Tourists visit the special national relic Son La Prison.

The province currently has 96 historical-cultural relics and scenic spots, including 65 ranked relics and 31 unranked relics. Of these, 2 are special national relics, 16 are national relics and 47 are provincial relics. The relics are resources for developing attractive and particularly meaningful tourism products.

Mr. Pham Van Tuan, Deputy Director of the Provincial Museum, analyzed: The historical and cultural relics of Son La province are very diverse in types, with famous landscapes, architectural and artistic works, archaeological relics and distributed in all 12 districts and cities.

In recent years, the work of restoration, embellishment, and compilation of records for ranking relics has received attention from localities. Many relics have management boards, attracting tourists to visit, experience, and learn about history, becoming "red addresses" for educating revolutionary traditions. Meanwhile, Moc Chau National Tourist Area is located right at the gateway of the province, and tourism is developing strongly. The connection between tourist areas, especially historical relics in Moc Chau, Van Ho with historical and cultural relics in the province will create a lever, promoting the development of source tourism.

Children visit and experience the historical relic of the 52nd Tay Tien Regiment, Moc Chau town.

Many relics have become attractive destinations on the "return to the source" tourism journey in Son La, such as: Son La Prison Special National Monument, King Le Thai Tong Temple (City); Tay Tien Regiment 52 Memorial Historical Relic (Moc Chau); Co Noi Intersection Historical Relic (Mai Son); Anti-French Resistance Historical Relic Site of Ban Nhot Forest (Phu Yen); Martyrs Temple at Pha Din Pass Historical - Cultural Area (Thuan Chau)... Most of the valuable relics that are being invested in and restored are located along National Highway 6, creating traffic connectivity, creating favorable conditions to connect the tourism journey from Moc Chau National Tourist Area to historical sites in the province.

Every year, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has coordinated with districts and cities to compile dossiers to submit for ranking 1-2 relics. At the same time, inventory and list newly discovered relics are carried out and submitted to the Provincial People's Committee for approval. Up to now, 58/65 relics have been measured and protected areas have been demarcated, 38/65 relics have been restored, focusing on repairing the main items, contributing to preserving the original elements of the relics, creating a green, clean and beautiful landscape and environment at the relics, serving well the work of educating historical traditions, meeting the needs of sightseeing and spiritual and cultural activities of the people.

The special national relic Son La Prison is a "red address" for educating the young generation about revolutionary traditions.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, Vice Chairman of Moc Chau Town People's Committee, said: Moc Chau currently has 14 relics, including 3 national relics and 11 provincial relics. The town has focused resources on restoring and promoting the value of the relics; digitizing historical relics by implementing QR code scanning for 5 works, meeting the need to look up information about relic sites in the area. National relics have established management boards, well exploited their values ​​to serve tourism development, becoming destinations for many tourists, included by travel companies in tour schedules and tourist routes when coming to Moc Chau, such as: Bat Cave, Historical Monument of Regiment 52 Tay Tien... Each year, these relics welcome tens of thousands of visitors, generating hundreds of millions of VND in revenue.

Talking about connecting Moc Chau National Tourist Area with historical and cultural relics in the province in tourism development, Ms. Hoa shared: In the coming time, the tourism industry of the province needs to research and develop models and tours to visit historical and cultural relics, creating connectivity in developing common types and tourism services. Organize thematic famtrip groups to explore historical and cultural relics in the area, from there research and propose specific solutions to develop this type of tourism.

At the same time, promote communication and introduce the value of relics in many forms. In particular, focus on compiling explanations of relics associated with historical stories, creating emotions for visitors when visiting. At the same time, apply information technology in introducing and promoting the meaning and value of relics and connecting localities and regions to develop tourism.

Educating the young generation about revolutionary traditions at the historical site of Co Noi Intersection, Mai Son district.

With the desire to find positive solutions to promote the value of relics to develop tourism, in December 2024, the Son La Provincial Historical Science Association in collaboration with Tay Bac University organized the Workshop "Connecting Moc Chau National Tourist Area with historical and cultural relics of Son La province", attracting the participation of scientists, researchers on culture - history and those working in State management of tourism. The workshop received many presentations which were research articles, in-depth analysis of the potential, role and value of historical and cultural relics of Son La. Thereby, helping to build sources of documents, clarify scientific and practical bases, propose solutions to promote the value of relics, exploit potential, and orient the development of cultural - historical tourism products to attract tourists.

Dr. Tong Thanh Binh, Deputy Head of the Department of History and Social Sciences, Tay Bac University, shared: Promoting the value of historical and cultural relics to promote tourism in Son La needs to be done systematically and scientifically. In particular, there must be specific solutions in building unique tourism products, combining visits to historical relics with experiences of local beliefs and culture; organizing spiritual tours during major festivals... Compiling stories about relics, connecting local scenic spots, humane, meaningful and soulful stories to attract and retain tourists to each land. From there, creating new, unique, highly educational tourism products, creating impressions and highlights for tourists when coming to Son La.

Experiential educational activities about history at Son La Provincial Museum.

The results of implementation in Moc Chau and some relics in the province, together with scientific and practical solutions of historical researchers, will be the basis and premise for those working in tourism management to continue to effectively implement the creation of connectivity between Moc Chau National Tourist Area and historical and cultural relics of the province to develop tourism. Linking tourism development with promoting the value of valuable historical and cultural relics is also one of the solutions for the province's tourism to develop sustainably, in the right direction, preserving the original identity and values ​​of Son La homeland.

According to: Son La Newspaper