With the support of the Dien Bien Provincial Community Development Fund (FCD), from a simple farmer who only knew about rice fields, Mr. Cam Van Truong has become the owner of Cam Truong Homestay with a revenue of several hundred million VND/year. Mr. Truong shared: “Before officially renovating, repairing, and building a new house according to the current homestay model, FCD took me to visit many community tourism models in the provinces. I especially saw the economic efficiency when implementing the model from Phuong Duc Homestay right in the neighboring Che Can village. After many tours, training sessions, and internship experiences as a tour guide, directly leading tourists to visit Dien Bien, I was determined to implement the homestay model. At first, my wife and I argued a lot. She regretted having to give up things that the family had saved up for many years to follow a new business direction. But I always believed that I and my family could do it...”
“The process of converting from agriculture to tourism was difficult. Luckily, FCD was always with me, from the first steps, choosing, buying an old house to build and renovate, installing electricity and water lines, building toilets, renovating the old house, kitchen, especially the loan for my family to equip blankets, sheets, pillows, mattresses, curtains, sanitary equipment... I decided to build a homestay with the motto of taking advantage of all available natural materials to reduce costs and be environmentally friendly, only spending on what my family could not make themselves" - Mr. Cam Van Truong confided.
Not disappointing the family's trust and expectations, the courage to step out of the comfort zone has been rewarded. On June 15, 2023, his family officially opened Cam Truong Homestay and started doing business. By May 15, 2024, his family had welcomed about 2,000 guests, with an estimated revenue of 400 million VND, of which profit accounted for about 50%. Mr. Truong has paid off the loans when building a new house, purchasing equipment and household appliances, initially having capital to reinvest and improve the quality of customer service. His wife no longer has to wash clothes, blankets, sheets, pillows, and mattresses by hand with an 11kg washing machine; food is actively stored in a new 2-compartment freezer, serving the food processing process well; wide-screen TV to serve the needs of the family and tourists using the service...
Developing rapidly, the number of customers gradually stabilized, and having income, Mr. Truong did not forget his responsibility to the community, sharing benefits, and ensuring sustainability. Therefore, he regularly buys food from people in Kha village and neighboring villages to process and serve customers, ensuring delicious, clean, and safe food; at the same time, he contacts the village's art troupe to perform when groups order services. Just in April, his family bought more than 100 chickens from people in the village, along with vegetables, pork, and many other foods to process and serve customers...
With the dedicated service, the honest nature of a farmer and the humor and hospitality of Mr. Truong and his family, Cam Truong Homestay has been known by many people and contacted to book services. The good news spread far and wide, and neighboring localities sent delegations to learn the model from the family. Mr. Truong shared: "I am very happy and never thought that I would be the one to learn the model from others to do it myself. Now there are others coming to learn from me. I am always ready to welcome and share my experiences, hoping that everyone will develop and more and more homestays will be opened."
Cam Truong Homestay is one of the households that FCD supported, consulted, and lent capital after Phuong Duc Homestay, in Che Can village, Muong Phang commune, Dien Bien Phu city - a community tourism destination that has been operating quite effectively recently. Mr. Tran Hai Anh, Dien Bien Province Community Development Fund said: “In addition to the efforts of the owner, to have the current development and number of visitors, a large contribution comes from the connection with travel businesses, tourism and accommodation businesses. For example, currently, Cam Truong Homestay is connecting quite effectively with Dien Bien Cung Tho Dia Tourism Company. This travel agency regularly brings guests to use the service and contributes to promoting communication; contributing to the owner of the establishment to build tourism modules. Since then, the capacity and communication ability of the homestay has continuously developed and there are many new products to serve tourists...
In addition to connecting with travel agencies, FCD is always looking for opportunities to communicate and promote Cam Truong Homestay. Realizing that social networks and youtube and tiktok channels are effective communication methods, FCD has gradually built a facebook fanpage for the homestay, created room sales on online booking websites; connected with tiktokers, KOLs, KOCs for communication. Most recently, tiktoker "Dien Bien lang thang" with a series of 4 videos promoting Cam Truong Homestay has reached more than 40,000 platform users, contributing effectively to the communication process...
From today's premise, Cam Truong Homestay will continue to develop and be a seed, a model, spreading the entrepreneurial spirit, daring to go beyond the "safe zone", an example for other farmers to learn and follow. At the same time, sharing economic benefits, spreading solidarity and attachment right where his family lives will create a foundation for community tourism in Muong Phang commune to develop sustainably in the future.
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