Lesson 1: From the "Northwest Gateway"
Many ethnic villages of Thai, Dao, Mong… have become famous tourist destinations, not only creating a brand for Northwest tourism but also becoming an underground source of endogenous strength for localities to develop socio-economy.
Ethnic 4.0
Late in the afternoon, Ms. Ha Thi Tho (owner of Minh Tho homestay) in Mai Hich village (Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh province) and her family and some homestay households in the village were busy preparing dinner to welcome guests. That day, her family welcomed many groups of nearly 50 people, including a group of tourists from Italy. The menu for the guests' meals was still traditional dishes of the Thai people: hill chicken, stream fish, pa ping top (grilled fish) and some local vegetables. After the Covid-19 pandemic, Mai Hich is one of the few community tourism villages that still regularly welcomes guests for vacation.
Ms. Ha Thi Tho confided that Thai families who run homestays all have their own fanpages to promote their establishments. Many customers book services via the internet. “We have to learn technology to promote, receive service bookings and respond to customers. The villagers have become proficient in using Zalo and Facebook. Customers can scan QR codes to pay for services,” Ms. Tho shared.
Like Ms. Ha Thi Tho, Mr. Nguyen Van Ba and his wife Vi Thi Yeu both received us and quickly answered phone messages. While receiving guests, he was still "closing the deal" online for a group of 20 people to book a room.
“In the past, Mai Hich mainly welcomed foreign guests, most of whom were families. After the Covid-19 pandemic, many domestic guests came to Mai Hich because they wanted a safe space close to nature. Now we welcome both Vietnamese and foreign guests,” said Mr. Ba.
Mai Hich village of Thai people in Mai Chau district has 7 hamlets, 923 households, currently 11 households run homestay services with a capacity of 25-30 guests each. These households are located close to each other, forming a community of mutual and similar services, with open space for visitors to easily experience.
The difference of community tourism in Mai Hich is preserving the environmental landscape, effective green tourism. Households still maintain the traditional stilt houses, using environmentally friendly materials such as bamboo, reed, wood to build auxiliary structures. People in the village contribute to create an attractive community tourism village. Houses with many visitors will introduce them to the surrounding houses.
In a charming white Thai costume, her cheeks flushed after makeup, Ms. Vi Thi Yeu shared that today she will join the art troupe to serve tourists after dinner.
“The village art troupe is made up entirely of local people, performing Thai dance, folk songs, and even international songs to entertain foreign guests. We learned many international folk dances online, and foreign guests really liked them. Ms. Vi Thi Yeu |
Taking us to visit the households running homestays, Vice Chairman of Mai Hich Commune People's Committee (Mai Chau, Hoa Binh) Vi Van Viet shared that Mai Hich builds a sustainable community tourism model, taking national identity as the core to transform from farming to service. All households are aware of sharing and supporting each other in tourism, many unique cultural features of the Thai people such as cuisine, xoè dance... are promoted by the locals, becoming tourism products for visitors to experience. The locals are equipped with skills and knowledge in tourism, and can now skillfully apply technology and social networks to brand Mai Hich tourism.
Providing more information about digital transformation activities in tourism development, Vice Chairman of Mai Chau District People's Committee Hoang Duc Minh said that the district has digitized 8 tourist destinations, built a digital tourism map, and introduced virtual reality MC application to help tourists easily look up, find information as well as explore cultural features and attractive destinations in the area.
bai-2-suc-The story of the households in Mai Hich as well as many stories of the very successful community tourism villages in the Northwestern provinces such as: Ban Lac of the Thai people (Hoa Binh); Sin Suoi Ho village of the Mong people, Si Thau Chai of the Dao people in Lai Chau; or A Chu homestay (Moc Chau, Son La)... It is worth mentioning that many villages that used to be "hot spots" for drugs have now transformed into attractive tourist destinations. Keeping up with technology and quickly innovating in upgrading services are helping many ethnic minority villages in the Northwest change their appearance. Many ethnic people have also learned English themselves and created bilingual travel guides for tourists.
“Now everyone understands that preserving cultural identity will attract tourists. |
In a meeting with us, Mr. Vang A Chinh, Head of Sin Suoi Ho village (Lai Chau) confided that he had created fanpages to introduce Sin Suoi Ho community tourism village in Vietnamese and English. After shifting to tourism, along with upgrading services, households self-studied English, improved communication skills, and served to welcome guests. Many Mong people have confidently communicated with foreign guests.
“We don’t just wear our traditional costumes when welcoming guests, we also wear them regularly in our daily lives. Now everyone understands that preserving our cultural identity will attract tourists,” said Vang A Chinh.
Ethnic people in the Northwest highlands have changed their awareness and actions in preserving their cultural identity and absorbing modern knowledge of digital technology to create endogenous strength for socio-economic development. Many villages can enrich themselves, improve their lives and income sustainably and effectively.
Recalling the time when she first decided to switch from farming to tourism, Ms. Ha Thi Tho, owner of Minh Tho homestay (Mai Hich commune, Hoa Binh), shared with a satisfied smile: “Before, our life was very poor. After being guided and trained in tourism, we realized that when we make an effort to preserve cultural identity and natural scenery, more tourists come here.”
Asked about the profits after switching to tourism, Ms. Tho did not hide the fact that in 2017, her family welcomed more than 7,000 visitors, most of whom were international tourists from France, England, Spain, the Netherlands, etc. The profit after deducting expenses from developing community tourism reached 250 million VND/year. Minh Tho Homestay became a model in Mai Hich for many households to later do community tourism.
The results of efforts to preserve cultural identity in modern life have brought many results to the development of community tourism in the Northwest. Many international tourism awards have honored village destinations as a recognition of the success of community tourism of ethnic minorities. Typically, Mai Hich community cultural village in Hich 2 hamlet (Mai Chau, Hoa Binh) is a community tourism destination voted by ASEAN for the period 2017-2019. Sin Suoi Ho village (Lai Chau) won the title of Typical Community Tourism Destination of Vietnam in 2019; the 3rd ASEAN Community Tourism Award within the framework of the recent Southeast Asia Tourism Forum - ATF 2023. Recently, Business Insider magazine (USA) voted Mai Chau (Hoa Binh) as one of the 10 attractive destinations in the world for local cultural tours.
Faced with the "transformation" in the community tourism villages that has brought many great benefits, not only helping ethnic minorities escape poverty, but also gradually creating their own brand to contribute to the development of the local socio-economy, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoa Binh province Nguyen Van Toan said that the province has built a Resolution on preserving and promoting the cultural values of ethnic groups, considering it a key task to promote the strength of the ethnic groups in the area. "The province will implement a plan to build and preserve "Hoa Binh culture"; focus on planning, in which culture is linked with tourism development", Mr. Nguyen Van Toan shared.
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