“Local museums have not been regular destinations for tourists and have also not played an important part in local travel agencies’ tours,” said Nguyen Van Cuong - Director of the Vietnam National Museum of History at a seminar in Hanoi on November 21.

Held by the Vietnam National Museum of History in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism and the Department of Ethnic Culture, the seminar titled “Museums with Heritage Tourism” aimed to find ways to attract tourists to local museums.

“There is a fact that tour guides themselves don’t want to take tourists to museums,” Luu Duc Ke, director of Hanoitourist tour operator stated. “It’s hard for them to guide people in museums. For example, there’s nothing to complain about at the Vietnam National Museum of History but the place itself offers nothing attractive to tourists.”

As an explanation, travel agencies said that though the number of objects on display is not small, the way museums have displayed their objects is unattractive and hard for tour guides to explain them.

Since 2011, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism has carried on a project to tie museums and local tourism; however, the project seems to have not taken effect. Currently, there seems to be no agency that takes tourists to more than three museums per tour.

“Museums can be independent from tour operators by handing leaflets that promote museums directly to local hotels and restaurants,” Doctor Bui Hoai Son, Vice director of Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts gave as a solution.

Also at the meeting, experts suggested that museums should have their own programs, especially with cultural heritages, to attract visitors.

HCMC War Remnants Museum is one of the pioneers in using “cultural specialty” to attract tourists. The museum has invited veterans to come and reconstruct some activities people did during the wartime. They even cooked for tourists some dishes people had at the time while telling tourists stories about the wars.