Hoa Lo Prison Relic – “Red Address” for education of patriotism and national pride.
Hoa Lo Prison was built by the French in 1896, where thousands of Vietnamese revolutionary soldiers and activists were imprisoned. Recently, Hoa Lo Prison Relic has always received the support and attention of many tourists, especially young people who come to the relic with the desire to learn a glorious past of the nation. For that, the Relic has innovated in communication activities, reaching closer to the public, especially young people through the social network Facebook and the official fanpage. Up to now, the homepage “Hoa Lo Prison Relic” has attracted nearly 168,000 followers, receiving more than 156,000 likes, interactions and shares every day. In addition to the social networking platform Facebook, the Management Board of Hoa Lo Prison Relics focuses on developing content on other social networking platforms. To ensure the prevention of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Management Board of Hoa Lo Prison Relic has applied digital transformation to firstly introduce an exclusive radio channel on Spotify platform to help the public learn about the history of Hoa Lo Prison in an easy, fun and refreshing way.
With the automatic narration device, visitors can experience historical stories in their own way.
Unlike other historical sites, Hoa Lo Prison now no longer deploys live narration guides, but instead uses headphones connected to recorders to serve visitors. With the automatic narration device, visitors can experience 35 historical stories in their own way. The information related to the artifacts is transmitted through the stories of political prisoners about the difficult life in prison, comradeship or dangerous prison escapes, etc. For persons having no opportunity to visit Hoa Lo Prison, the Relic Management Board has launched an online tour through the online exhibition space, including three parts “Lời thề quyết tử(Till death stop our tasks)”, “Sắt son (constancy)”, “Thắp lửa yêu thương (Lighting the Fire of Love)” – stories about each memorable historical period of the nation are shown at the same time via voiceovers and pictures help visitors experience more authentic, easier access to the historical story.
The use of simulated scenes combined with a realistic sound system has awakened all emotions of visitors.
One of the successful and pervasive tourism products of Hoa Lo Prison Relic is to open more night tours. Night tour starts from 19h-20h30 every Friday and Saturday. In an impressive journey and unforgettable experiences, visitors witness the harsh life that former political prisoners endured. The stories are reproduced through many simulated scenes combined with realistic light and sound system that awaken all emotions of visitors.
Hoa Lo Prison Relic has become a “red address” to educate patriotism and national pride, attracting more and more tourists to visit, experience, study and research.
Mai Phuong