Applying information technology contributes to bringing cultural heritage to the public

Applying information technology, digitizing documents and gradually implementing digital transformation in preserving and promoting cultural heritage values is an effective solution that the province’s cultural, sports and tourism sector have been implementing in the past time. The positive results of this solution have helped to store data, promote the image of the cultural heritage of Lang Son effectively in bringing the heritage to the public.

Delegates experience in virtual reality glasses images of Lang Son cultural heritage at “Conference to introduce digital transformation technology solutions in the field of cultural heritage and tourism of Lang Son province”

At the beginning of October 2022, during his trip to Lang Son, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, a tourist from Da Nang was very interested in the form of automatic interpretation according to 360-degree technology about the tourist attraction of Tam Thanh Pagoda, Lang Son city. Mr. Nam shared: By applying modern technologies about the province’s historical and cultural relics right on Facebook, it helped me have a 360-degree panoramic view of Tam Thanh Pagoda easily without a tour guide. Moreover, this form also helps viewers to truly immerse themselves in the space of the heritage instead of just viewing static photos online as before.

Mr. Nam’s feeling is also the feeling of many visitors when experiencing the application of automatic narration according to the 360 technology. It is known that this is just one of the activities that the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has implemented to bring the heritage closer to the public. According to information from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, from 2011 until now, the Culture, Sports and Tourism industry has actively applied information technology to preserve and promote heritage values by many specific measures such as application of scientific achievements – techniques in documenting, storing, preserving and inventorying, making scientific dossiers for submission to the ranking of monuments at all levels; upgrading the website, update the new modern and professional interfaces; promoting Lang Son tourism images on social networking platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Zalo, Tiktok… In 2011, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism established the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage Data Bank, currently storing about 60 films and nearly 5,000 documentaries on intangible culture in the area.

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Ha, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: Digital transformation is a development trend that opens up many opportunities in the field of culture and tourism. Over the past time, the department has promoted the application of information technology and digitization in all management areas of the industry. In which, we have been actively implementing a number of contents such as digitizing tangible and intangible cultural heritages, museums and documentary heritages of ethnic groups; digitizing records, documents, national treasures, precious artifacts of museums and monuments, special national monuments, national monuments of typical value, intangible cultural heritage in the list of heritage inventory…

Culture and Information divisions of districts, city and affiliated units have actively and proactively implemented and applied digital technology to perform their assigned functions and tasks. Typically, the Provincial Museum stores and manages more than 75,000 documents and artifacts of all kinds, nearly 6,500 documentary photos, 900 documents and many different books and newspapers. In which, there are 12,780 original documents and artifacts that have been subjected to scientific inventory, over 90% of documents and artifacts have been put into the management system by the software “Management of information in kind” in cyberspace; more than 200 artifacts are introduced on the museum’s website in the section “Library of artifacts”.

Lang Son city is an active area in the application of information technology, promoting digitalization in the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage values. Mrs. Pham Thi Thuan, Deputy Head of the City Information and Culture Division said: The city is a densely populated area with diverse ethnic groups, rich in cultural heritage reflected in both tangible and intangible cultural heritage with 7 traditional festivals, of which Ky Cung – Ta Phu Festival is recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage. Regarding tangible cultural heritage, the city currently has 28 relics, including 13 national-level relics and 7 provincial-level relics. In the past time, we have advised the City People’s Committee to implement solutions to apply information technology in tourism development such as every year, build over 50 news, articles, photos, clips promoting images of Lang Son cultural heritage on social networking platforms Facebook, Youtube, Zalo; coordinate with functional agencies to digitize the relics of Tam Thanh pagoda…

Especially, at the beginning of November 2022, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinated with Vietsoftpro Joint Stock Company to organize a conference to introduce digital transformation technology solutions in the field of cultural heritage and tourism in Lang Son province. Through the conference, the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism gained a lot of valuable knowledge and experience to advise the Provincial People’s Committee to have orientations in implementing digital transformation in the fields of cultural heritage and tourism.

Ms. Tran Thi Bich Hanh, Director of the Provincial Tourism Promotion Information Center said: In the world, virtual reality technology has been applied in many areas of monument conservation, especially in the reproduction and restoration of monuments and landscapes that are no longer strange. Under the direction of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Tourism Promotion Information Center has built a common database integrated into the smart tourism portal of the province, upgraded the website, updated the new modern and professional interfaces; implemented the digitization of monuments with 360-degree interface technology to bring unique and selective images and information about tourist attractions …In 2022, we have also completed the building of Tam Thanh pagoda tourist site in the form of automatic interpretation according to 360-degree technology, striving in 2023, there will be 9 points under the province’s smart tourism project to be implemented.

Thus, with the application of information technology, digital transformation is step by step become the most effective tool to maintain, preserve, promote and raise the values of heritage and traditional culture, contributing to the development of the province’s culture and tourism in the future, further promote the application of new technology, slowly change to make visitors have more interesting and emotional experiences on every occasion they set foot in Lang Son.