The Vietnam Office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific andCultural Organisation (UNESCO) held a workshop in Hanoi on October17 to develop a strategy to promote the country’s world heritages.

Vietnam is now home to eight natural heritage sites, eightintangible cultural heritages, four documentary heritages, and eightworld biosphere reserves, Deputy Head of the Department of CulturalHeritage Nong Quoc Thanh said.

Since gaining official UNESCOrecognition, the heritage sites, especially the natural heritage sites,have become well-known tourist destinations, contributing to localsocio-economic development and helping promote Vietnam’s globalimage, he added.

Thanh stressed that UNESCO recognition was notintended to develop tourism but rather to instill responsibility inlocalities to preserve and uphold the values of the different heritages.

Arepresentative from the UNESCO office said that by making good use ofpromotional techniques and communication tools, Vietnam couldinfluence visitors’ behaviour at heritage sites and engage the communityin heritage protection.

During the workshop, a participantpresented useful measures for the promotion of world heritage sites,while noting that the existing information on Vietnam ’s heritageswas not recorded in a digital database, consisting only of simpledocuments, photographs, or drawings.

Participants also discussedthe benefits of applying a heritage promotion strategy, the detailedprocess of strategy development, and concrete proposals to promoteVietnam’s world heritage sites./.