist Area.

Abundant and attractive potential

Vietnam has many advantages to develop meditation tourism thanks to its diverse natural conditions and tens of thousands of large and small temples in the localities. However, tourists participating in this type of tourism only stop at visiting and worshiping temples for 1-2 days without accompanying health care services, meditation... Although meditation tourism is only a part of spiritual tourism, in addition to sightseeing and worshiping activities, tourists can also stay for a long time in the temple, participate in tasks such as sweeping the temple, chanting, growing vegetables, cooking vegetarian food, meditating... thereby finding peace in body - mind - spirit after a stressful time due to work pressure and busy life.

Grasping this trend, many high-end resorts have introduced meditation tourism to serve customers in need such as Legacy Yen Tu (Quang Ninh), Avana Retreat (Hoa Binh), Laguna Lang Co (Thua Thien Hue)... However, the above models tend to focus on health care, relaxation combined with meditation but lack the spiritual element. Therefore, in order for tourists to experience meditation tourism perfectly, Tam Chuc Tourist Area (Ha Nam) has introduced the "Templestay" tour service (spiritual tourism experience) to serve customers who want to stay for a long time and participate in activities like real lay people.

Sharing about this new tourism product, Tam Chuc Tourist Area Sales Director Tran Thanh Sang said that when participating in the Templestay tour, visitors have the opportunity to stay for a long time at a hotel with 4-star standard rooms, visit the world's largest temple Tam Chuc, take a boat trip and enjoy afternoon tea on Luc Nhac Lake, or participate in meditation - walking barefoot through 299 stone steps to Ngoc Pagoda located on the top of That Tinh Mountain. In addition, visitors can also participate in other attractive experiences such as releasing flower lanterns, bell meditation, fire meditation combined with camping...

“The combination of diverse experiences with spiritual activities has created a new type of tourism, providing healing therapy, contributing to the care of mental and physical health for visitors. Since the beginning of the year, Tam Chuc Tourist Area has welcomed about 1 million visitors to experience meditation activities and Templestay tours,” Mr. Tran Thanh Sang shared.

Opportunities for nascent markets

Highly appreciating the potential for developing meditation tourism in Vietnam, lay Buddhist Ha Anh Tuan (Tuan Ha), Chairman of Gosinga Vietnam Education Joint Stock Company, Head of the Templestay Service Operation Project at Tam Chuc Tourist Area, said: Spiritual tourism and meditation are increasingly appreciated in countries around the world, especially in Asia. In Korea, there is currently a popular service of long-term stay in temples. On average, each year, Korea attracts about 6 million domestic visitors and 600,000 international visitors to participate in this type of tourism. Revenue from meditation tourism reaches about 30 billion USD/year. This is a potential tourist market for Vietnam.

“Currently, Tam Chuc Tourist Area has “joined hands” with the Korean side to bring meditation tourists from Korea to Vietnam. To have good services, meeting the needs of this high-spending customer stream, it is necessary to have a team of professional tourism service operators, meeting 5-star standards. With great potential, advantages and a well-invested infrastructure and facilities system, Tam Chuc Tourist Area in particular and Vietnam in general have many opportunities to welcome Korean tourists. To do that, in addition to the support of local authorities in investing and building infrastructure, it is also necessary to have the participation of travel companies to promote products to more tourists” - Mr. Tuan Ha said.

Tam Chuc tourist area has welcomed many large groups of tourists to experience meditation tourism and received positive feedback. In addition to Korea, India is also a potential market. Since the beginning of the year, Tam Chuc tourist area has welcomed 360 thousand Indian tourists. By the end of this year, this number may double, reaching about 700 thousand visitors. In order to welcome this influx of visitors, Vietnam and India are promoting the opening of more flights between the two countries to increase the capacity to transport visitors.

Looking at meditation tourism from the perspective of a travel agency, Director of Asiana Travel Company Trinh Viet Dung said that this is an attractive, potential product that has been systematically and deeply built by Tam Chuc Tourist Area and aimed at the practical needs of tourists.

“Spiritual tourism combined with meditation is an increasingly popular trend and demand. Our company is always looking for products like this because it meets the needs of bringing new experiences to tourists, while contributing to diversifying Vietnam's tourism products. Although behind other countries in the region, meditation tourism in Vietnam is at the forefront of the trend with new features and its own appeal. That is the advantage of landscape, culture, cuisine and unique, friendly experiences. Vietnam needs to seize the opportunity to become a developed country in meditation tourism,” said Mr. Dung.

Source: hanoimoi.vn