Artists as tour guides: Need to be equipped with soft skills

On the weekend, we went to De Kjieng village (Ayun commune, Mang Yang district) and asked Mr. Si, a bamboo weaving artisan, to be our tour guide. De Kjieng is a Bahnar village with many advantages in terms of natural landscape and culture, only about 3-4 km from Kon Ka Kinh National Park.

Following the tour guide, our first destination was the traditional communal house. The communal house is made entirely from natural materials, with a thick thatched roof, floors and walls woven from bamboo and firmly secured with rattan fibers. Two rows of wooden statues below remind us of the cultural events that took place here. Si proudly introduced more about the traditional festivals of the village and the meaning of the wooden statues.

From the “heart of the village” to the drop of water, the last place Si took his guests to was Vang field located in the valley at the source of the Ayun River. Seen from above, the river sparkled silver winding around the fields and hills in the distance. In the afternoon, people waded across the river to return home, carrying on their backs baskets with bamboo shoots, wild vegetables, and small bunches of bananas. Living near the forest, the Bahnar people are in harmony with nature.

Pointing to the deep green mountains and forests, the village guide said: For thousands of years, the Bahnar people have relied on that green color to make materials for building communal houses, carving statues, weaving, etc. As an artisan, Si has a wealth of knowledge to tell visitors about traditional crafts. In addition to daily necessities, Si also makes handbags, tea tables, steamers, etc. to sell to tourists.

Stor Resistance Village (To Tung Commune, Kbang District) is the core of the province's community tourism development plan. The village gathers a large number of artisans participating in tourism activities, including Mr. Dinh Greng. Born and raised in a land long associated with slash-and-burn culture, artisan Greng has a rich life experience and understanding of festivals. He often participates in reenacting traditional festivals to serve tourists; serving the need to tell village stories to tourists whenever they are interested.

Recently, Bahnar artisan Dinh Greng presided over the worship ritual during the first rice pruning ceremony of the year to serve visitors within the framework of the Kbang District Tourism Festival 2024. With his extensive knowledge of customs, festivals and traditional occupations, he spent hours talking to writers, researchers and photographers about the national cultural identity. He also guided visitors to experience the activities of Stor Resistance Village and participated in weaving to create products to serve tourists.

Possessing a rich culture and tradition is an advantage for artisans to have many stories to tell tourists. However, they still need support in tourism skills and storytelling to increase the attractiveness of the destination. Mr. Si said: In 2023, nearly 40 people from De Kjieng village were trained in community tourism for 3 months. He was one of 2 excellent students and was placed in the tour guide team. Last July, he won third prize in the provincial tour guide competition for ethnic minorities.

This is also a common limitation of artisans participating in tourism. Artisan Dinh Greng has a rich knowledge of culture but his storytelling is sometimes not coherent and engaging.

The participation of artisans in community tourism activities, especially in the role of tour guides, is a valuable asset of this new type. Master Huynh Cong Hieu - Champion of the 2010 National Excellent Tour Guide Competition and the first representative of a travel agency in Ho Chi Minh City to conduct a pilot community tourism tour in Gia Lai to connect and bring visitors.

He highly appreciated the role of artisans in community tourism: “Artisans with rich cultural knowledge help tourists have deeper experiences. Tour guides are a difficult job even for those who have been trained through school. Therefore, artisans need to be patient in guiding them and must have the support of local authorities and the tourism industry. When artisans are supported with soft skills to be guides and storytellers, the experience of tourists will be much better.”

For many years, Gia Lai College has been a unit participating in training and educating people to do community tourism. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy An - Lecturer of the Faculty of Tourism (Gia Lai College) said: "We often survey to see what potential and strengths the locality has, then guide people on how to organize for visitors, connect points into a tour to bring visitors many experiences. Artisans have a great advantage when participating in community tourism. They can talk, do, guide visitors to experience and many other things. They have a foundation of life experience, knowledge and skills about traditional crafts. We only guide them on how to tell the village story logically and attractively so that visitors everywhere can understand".