Ethnic minorities live in many different ecological landscapes, creating uniqueness in tourism. That uniqueness is further highlighted when each ethnic group still preserves a distinct ethnic cultural identity. Therefore, the culture of ethnic minorities is truly the basis and foundation to create attractiveness and uniqueness in tourism products.
Tourists experience folk games at Cat Cat village, Sa Pa town, Lao Cai province.
Heritage creates opportunities for tourism development
When it comes to tourism in the Northern mountainous region, it is impossible not to mention the majestic terraced fields of the Mong, Dao, Xa Pho, and Tay people in Mu Cang Chai (Yen Bai), Hoang Su Phi (Ha Giang), and Bat Xat (Lao Cai). The types of farming on sloping land, on terraced fields, or in valleys along rivers and streams all create the attractive beauty of ancient agricultural tourism. The diversity and richness of ethnic cultural heritages have created the attraction for heritage tourism in ethnic minority areas.
Thanks to that, heritage tourism in ethnic minority areas has a strong impact (both positive and negative) on the socio-economic life of the people. First of all, heritage tourism contributes to changing livelihoods and increasing income for ethnic communities participating in tourism chains. The Dao people in Ta Phin, Ta Van, Nam Cang communes... of Sa Pa have switched from monoculture of rice to tourism. In recent years, each year Dao tourist attractions in Sa Pa welcome more than 40,000 visitors.
On the other hand, the provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang, Vinh Phuc... have planned and built relics in the Mother Goddess worship system in their provinces to become attractive spiritual tourist destinations. The number of visitors to tourist destinations is increasing rapidly. For example, in Lao Cai province, the total number of visitors to Lao Cai in 2023 reached more than 7.2 million, of which visitors to spiritual tourist areas are estimated at more than 3.5 million.
Thanks to tourism development, many cultural heritages that were lost have been restored, such as the Dao people's medicinal craft, the Thai people's brocade weaving craft in Mai Chau (Hoa Binh), the Mong and Dao people in Sa Pa (Lao Cai), the Mong and Pa Then people in Ha Giang, the Ta Oi people in Thua Thien Hue, the Cham people in Ninh Thuan... Tourism has aroused pride in the traditional culture of the nation, and people know how to appreciate heritage. From heritage, many new and attractive tourism products have been created.
To develop sustainable tourism
However, besides the positive effects, heritage tourism also has negative impacts on heritage. All heritages, when they want to become tourism products, must go through a special process. That is the process of "commodification" of heritage. A brocade blanket of the Thai people, if they want to be sold to tourists, must be processed into handbags, phone cases, pillowcases... The fire dancing ritual of the Pa Then and Dao people, if they want to become a tourism product, must also be staged, the ritual part cut down, the sacred space removed, the fire dancing part separated from the overall belief, leaving only a small art performance of fire dancing. Thus, the process of "commodification" and "commercialization" of heritage has determined the "production" and transformation of heritage into tourism products. This process does not take place according to the season or cycle of the heritage's activities, but mainly meets the needs of tourists. Therefore, wedding ceremony excerpts are performed regularly, year round, and water festival excerpts are not only performed on Lao and Lu New Year's Day but are often held year round.
Mu Cang Chai (Yen Bai) attracts tourists with its beautiful terraced fields.
The process of “commodification” to satisfy tourists and meet their entertainment needs has led to the deformation of heritage. Some religious heritages have lost their sacred space and become mere performances. When the sacred space is lost and the sacred time is no longer there, the heritage is also de-sacred and no longer has its role. Some tourist destinations with spiritual and artistic values become overloaded when a large number of visitors come. Village festivals in the past only welcomed visitors from the village or a small number of visitors from the whole region. But now, these heritages do not take into account the capacity of the tourist destination, and develop too “hotly”, leading to a massive influx of pilgrims to a tourist destination with a small space. Tourists do not follow the village’s standards and rules of conduct towards sacred objects. They fight over sacred objects, leading to the festival not being able to be held. Some festivals are not prepared (or cannot predict the sudden increase in visitors), leading to overload, service systems being disrupted or not meeting the needs of tourists. Festivals are "broken" before reaching their peak. The overload of spiritual tourist sites also causes many consequences for the environment and the cultural lifestyle of local residents...
In developing community tourism, spiritual tourism, source tourism, experiential tourism... the most important issue is to promote the role of heritage owners, but currently in villages, ethnic minorities are rich in tourism resources but are poor people, lacking capital to do tourism business. Businesses have flocked to places rich in resources and only invested a little in services and infrastructure. They collect a huge amount of capital but the people - the owners of the heritage only benefit at a very low rate.
Another problem is that tourism development is not sustainable, all residents revolve around tourism without developing traditional industries. In many places, tourism development is too "hot", not protecting terraced fields, restaurants and hotels spring up and take up all the land, the ecological environment is polluted...
From the negative impacts of tourism on heritage, we see: Tourist behavior conflicts with the cultural heritage of the people (conflicts in lifestyle, conflicts in living, exploitation of heritage...); local communities lose copyrights on protecting cultural heritage to businesses; people who are the owners of heritage become hired workers practicing the form of "parody" of heritage; unscientific construction of village planning infrastructure, lack of multicultural vision, respect for ethnic culture leads to a situation where there is no planning or planning is not suitable for the characteristics of local ethnic traditions...
Developing heritage tourism in ethnic minority areas is an important driving force for building new rural areas, contributing to hunger eradication and poverty reduction. However, to effectively develop heritage tourism, it is necessary to preserve and promote ethnic cultural heritage to build tourism products with specific characteristics suitable for each region, not to develop mass-market heritage tourism but to develop in a sustainable, planned and selective direction. On the other hand, developing heritage tourism must be researched to build attractive tourism products suitable for each type of tourist. These tourism products must have their own identity based on tourism resources in each locality, avoiding the current situation of "similarity". In particular, it is necessary to build an effective heritage tourism development strategy, with specific policies and mechanisms.
Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/vai-tro-di-san-van-hoa-trong-phat-trien-du-lich-o-vung-cac-dan-toc-thieu-so-207281.html
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