VietNamNet Bridge – Saigon has several stages to entertain foreign tourists, including AO Show, Rong Vang Water Puppetry Theater, Hon Viet, Non La Theater and newly opened Phuong Nam Theater. While Rong Vang and AO Show put on regular shows to meet great demand of travelers, Hon Viet (Soul of Vietnam) and Non La Theater have temporarily stopped their operation. In tough economic times, how to maintain operations and lure more tourists is a big challenge for local art stages.

A view of AO Show in HCM City - Photo: Courtesy of Organizers

New and different: key factors to survive

According to local experts, there are many reasons to explain the success of Rong Vang Theater as water puppetry is a unique genre in Vietnam. Furthermore, Rong Vang is the only water puppetry theater in HCMC where tourists are excited to discover a new kind of art.

Viet Huong, a representative of HCMC-based tour operator Vietravel, said what attracts people to Rong Vang Theater are its exciting and exotic performances. Additionally, the theater is located in downtown HCMC, so it is convenient for guests to come. Especially, reasonable prices compared to other art shows are advantages of Rong Vang.

Director Tuan Le and the production team of AO Show are overseas Vietnamese who were professionally trained for dancing and circus in Germany and France. Thus, their show features a combination of traditional cultural features of Vietnam and modern foreign techniques. They use 17 kinds of local traditional musical instruments combined with circus and dancing techniques of Western countries. Furthermore, artists of AO Show can entertain audiences by bringing fun. Big and long applauses during the show are clear evidence.

Stage owners maintaining operation

According to sources from local tourism companies in HCMC, foreign tourists are interested in discovering typical features of Vietnamese people when they visit the country. Many Asian countries like Japan, Thailand, China and India have been succeeded in using art theaters to introduce their culture and history to travelers. In fact, all of these programs have been sponsored by their governments so those stages just need to focus on ensuring the quality of their shows, instead of finding ways to earn money. This is a real motivation for show producers in those countries to concentrate on their job and creativity.

On the contrary, local stage owners have to manage everything from finance to human resources and infrastructure investment. Management of these stages have to think hard to make their programs appealing and search for locations to set up their stages.

That’s why some stage owners after a short time of operation run short of funds and ideas for programs of high quality to lure guests.

Specifically, Linh Huyen from Hon Viet Stage had to call for investment from Dragon Capital after one year of operation. However, due to high rent, high pay for actors and weak ticket sales, Huyen has had to relocate her stage to Idecaf.

Businessman Huynh Anh Tuan had to shut down Non La Theater to focus on Rong Vang only to cut losses. “We are alone on a journey to introduce traditional values of the country to foreign tourists as there is no support from government. If we do receive such assistance we can focus on the operation of the stage. It’s a regret as we cannot do anything to change the situation,” said Tuan.

Le Ngo Bao Viet, owner of Net Viet stage, said Vietnam is short of cultural sites so tourists choose to come to bars or clubs. Local businessmen who wish to invest into tourism-purpose stages or cultural sites face many challenges and difficulties in asking for business registration certificates and seeking funds and many other things.

Viet also hopes that local authorities should pay more attention and draw up plans for promoting special stages to serve tourists as each region of Vietnam has typical cultures for people to explore.

SGT/VNN