Many museums and historical sites are mainly visited by tourists but not local people. Why is this the case and what can be done to attract more local people to visit these places?
There are a number of factors that explain why many museums and historical sites fail to attract the attention of the locals. However, this issue can be resolved by adopting a number of solutions, as will now be discussed.
Perhaps the primary reason is that local inhabitants often do not have interest in visiting these places as they tend not to be attracted by places and objects that are familiar to their cultural backgrounds. For example, many museums in Ho Chi Minh City welcome thousands of travelers from Hanoi annually, in contrast to the number of local residents who visit the museums and historical sites here in my home city of Hanoi.
Another reason stems from historical attractions themselves. They are often poorly conserved due to a low budget for operation while the authority does not make an attempt to improve the situation. Take the Air Defense museum in Hanoi as an example. For years, there has been no change for the better, at least visually, to attract the locals, and this is the reason why most of its visitors are tourists.
However, a range of available options can be taken to tackle the problem. The simplest one is that the authority should continue campaigns aiming at encouraging local people to visit these attractions. They could also consider rearranging and redecorating historical places to make them more interesting and attractive for all visitors. To achieve this, the government ought to allocate more public money to the conservation of these places.
In conclusion, various measures need to be taken to gain back local residents’ interest in museums and historical sites.
