(HBO) – The mountainous district of Mai Chau is well-known for not only breath-taking and charming nature but also distinctive cultures of the Thai and Mong ethnic minority peoples. The district has been striving to preserve and promote these traditional cultures in recent years.
Cultural
values of Mong ethnic minority group in the communes of Hang
Kia and Pa Co, Mai Chau have been preserved and developed to boost tourism.
About 60
percent of the district’s population are Thai ethnic minority people whohave original traditional culture characteristics, from architecture of stilt houses to how
they decorate home, weaving, costumes and ways of communication.
The locals
have had their awareness raised about the importance of preservation of
cultural values with around 85 percent of Thai families still living in stilt
houses. Traditional weaving has been restored with the establishment of many
brocade weaving groups and cooperatives.
The district
has also developed regulations managing tourism activities and asked local
tourist services providers in villages, such as Pom Coong, Van and Lac, to
engage in conservingthe traditional culture.
In Hang Kia
and Pa Co where 99 percent of the population are Mong people, traditional
crafts such as hand weaving, brocade embroidering, indigo dyeing and blacksmithing have been
restored and preserved.
The
conservation of traditional cultural values of Thai and Mong ethnic minority
communities have helped improve Mai Chau’s attractiveness in tourists’ eyes.
The district
has licensed 15 tourism and commercial projects with a combined investment of
close to 1.2 trillion VND, of
which many operating profitably, such as Mai Chau Ecolodge and MaiChau Hideaway. It is now home to 146
lodging facilities, including 12 hotels, 28 hostels and 106 homestays.
Mai Chau has
seen tourist arrivals growing about 3.23 percent annually, with over 21.9
percent increase in foreign visitors, and revenue from tourism averaging 103
billion VND per year.
The district
sets to become a more attractive, friendly and safe tourist destination in
2025. To this end, it is working to reform public administrative services and
attract more investment in tourism. It also prioritises large-scale projects in
key locations and encourages investment in building high-end hotels, resorts,
restaurants and entertainment and recreation centres to create added values for
the local tourism industry.
Additionally,
the district has paid greater attention to developing festival-related and
comminity-based tours and those to craft villages./.
In the first 9 months of 2024, Hoa Binh province continues to implement the expanded tourism development cooperation program plan of 8 Northwest provinces with Ho Chi Minh City; deploying digital transformation content in tourism and developing a smart tourism province. Hoa Binh province received about 3.6 million views, an increase of 7.9% over the same period. In which, international visitors are about 380 visitors, domestic visitors are estimated at 3 million 220 visitors.
Spanning thousands of hectares and winding gracefully along mountain slopes, hillsides, and riverbanks, the terraced rice fields of Lac Son District present a stunning and captivating beauty. This region, renowned for its remarkable terraced landscapes, is also the centre of Hoa Binh Culture known for numerous archaeological sites.
The life of Mong people in Hang Kia and Pa Co communes of Mai Chau district has improved much thanks to tourism development.
The man-made Hoa Binh Lake, with a water surface area of approximately 9,000 hectares and a capacity of 9.45 billion cubic meters, stretches over 200 kilometers from Hoa Binh to Son La provinces. With the goal of developing into a national tourism area, the Hoa Binh Lake tourism area is expected to not only become the largest tourism centre in the province but also one of the 12 key tourist destinations in the northern midland and mountainous region of Vietnam.
Da Bia hamlet, now Duc Phong, in Tien Phong commune, Da Bac district, was once almost isolated from the outside as the only way to the hamlet was to get a boat ride across the Hoa Binh reservoir. However, as its tourism potential has been unleashed, the hamlet has established itself as one of the most attractive destinations on the tourism map. It has even received the ASEAN Community-Based Tourism Awards in 2019.
In the first 9 months of 2024, Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh province welcomed over 684 thousand visitors to visit and relax. In which, over 516 thousand domestic visitors and more than 168 thousand international visitors. Total revenue from tourism is estimated at over 821 billion VND.