Videos about the simple Tet of the Mong, Red Dao, Giay people or the experiences of people in the highlands going to the fields, lunches with only green vegetables and black pork fat... that make viewers exclaim are helping to attract international and domestic tourists.
International visitors experience highland tourism... from local people's social media promotion - Screenshot
The founders of these personal channels on Facebook, TikTok, Zalo are none other than local people. More and more people are succeeding in marketing tourism through social networks, helping to improve income, upgrade the value of agricultural products, introduce national cultural identity to international visitors...
Amateur guide, surprisingly engaging
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) shared that she had just had a trip that "thought it wouldn't be fun but was incredibly fun" during the recent Tet holiday. Her family, 2 younger siblings, and 2 foreign friends, planned to travel in Vietnam at the end of December 2024, with the criteria of only going to places... different.
"Accidentally, Facebook brought up the personal page of a Red Dao person in Lao Cai who does rural tourism, introducing agricultural products from the countryside. I watched a video about the scene of people in the highlands picking cabbage and butchering pork to get fat to prepare for Tet.
Being attracted, we followed Facebook and had a 7-day trip, reasonably priced but interesting and impressive with 2 friends in England," Ms. Thuy said.
According to Ms. Thuy, the cost of staying at a Red Dao people's house is only 300,000 VND/person/night; a table for 8 people is less than 2 million VND; the cost of a "tour guide" taking them into the forest to experience planting, picking bamboo shoots, and finding wild vegetables is only 500,000 VND with time... until the guests are tired and want to go home.
On social networks, there are more and more Facebook, Zalo or TikTok pages of young people from Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Yen Bai, Thai Nguyen... or other delta regions, introducing OCOP products such as green tea, vermicelli, banh chung, bamboo shoots, peanut candy, hawthorn tea, cinnamon along with many videos of tourists visiting and experiencing.
Everything is introduced very simply, the camera angle is very amateur but followers "find it hard to resist". For example, the page named "May Kim Dao Do" in Ta Phin village (Sa Pa district, Lao Cai) has more than 8,000 likes, more than 200,000 followers.
The secret to attracting tourists is that the personal page revolves around introducing mountain and forest scenery, introducing organic vegetable gardens on the fields and rice fields of the highlanders, or exploring the Dao cultural festival; mountain and forest meals or peaceful countryside scenes; the Tet votive paper burning ceremony of the Red Dao people; Western tourists coming to experience picking vegetables and raising pigs... These videos are "leading" many other tourists to come.
A scene of a farmer in Thai Nguyen making peanut candy also has nearly 5,000 followers. The scene has the support of "colleagues" who are children and grandchildren in the family. Not only does this channel sell OCOP products, it also attracts many customers to come to the place to... try making the products.
With more than 10 years of experience in operating tours in Sa Pa (under Duc Minh Tourism Company, Lao Cai province), Mr. Le Tuan Kiet said that international visitors to Sa Pa, in addition to visiting famous places in the highlands, also tend to "take out Facebook and point: let me come here".
Mr. Kiet said: "Foreigners who travel independently to Vietnam have a lot of experience when traveling and have researched. I was surprised because when I followed a tour guide, there were still people who gave Facebook names of people A and B and asked to be taken to a tourist's house just to experience it like in the video. People have extra income.
At the same time, you can sell additional services at home such as eating, sleeping, baking or experiencing other cultures... Compared to working as a factory worker or going out to the street to help with housework, the income cannot be equal."
New trend but need clear direction
"I see that people in the highlands have a lot of delicious, clean agricultural products but have no outlet. Instead of working as a factory worker, I stay home to build a channel, at least one video a week to do tourism, sell agricultural products, I have more income and create jobs for the whole family", the owner of a homestay in Ta Phin village (Sa Pa district) shared the opportunity to do tourism.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Khanh - President of Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association, taking advantage of social networks to promote the image of the country, people and culture of Vietnam is a very good and trendy way to do agricultural tourism.
However, support is needed for farmers and individuals building canals for tourism. "I think state management agencies and sectors should provide guidance to avoid duplication and be more creative," said Ms. Khanh.
Mr. Nong Viet Yen, Director of the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism of Yen Bai province, said that the atmosphere of the "smokeless industry" is spreading to Yen Bai very strongly, through many different promotional channels, including tourism channels built by local people through Facebook, Zalo... Tourism is being promoted by local people, especially young people, using social networks to promote tourism, promoting homestay establishments that are generating very good income.
This contributes to the growth of local tourism. Specifically, in 2024, the tourism industry will grow by 103% compared to 2023, with 270,000 international visitors; more than 1.8 million domestic visitors; from 119 accommodation establishments to 562 accommodation establishments in the past year, pushing revenue to a breakthrough, reaching nearly 2,000 billion VND.
"In the near future, the province will have a special topic to support tourism, increase the value of OCOP products, and organize training sessions for tourism establishment owners. In addition, training will be held to exchange more methods and ways to make trend-setting videos, and ways to create images to preserve and promote the cultural values of the Northwest," said Mr. Yen.
Looking at the general picture of people doing tourism using social networks, a tourism expert (living in Ho Chi Minh City) assessed that the way of doing it has its own characteristics, different from press information or tourism publications, even images, videos, clips "full" of local language but still attract customers. This shows the needs of tourists.
"There needs to be cooperation, from the tourism model of local people to linking with departments and private enterprises in the field of digital transformation of tourism to act as a bridge between domestic and international tourists while minimizing advertising costs but accessing the market well," he suggested another solution.
Social media inspires travelers
In 2024, according to research by Booking.com, 69% of respondents will use platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or YouTube to find ideas for their next trip;
67% of people want to travel to a location that has appeared in a movie or TV show; 60% want to experience the food and culture that has been featured in the media.
Don't let "customers be at risk, customers... take care of themselves"
As a tour operator, Mr. Le Tuan Kiet believes that the way each local does agricultural tourism through social networks is good and effective. The local people know how to communicate well in English, leaving an impression on tourists.
However, Mr. Kiet has witnessed the risks with international guests staying at local homes. The way to handle it at that time, according to Mr. Kiet, was... "guests take care of themselves".
"There was a Spanish tourist who went to a local's house, following the channel to find out through Facebook. When they arrived at the house, they were led by the local people into the forest to pick bamboo shoots, experiencing the scene of going into the forest to find food. Unfortunately, they slipped and fell, and this tourist had a blood clotting disorder. The way to handle it at that time was chaotic, basically the tourist had to take care of everything himself. Calling an ambulance took a lot of time...
Local authorities need to guide people to cooperate with travel agencies or localities to provide better after-sales service and customer care. If customers have an accident and take care of themselves, international customers will definitely only come once," said Mr. Kiet.
Digitizing An Giang tourism on social networking platformsSource: https://tuoitre.vn/du-lich-nong-nghiep-qua-facebook-20250216235216617.htm
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