(VOVworld) – Spring is the season of festivals and spiritual tourism. After the Lunar New Year, historical and cultural relic sites, pagodas, and temples attract great numbers of visitors, who come to pray for a prosperous and lucky new year. In recent years, spiritual tourism has grown.
Huong pagoda attracts thousands of visitors on the early days of the new year (Photo: VOV)
Spiritual tourism combines tourism and pilgrimage, both of them bringing visitors to religious places. Spiritual tourism offers trips to sacred places to explore local history, culture, and religious practices. In recent years, more and more tours have been organized to the land of the Hung Kings, Vietnam’s founders, and to other cultural and historical sites. Spiritual tours are attracting more visitors, especially in the early days of the year. Ms. Thanh Ngoc of Hanoi and her family go on a New Year trip every year. This year, Ngoc’s family took a spring tour of Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, and Nghe An province and stopping at Tran Temple, Bai Dinh pagoda, and Hoang Muoi Temple. She said: “Tourist sites are so crowded during the Lunar New Year holiday. I want to take my mother to a pagoda - a peaceful and solemn place to pray for a peaceful and lucky year”.

According to travel companies, spiritual tours are in high demand in the early days of the new year. Tours to Hoang Bay Temple in Lao Cai province, and to Mothers Temples in Lang Son province are the most popular. Business people prefer spiritual tours in Vietnam’s northeastern and central regions. Nguyen Hong Dai is Director of the FPT Travel Company: “This year, we are organizing frequent tours to Bai Dinh, Trang An, Huong, and Yen Tu pagoda. We offer a lot of spring spiritual tours with a lot of choices”.

Yen Tu festival (Photo: vietnamtourism.gov.vn)

International spiritual tours to Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand or Israel are favorite tours among middle-aged and elderly people. A tour of Tibet and Myanmar attracts the most tourists. Luu Duc Ke, Director of the Hanoi Tourist Company, said: “Visitors should book tours in advance and make thorough preparations. Travel companies need to launch unique tourism products to travelers during the New Year holidays”.

Vietnam’s tourism sector has worked out plans for developing spiritual tourism which exploits both natural beauty and cultural relic sites.