People in Cha Day village in Pa Co commune, Mai Chau district of Hoa Binh province, have been taking advantage of natural conditions and traditional cultural values to develop community-based tourism which has helped improve their quality of life.
Tourists join in picking tea leaves with local people
in Cha Day village.
In the past, Mong people in Pa Co commune mostly
earned their living by growing corn, paddy and raising cattle and poultry. Six years ago, Phang A Pao, a local resident,
was the first person to start community-based tourism model in the commune. Pao, who is now head of a group of farmers who
provide Mong homestay service, said that since he started his tourism business,
he has learnt many things. He understood that preserving the natural
landscape and cultural identity can help people from ethnic groups to develop,
and escape from poverty.
So far, ten families in the village have joined
in developing community-based tourism in association with preserving and
promoting tangible and intangible cultural values.
In the village, the homestay service providers
have still preserved traditional houses made of natural materials and decorated
in the style of Mong people. New tourism products have been exploited such as
cultural space of the Mong people, traditional night market, and camping
combined with cloud watching in the mountains, which helped attract domestic
and international visitors.
Anline, a visitor from France, said that she was
impressed when she visited "Mong Space" and was told interesting
stories about traditional costumes, patterns on fabric, and long preserved
items. She was also guided to make paper, paint with beeswax and relax with
herbal bath.
After 6 years of implementing the
community-based tourism models, Cha Day village has become one of the popular
destinations for domestic and international tourists. While running tourism
business, households in the village are highly aware of the importance of
preserving local culture, particularly traditional costumes, cuisine, and
festivals.
Up to now, the "Homestay Mong and
experience Pa Co agriculture" has gathered 35 members with six homestays.
Houses that provide homestay service got an average annual income of 100
million VND (4,000 USD).
In recent years, based on the community tourism models of the Dao people in Cao Son commune and the Muong people in Hien Luong and Tien Phong communes, the authority of Da Bac district has built a model of this kind in the Tay ethnic community in Thu Lu hamlet, Giap Dat commune.
The People's Committee of Hoa Binh province on August 7 held a meeting to review the implementation of the project "Building upland communes in Tan Lac district into provincial-level tourist areas by 2030, with a vision to 2050" in the first months of 2024, and deploy tasks for the coming time. Nguyen Van Toan, Standing Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, chaired the event.
The provincial People's Committee has just issued Decision No. 1419/QD-UBND on July 30th, 2024, regarding the recognition of Mo Hamlet Community Tourism Site.
Blessed by nature with beautiful landscapes with hundreds of caves, waterfalls, grass hills and a cultural space imbued with ethnic identity, some destinations in Cao Phong district are likened to "fairyland" or "tourist paradise". Clearly identifying its potential and advantages, over the recent years, the district has continuously invested in embellishing, preserving and increasing the value of its landscapes and relic sites to develop tourism.
After three years of implementing Resolution No. 05-NQ/HU, dated June 7, 2021, issued by the Lac Thuy Party Committee’s standing board on local tourism development for 2021-2025, the district has focused on forming distinctive cultural products linked to tourism to attract visitors. Its efforts have led to increasing tourist arrivals and tourism revenue, contributing to economic restructuring, job creation, state budget revenue collection, and higher living standards.
According to the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, tourism business activities in the province have shown strong signs of recovery, and the province has achieved good growth in the first six months of this year. The total number of tourists visiting Hoa Binh is estimated at 2.6 million, increasing nearly 10% compared to that of the same period, achieving 61.9% of the annual plan.
