Though a poor village 10 years ago, Ban Don or Don village in the mountainous district of Ba Thuoc, Thanh Hoa province has now become one of the emerging travel destinations with its homestay service for visitors who wish to explore the local life.

A view of Don
village in Ba Thuoc district (Photo: VNA)
Over the last five months of this year, the village hosted nearly 10,000
tourists, mainly foreigners.
"This is among the most beautiful places I have visited in Vietnam,” said Gian
Marco, an Italian visitor. "The people are amazing, especially in the village.”
Gian Marco,
an Italian visitor (Photo: VNA)
Ha Van Thuoc, a local resident who offered homestay service, said since the
beginning of the year, his family welcomed 400 visitors, with 60 percent being
foreigners. The tourists, mainly from France, Switzerland and the US, joined
his family in their daily meals and visiting terrace fields.
Ba Thuoc district is now home to 58 homestay accommodations. More than 100
other households benefit by planting clean vegetables and weaving brocades for
these homestays.
Homestay
tourism services have helped local people escape from poverty (Photo: VNA)
Homestay tourism services have helped local people in the locality escape from
poverty and improve their livelihood.
"We have been providing tourism services since April 2017. We have improved our
livelihood thanks to tourism,” Ha Van Hoanh, another local resident of Don
village said. " I hope that the roads to the village will be widened to make it
easier for tourists to travel here,” he added.
A local is
weaving in a traditional manner (Photo: VNA)
According to Lo Van Thang, Vice Chairman of the Ba Thuoc district People’s
Committee, the district has been focusing resources on developing
community based tourism in Don and Kho Muong villages. It has also combined
building new style rural areas with the tourism service in the
localities.
The initial successes in Ba Thuoc are a vivid example for other districts to
make community based tourism an economic spearhead.
Source: VNA
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