Quang Tri – land of war memories with desire for peace

Tourists visit bomb shelters in Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province (Photo: Nhat Anh/VNA)

Quang Tri (VNA) - Anyone who has ever been to Quang Tri will never forget Quang Tri citadel and Thach Han river. Quang Tri citadel on the bank of river Thach Han was the site of fierce battles during the US war in Vietnam. The site became the tomb of tens of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers who sacrificed their lives for national liberation.

Hien Luong Bridge and Ben Hai River in central Quang Tri province forever are enduring symbols of the everlasting desire for peace, national independence and reunification.

The bridge lies on the 17th parallel and formed the border between North and South Vietnam between 1954 and 1975.

With a system of over 500 revolutionary historical relics, Quang Tri is well known as a land of war memories.

In Vietnam, Quang Tri is the first locality to focus on tapping the DMZ tourism model. Around the world, DMZ tours often attract many tourists, especially international ones.

In order to develop tourism, the province has planned to organize a festival with the message “For peace in Quang Tri”. The event is scheduled to be held in July every two years.

The festival is expected to feature a wide range of art performances, exhibitions and seminars, and other honouring activities which mainly take place in Dong Ha City, Cua Viet, Cua Tung, Quang Tri Town, the Truong Son and Road 9 National Martyrs Cemeteries, and the Hien Luong-Ben Hai historical relic site.

The event aims to honour the values of peace and to convey the message of a peace loving of Vietnamese people and peace lovers around the world.

War veterans visit the Quang Tri Citadel museum (Photo: Ho Cau/VNA)

Besides the historical relic sites system, Quang Tri has a 75km long coastline with many beautiful and pristine beaches such as Cua Tung, Cua Viet, My Thuy, Trieu Lang, Vinh Kim, Vinh Thai.

Quang Tri also has many spiritual cultural relics such as Sac Tu pagoda and La Vang church along with traditional festivals of ethnic groups of Pako and Van Kieu.

Quang Tri province strives to attract about 2.3 million visitors in 2020, an increase of 13.6 percent compared to 2019, of which international visitors are 188,000.

Sea and island tours are the product that is luring the highest number of visitors to Quang Tri, especially to Cua Tung-Cua Viet-Con Co beach tourism triangle.

According to Vice Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Chien, the province is offering preferential policies to enterprises investing in the triangle.

Currently, Vietnamese FLC Group is considering investing in a tourism-resort-entertainment-urban complex in Quang Tri, while AE Group has implemented the 490 billion VND AE Resort Cua Tung project covering more than 36 hectares which is expected to complete in 2021.

Cua Viet beach (Photo: Nguyen Ly/VNA)

Since late August 2018, the People’s Committee of Con Co island district has operated high-speed ships to carry tourists from Cua Viet to the island, shortening the travel time to 45 minutes from 2 hours. In 2020, Con Co expects to operate 2-3 such vessels to serve tourists.

In 2019, Quang Tri welcomed over 2 million visitors, raking in total revenue of more than 1,700 billion VND, an increase of more than 11 percent compared to 2018./.