Museums eye ways to attract visitors

      Establishing links between cultural and historical museums and tourism companies and the media is one way of bringing museums closer to people, a workshop heard in HCM City on July 2.
"Museums should join hands and reach out to media," Le Thi Minh Ly, deputy head of the central Cultural Heritage Department, said.
They should also add museums to their itineraries, she added.
Organised by the city’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Department (DCST), the workshop, titled "Museums and Public," was aimed at improving the operations of museums and relics and their attractiveness to visitors.
"Museums need to provide their brochures and catalogues to hotels, tourism companies, and other museums and update their websites regularly," Vu Kim Anh, deputy head of the city Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, said.
"Their most attractive objects and what visitors want to see must be showcased."
Ly said the museums should provide more services like places for rest, entertainment, and food to keep visitors longer.
Anh said museums should organise activities for visitors, like making handicraft products, and tours dedicated to particular topics like war or arts.
Creating more space for displaying articles in museums has in their vaults was one way to ensure they do not deteriorate while also attracting visitors, she said.
Most museums can now display only 20 per cent of their inventory due to lack of space.
They should establish relationships with private collectors to encourage them to exhibit their collections, she said.
The city now has 11 museums that attract more than two million visitors every year and 124 cultural and historical relics.