Dinh Thi Thin, a tourist guide working in the Co Tu community tourism village becomes a “bridge” between Co Tu culture and visitors. She was born and grew up in Bho Hoong hamlet, Song Kon commune, Dong Giang district, Quang Nam province.
Dinh Thi Thin (right) and foreign visitors.
Dinh Thi Thin graduated from the department of Culture and Tourism, Quang Nam University in 2011. Coming back her village, she became a tourist guide in 2013 when the project of inland tourism development funded by the Luxembourg Government was implemented in Bho Hoong village.
The project aimed to better the poor’s lives, create opportunities for local people to promote and preserve their cultural characters via community-based tourism. During the process of the project, Thin played an important role in providing people with the knowledge of tourism and English skills to help them access the project. She has also participated in some training courses, workshops and conferences on tourist guiding, learning about some community tourism models in Vietnamese Northern mountainous provinces, and in Thailand. All of them helped her have useful and practical lessons for her job at present. Besides, she teaches the locals English so that they can communicate with international visitors.
Thanks to the knowledge of English, the Co Tu villagers can be confident in communication, contributing to the local community tourism development through which the Co Tu cultural values are preserved. At present, there are many tourism activities here such as the taste of buffalo festival, tang tung za zá dance, weaving brocade, knitting baskets, cooking, walking around the village, watching beautiful landscapes here. Visitors are very pleased with the homestay service and their experiences here, and especially, Dinh Thi Thin – a friendly enthusiastic well-informed tourist guide, an important bridge between the destination and visitors.