World Coffee Museum boosts tourism in Central Highlands

The World Coffee Museum in the central province of  Đắk Lắk  is a venue for a variety of cultural activities that have drawn a large number of tourists to the area.

The museum is located on Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Street, in a 45-hectare coffee city project in Buôn Ma Thuột City, Đắk Lắk, known as the "Coffee Capital" of Vietnam.

The museum, which opened in late 2018, dazzles visitors with its one-of-a-kind architecture. It is made up of five curving buildings based on the nhà dài (long house) and rông house (a variation of stilt houses) architecture of the ê ethnic minority who live throughout the Central Highlands.

The World Coffee Museum

Designed as an open exhibition space, provides visitors with a variety of exciting experiences within its various spaces for displaying artifacts, tasting coffee, and organizing events.

Exhibits at the museum come from all over the world, including over 10,000 coffee-related objects from various coffee cultures that used to be housed at the Jens Burg Coffee Museum in Hamburg, Germany. They include many 19th-century artifacts, such as a coffee sorting machine made in Germany in 1930 and historical Vietnamese coffee processing tools.

Another highlight of the museum visit is the exhibition of three coffee cultures: Ottoman, Zen, and Roman. Through 3D mapping technology, participants are immersed in a space filled with light, music, art, and the seductive aroma of coffee while listening to stories about coffee history and cultures.

The World Coffee Museum regularly organizes thematic exhibitions, such as The History of Coffee, Coffee: A Panacea for the Brain - A Panacea for Creativity, Coffee: A Journey to Discover Human Values, and Coffee: Creative Energy of Art, in addition to a vast collection of valuable artefacts that help visitors learn about more than 12 centuries of coffee history.

The museum, the first of its kind in Vietnam, has received many compliments from international media for its unique architecture and exhibitions. The AP news agency (US) described it as "the largest, most lively, and unique living museum."

According to the leading British travel magazine, Wanderlust, it is also ranked sixth out of 17 of the best destinations in Vietnam.

In early 2022, National Geographic praised the World Coffee Museum on its Spanish-language travel website, saying it was "where visitors can fully immerse themselves in the coffee culture".

Cultural center

A variety of cultural and artistic activities have recently taken place at the museum, with the hope of providing visitors with a unique experience.

They include re-enactments of early twentieth-century countryside Lunar New Year markets, medieval Christmas markets in Europe, and special occasions of countries around the world that showcase their cultural essence, such as Turkey's Istanbul Grand Bazaar.

Visitors can participate in many cultural activities of different local ethnic groups while exploring the coffee capital, particularly the World Coffee Museum, such as the Pác Ngan Krông Giang rituals (clapping hands to invite God) and the rituals of offering wine or paying tributes to the Fire God of the ê.

At the museum, they are also guided through the process of making various types of coffee and regional cuisines.

The majestic natural scenery, the unique culture of the indigenous people of k Lk, and the World Coffee Museum wowed Phm Thu Trang from the southern province of Tin Giang on his first visit to the Central Highlands.

"As soon as we arrived, we were invited to take part in the rituals of paying homage to the Fire God of the ê. We also attempted to make traditional leaf dishes from various ethnic groups. "I was most impressed by the traditional market days held there in the middle of a buckwheat flower field, which we thought we had to travel as far north as Hà Giang to see," she said.

The museum has become the venue for many art programmes featuring famed Vietnamese artists and performances, including the musical The Tale of Three Coffee Cultures.

The classical concert Cm Hng Ching I (Ching I Inspiration) and the launch of a special contemporary fashion collection Xuân Trên Bn Thng (Spring on the Highland Village) by designer La Phm took place recently in the museum as a special gift dedicated to local ethnic communities and visitors to Vietnam's coffee capital. Music and fashion events have wowed the public, with thousands of attendees and social media followers.

The museum will host a number of programs at the upcoming Coffee Festival 2023, which will take place in k Lk from March 10-14, including a street festival, a photo contest, and exhibitions on Vietnamese coffee and the history of coffee around the world.

The World of Coffee Museum, according to the k Lk provincial authority of culture, sports, and tourism, is a popular destination for both locals and visitors.

Millions of tourists from 22 countries visited it in 2022, contributing to a 473 percent increase in provincial tourism revenue.

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