Vietnam's Central and Highland Regions Accelerate Technology Use for Cultural Heritage Preservation

In recent years, the application of modern technology to preserve and promote the values of tangible and intangible cultural heritage has been accelerated in Vietnam's central and highland regions, contributing to the effective exploitation of the locality's potential and outstanding advantages. Notably, the application of Industry 4.0 technology at the Lam Dong Museum, 3D technology at the Cat Tien National Special Archaeological Site, and the digitalization of tangible and intangible cultural heritage across the former Binh Thuan province have been prominent. These efforts help preserve heritage in digital form, enhance public access and interaction, and open avenues for smart tourism development. Specifically, the UNESCO Global Geopark Dak Nong cooperates with the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences to preserve and promote the heritage values of outdoor archaeological sites, consolidating the scientific foundation for management and exploitation. Additionally, the application of Industry 4.0 in building the provincial ethnic minority data repository for Lam Dong province contributes to creating digital data sources for management and research. In building and developing cultural tourism brands, research clearly shows a direction towards using cultural, geographical, and characteristic product elements to build sustainable tourism brands. The protection and promotion of national and local trademarks in international markets are emphasized, exemplified by the task of registering the "Dalat - Crystallization of miracles from good land" certification mark in Japan and South Korea. This is a strategic step to enhance brand value and expand export markets. Concurrently, tourism development linked to geographical and cultural characteristics is being promoted through research topics on developing community tourism models associated with the unique values of the UNESCO Global Geopark Dak Nong, building Geotourism models for the Suoi Tien - Mui Ne area and Phu Quy island, and analyzing factors influencing and proposing solutions to preserve, restore, and promote the Bau Trang scenic spot. Studies provide a scientific basis for research on building, managing, and developing tourism brands and creating electronic tourism maps, aiming for smart tourism development. Alongside this, research on community cultural development and ethnic policies proposes many solutions to improve the cultural and social lives of ethnic minority communities. However, the digitalization of heritage is not yet synchronized and widespread. The main reasons are the lack of highly specialized human resources for digitalization and community tourism management, and the shortage of dedicated resources and stable funding for preservation, especially for intangible heritage. In the coming years, Lam Dong will focus on applying digital, Virtual Reality (VR)/Augmented Reality (AR) technologies to build new tourism models (digital tourism, role-playing), promote heritage, and commercialize cultural products. It will research the preservation of indigenous cultural values and use them as a foundation for tourism development. Furthermore, it will research and propose green innovation policies, combining environment-ecology-society to align with global trends. During the 2021-2025 period, Lam Dong has invested in 39 out of 152 research tasks applying science and technology in social sciences and humanities, demonstrating high policy relevance, especially during the phase when the province, newly merged, requires cultural and social data for policy formulation.