1. Introduction
The modern world is constantly changing and developing, along with the process of improving the quality of life, motivating people to seek and improve forms of entertainment or exploration, considering it an activity to regenerate labor as well as stabilize the spirit. People have a Relaxation mentality, an Exotic mentality, like to explore and learn new things. Tourism, as a comprehensive service industry, not only meets those desires but also helps people to be more attached to nature (through Ecotourism), to communicate more with culture (through Cultural Tourism), turning this activity itself into a necessary need in social and cultural life.
In Vietnam, the transformation of the economy from a bureaucratic subsidy to a socialist-oriented market economy, accepting the co-operation of many economic sectors, also opens a new door for tourism activities when the country accepts, actively participates in, and develops "open" directions. For that reason, Tourism Science was born as an academic method to prepare students - the future high-quality labor force, with a steady and confident mindset to face the new socio-economic environment, while providing them with a solid foundation of specialized knowledge of the industry. In addition, Tourism Studies allows those who have a strong interest in this field the opportunity to pursue further studies, contributing to the standardization and internationalization of tourism theories to serve practical activities. Professor Tran Quoc Vuong soon recognized the above values; and with the style of always exploring and opening up new directions, he has been present and accompanied from the first days of the Faculty of Tourism Studies - a creative applied science in the largest social science training university environment in the country: University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
2. From the concept…
The Western concept of tourism in semantic terms mainly revolves around two words:Tourism(Travel) andTourist(Traveler). Scholar William. F. Theobald inGlobal Tourism(1998) suggests that the word Tour is derived from Latintornand/or Greektornosto indicate a circle, a closed movement around a center point or a system of axes. Suffix-ismis an action, process, characteristic form of conduct/behavior or a quality element; suffix-istrefers to the person who performs those actions. When combining these linguistic elements, we have a simple understanding thatTravel is the act of moving in a closed loop, starting from one point and ending the journey by returning to that point.. The tourist is the one who performs this action.
Contemporary concepts divide the understanding of Tourism into many directions. The French school of A. Houlot (1961) considers the wordTourderived from the Aramaic language, a 3,000-year-old Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew. Accordingly, fromTourrefers to human exploration, discovery, and movement, first mentioned in the Bible when Moses traveled to the ancient land of Canaan (now in Western Asia). Another view holds that the wordTourof Anglo-Saxon origin fromTorn, used since the 12th century to refer to a trip with a certain return. Over time, this word has been used to refer to exploration trips with the purpose of learning about culture, civilization, accumulating more knowledge and using it to rule (M.Korstanje, 2007).
Not denying Western explanations, Professor Tran Quoc Vuong has a more Eastern perspective on the concept of Tourism. He believes that Tourism is a Sino-Vietnamese word, of Chinese origin. Looking up the original Chinese characters (Ly Lac Nghi and Jim Waters, 1997): The word Du is written as 遊, then the Thuy radical 氵 or the Tau radical 辶 implies movement like flowing water, walking. We can roughly translate it as Choi, Di choi, Rong choi. The word Lich is written as 歷, which can be translated as Tra qua, Trieu trien, like history (immediately past). So, in his view, he summarizes Tourism in general asGo Out and Experience.
Considered a flying bird of Vietnamese historians, Professor Tran Quoc Vuong has a very "Archaeological" perspective when looking at the concept of Tourism. He believes that humans knew how to walk since prehistoric times when they stood on two legs. At first, they walked to find food, then they went to work, went out for fun, or went out for fun while also going on business. The upright posture, wonderfully, allowed humans to do two things at the same time: Walk - move and Look - their vision was expanded due to the increased height. With a flexible way of moving along with the need to "look far and wide", humans increasingly spread out all over the world. Travel at that time aimed to exploit new lands, not simply satisfy curiosity.
Nowadays, among humans, there are “Others” determined by the differences in the way of adaptation/adaptation and symbiosis with the landscape and social environments. It is these differences that motivate people today to like to go to places different from their “familiar countryside”. Now, we go to learn about lifestyles in different environments and especially different from what we usually/have lived, as well as a way to resolve the dialectic between two psychological traits: Familiarity and Strangeness.
With modern technology and institutions, travel has become farther and longer, time has been shortened, and there are more things to see on this Earth. Touring has become extremely popular and therefore, tourism has become an integral part of modern life and lifestyle.
Prof. Tran Quoc Vuong and staff of the Faculty of Tourism during a survey trip to China
3. Come to training…
Back in the early 90s of the last century, when the country took its first steps with a new-oriented economy, training in Tourism at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, according to Professor Tran Quoc Vuong, was a new story in the S-shaped strip of land. When mentioning this idea, he meant that the story of Tourism at that time still smelled of new ink, the pages were probably still a little hot when they first left the printing house, and it was unclear whether they had yellowed over time, whether there was too much glue on the cover, or if the sewing thread was frayed. Figuratively speaking like that was to show that the responsibility of the Faculty of Tourism at that time was heavy. Being assigned the task of Head of the Department and then Chairman of the first Training and Science Council of the Faculty, he oriented to establish four departments: Travel - Hotel, Tourism Economics, Ecotourism and Tourism Culture. At that time (1995), the Faculty of Tourism was the only institution permitted by the Ministry of Education and Training to train and grant a regular Bachelor of Tourism Science degree. After a period of proving its capacity, in which the efforts of Professor Tran Quoc Vuong were not small, the Faculty continued to be assigned the responsibility of training the Postgraduate program in Tourism with the first course opening in 2003.
Acquiring and understanding the tourism orientation of our country is to develop ecological and cultural tourism, he paid great attention to building the curriculum of the Faculty of Tourism. According to him, it must be a comprehensive body of knowledge to prepare students before being recruited, providing first-hand tourism experiences including how to maintain business relationships (cultural behavior in tourism) and different areas of the industry, including transportation, accommodation, food, entertainment and many other aspects.
The socio-cultural aspects of the industry are of particular importance to him as he insists that culture and tourism are two mutually supportive and inseparable factors. The strength of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, where the Faculty of Tourism Studies exists and develops as a specialized training and research institution, is culture. This is one of his important orientations in the first steps of the Faculty. Knowledge is “culturalized” with theories and practices about Vietnamese cuisine, behavior with nature and society, clothing culture, language culture, travel culture, customs, practices, and festivals to help students develop a sense of responsibility for professional ethics and a healthy, comprehensive understanding of tourism. A tour guide who receives a license must be a person who loves his job, has a deep understanding of the history and culture of the nation as well as the destination, can convey these values to tourists, help foreign tourists to blend into the Vietnamese melody as well as help Vietnamese tourists to fully enjoy the experiences when stopping in strange lands.
As a pioneer in the application of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary in social science research, he also believes that Tourism Science is no exception as this field is related to many other fields of study. This multidisciplinary nature will complement students' learning. For example, research on sustainable tourism development requires understanding of biology, environment and social responsibility. He also believes that tourism students must be aware of learning a second or even third language, including Han Nom tourism when most of the tangible cultural heritages of Vietnam in the past were engraved and used. This reminder is both a drumbeat urging the next generations to understand the importance and efforts in learning foreign languages, and at the same time a bell tolling for the work of preserving traditional values and applying that knowledge to modern tourism work.
Professor Tran Quoc Vuong sees off the 40th class of Tourism Faculty students
4. And teaching work
The destination for students is like that, but to achieve those goals, the role of the teacher is not simple, especially in the somewhat "fumbling" and "bewildered" stage of the beginning when the first lecturers of the Faculty themselves were not specifically trained in Tourism Studies. The efforts of the lecturers of the Faculty of Tourism Studies are to constantly build the foundation, update the trends, changes, and developments of tourism activities, and put that information into the lectures to prepare the most solid steps for the enthusiastic "antelopes" of the Faculty to be able to leap with strong steps, confidently entering the professional Tourism environment. As a prestigious professor in academia not only domestically, he has enthusiastically joined the Faculty's staff to exchange, research, and strive to promote the establishment of relationships with universities in the region as well as in Europe that have opened specialized Tourism programs. He believes that this is beneficial for lecturers; but it also paves the way for students to have the opportunity to accumulate practical experience in an international environment through internship and exchange programs, and at the same time puts in students' hands a ticket to a journey to conquer new heights of knowledge.
In addition, he also noted that tourism lecturers must constantly study and be proficient in world geography, Southeast Asian geography, especially Vietnamese geography in relation to knowledge about the environment and ecosystems. He believes that in Vietnam in particular, due to the natural environment and diverse ecosystems, a Vietnamese mentality has been formed that likes to live in harmony with the natural environment. Many historical and cultural relics are often associated with scenic spots, so when tourists visit natural landscapes, they are also visiting historical and cultural relics and heritages. This is what Professor Tran Quoc Vuong especially emphasized when referring to teaching tourism culture to students. In this context, tourism culture is clearly separated from cultural tourism. Accordingly, tourism culture must be the behavior of people towards people in relationships with obligations and benefits from tourism activities (including tourists, local communities, travel companies, tourism management levels, etc.). After having traveled (gone out), how many qualities of "elegance" and "politeness" have the common denominator of "civilization" (experience, understanding life, understanding people) that belong to the responsibility of Vietnamese tourism workers in general and of the faculty of Tourism Studies in particular when training students. That is both knowledge, conscience and ethics of professionals when they themselves understand the value of hospitality, the dynamic and flexible nature of the tourism industry as well as the obligations and responsibilities attached.
Teaching Tourism is to introduce the Good, the Beautiful, the Strange, the Unique, but according to him, the lecturer must also prepare his students with knowledge about the somewhat negative impacts on the local environment of the destination. Thanks to that, the tourists they guide as well as the local residents have awareness of how to preserve, maintain and further promote the natural and human values that have been bestowed, proactively reducing and eliminating negative activities that can affect the appearance or content of tourism resources. Only by doing this can the sustainability of the economy in general and tourism in particular be guaranteed.
To prove the above thoughts, as the head of the young Tourism training industry, he directly taught in class, tirelessly imparting his accumulated knowledge over the years to the first courses of the Faculty - students who were extremely lucky to hear him teach about cultural tourism in his "unique, and no one can be like" style, with the experience of long miles of the country, the distances spread across the four corners of the world.
5. Conclusion
Professor Tran Quoc Vuong once said about himself in a confession that he was born with the destiny of Son Dau Hoa (fire on the mountain top). During the day, when wandering, seeing the fire and smoke rising from the mountain, the traveler suddenly feels warm when knowing that there is a warm roof in the distance. At night, the flickering fire on the high mountain is like a bright spot shining into the heart of the traveler who does not know which direction is the destination, which place is the stopping point, helping them to breathe a sigh of relief and be filled with faith. With his leading qualities in science, he captivates listeners with the light of wisdom through the way he speaks, writes, expresses, teaches and opens up new fields including tourism science.
A decade has passed since the day the eagle folded its wings and stopped flying, but for generations of his colleagues and students in general, and the Faculty of Tourism in particular, his image remains as steadfast as the Yggdrasil tree in Norse mythology that connects nine worlds in the universe. Cultural studies, Ancient history, Language, Art, Archaeology, Tourism studies... are just like those worlds. Students, colleagues, confidants, social friends, relatives with countless personalities and qualities are just like those worlds. Those phenomena, those individuals that seem to be separate, coexist around the support of a sturdy tree trunk, relying on the shade of its wide, spreading canopy. All see in him a great support, an infinite connection, strong, determined, creative, yet still full of tolerance, depth, and kindness.
Author:MSc. Phan Quang Anh, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thuy Anh
