(TITC) - Located in the Northwest of Vietnam, Sapa has been an attractive tourism destination for domestic and international tourists for years. Sapa has beautiful mountainous scenery, cool climate and especially the rich diversity in ethnic groups and cultures, which greatly helps to develop community-based tourism.
In 2008, under the support of IUCN Vietnam (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and SNV (Netherlands Development Organization), Sapa District implemented the pilot project “Supporting Sustainable Tourism in Sapa”, which was a breakthrough in tourism development of Sapa.
The goal of the project was to assist local people, especially ethnic group in Sapa in training and raising their awareness in tourism business and traditional culture preservation. After four years of implementation, the project achieved practical success.
From the first year of implementation in Cat Cat and Sin Chai hamlets (San Sa Ho commune) with the participation of only four households, now community-based tourism has expanded in Ta Van, Lao Chai, Ta Phin, Nam Cang communes with hundreds of households, to meet the demands of tourists, contributing to increase local income.
The project made foundation for sustainable tourism development in Sapa. The project helped local people in training reception and communication skills, accommodation services, establishing performance teams at the villages to serve tourists who want to discover the nature landscape, lifestyles and customs of ethnic people. The project encouraged households to restore traditional handicraft production such as: embroidery, weaving, forging, casting, carving crafts, creating special tourist products. At these localities, local people invested in accommodation facilities, many houses on stilts became the ideal place for tourists. Each household as a hostel with its own unique characteristics attracts tourists to stay.
Ban Ho hamlet is a typical example of community-based tourism in Sapa. Under the guide of the project, the households upgraded their houses on stills with essential convenient facilities to serve tourists. In addition, traditional weaving, then singing, tinh musical instrument have been restored to satisfy tourists need to study local lifestyles and customs. Thanks to community-based tourism development, their lives have been improved, contributing to poverty alleviation.
Community-based tourism is considered a strength of Sapa because almost domestic and international tourists chose this type of tourism whenever coming here. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), more than 70% of international tourists to Sapa love to visit the ethnic minorities villages.
Developing community-based tourism combined with natural landscape, environmental, cultural protection is a good direction for sustainable tourism in Sapa.
Translated by Hong Thanh from laocai.gov.vn