Hoan Kiem District is the home to many well-known tourist sites in Hanoi. Recently, the district's authority has launched the new tool to explore its hidden gems.
360° Photo Application
In the past, tourists often searched and consulted information by asking experience of relatives, friends or taking the advice and guidance of travel agencies. However, thanks to technology advance, 80% of visitors now can find information through the Internet. Therefore, the way to advertise, provide information and attract tourists must also change accordingly.

Hoan Kiem Lake (or Sword Lake) from above. Photo: ktdt.vn

To do this, the People's Committee of Hoan Kiem district has taken a pioneering step. It is to develop a 360° portal project to attract visitors with a new, attractive, lively and convenient technology. Head of Culture and Information Department of Hoan Kiem District, Ms. Cao Thi Thu Ha, said: The project has built and widely disseminated the 360° image information system for viewers, bringing new experiences and emotions in searching information about destinations, services and travel method.
For example, viewer can see the whole image of Hoan Kiem Lake from 200m high, rotate for the image of Hoa Phong Tower to know the location, route and restaurant around this Tower ... Ms. Ha also emphasized "360° photo is a photographic technology wtih capacity of collecting all the spaces and architectures in a photo. This technology allows viewers to tour anytime, anywhere, without limitation of time or space, with many interactive features, additional information and visual effects. "To build 360° Hoan Kiem database, the people in charge has took 130 locations in the district including photos from above, on the ground with comments and notes in both Vietnamese and English.
Effective tourism attraction channel
360° Photo Application is not only convenient for travelers but also makes it easy for administrators to manage visual databases in a simple, fast and convenient way. Accordingly, there are tools to control, measures to regulate and supervise the business units services, trade and tourism in the area as well as control the development space. 360° technology also allows the system to update and replace new images, content and information as needed without having to change the general database. This will shorten the implementation time, effort and save investment costs.
In addition to high-tech image information, the Hoan Kiem 360 ​​° Portal also builds a 2D image database and information on all tourist destinations, places of interest, hotels and restaurants in the district. Regarding the benefits of Hoan Kiem 360 ​​° Portal for travel companies in serving international visitors to Hanoi, President of UNESCO Hanoi Travel Club, Mr. Truong Quoc Hung shared that: There are nearly 400 places provided with photos, addresses, contact and introduction on the portal. These data have enabled travel companies and tourists to well understand on the address, service quality of restaurants, hotels, shopping mall, travelling destination as well as festival program, post office, ATM or public toilets ...
Mr. Nguyen Quy Phuong, head of the Tourism Department of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that in the future, the establish and operation of Hoan Kiem 360 ​​° Portal will not only facilitate the tourist business to serve tourists better but also become a popular channel for Hoan Kiem district to attract domestic and international tourists, thereby attracting investment and stimulating demand for tourism and economy.
If Hanoi is the heart of the country, Hoan Kiem District is the heart of the capital, which attracts the largest number of international tourists in the district. To continue attracting tourists and developing tourism, Hoan Kiem District will enhance the advertising, promote tourism trade, focus on developing tourism services while investing, exploiting and promoting the strength of space, landscape architecture, cultural values ​​of the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem Lake area and surrounding areas.