The Impact of State Policy on Cultural Tourism Development: The Case of the Dinh Cô Festival

Abstract

In Vietnam, cultural tourism has been serving as a strategic instrument for economic development and national cultural promotion. The article examines the role played by State policy in the transformation of the Dinh Co Festival, a folk religious practice closely associated with the life of fishers in Long Hai commune, which belongs to Ho Chi Minh City at present, into a distinctive cultural tourism product. Employing qualitative research methods, the study demonstrates that cultural and tourism policies have significantly restructured the spatial organization, ritual practices, and symbolic meanings of that festival in a way that they increasingly tend to serve tourism activities; simultaneously, the research elucidates emerging tensions between cultural preservation and commercialization. The case of the Dinh Co Festival illustrates the importance of the regulatory role played by the State in mediating the relationship between culture and development in Vietnamese coastal communities.