Visitors to Hoi An can now learn about the ancient town more easily by using a new audio guide system.

Tourists used the audio guide in Hoi An. Photo: Hoian.tv

The system has been introduced at major tourist destinations in Hoi An by the Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation in cooperation with the Viet-Phap (Vietnam-France) Trade Promotion Company.

It is part of a range of activities to mark the 19th anniversary of UNESCO’s recognition of Hoi An as a world cultural heritage site in 1999 and Vietnam’s Heritage Day (November 23).

The audio system has been installed at the Japanese Covered Bridge, the Museum of Trade Ceramics, the Sa Huynh Culture Museum, and the Hoi An Museum, to improve the quality of the sites for tourists.

The guide is a new technological product manufactured in France and comes in six languages: Vietnamese, English, French, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. It replaces tour guides, as visitors are provided an audio device to listen to and a map of the sites and artifacts.

It is already available at famous tourist sites all over the world but this is the first time it has been introduced in Hoi An, and aims to provide a better way for visitors, ranging from researchers to local and foreign tourists, to gain a better insight into the history and culture of the ancient town and discover the land and its people through objects and stories relating to the objects. It also improves the quality of tourism in the city.

Hoi An welcomed 2.7 million visitors, including 2 million international arrivals, in the first half of this year, up 70 per cent and 230 per cent against the same period last year. The figure in 2017 was 3.2 million, including 1.8 million international arrivals, up 27 per cent and 31 per cent against 2016.

VN Economic Times