Many impressive tourism models

We came to Kha village, Sap Vat commune, Yen Chau district (Son La), a place with beautiful scenery, shaded by mango orchards, ancient tamarind trees, and winding Vat stream. Kha village has a total natural area of ​​435 hectares, the whole village has 92 households with 425 people, 99% of whom are Thai ethnic people.

Developing tourism associated with maintaining traditional crafts

Currently, in Kha village, about 90% of households in the village still maintain the ancient stilt houses; households still preserve and promote unique cultural features, such as: Dong Sua Festival; folk singing, musical instrument performances.nation; maintain traditional crafts of weaving, embroidery of Piêu scarves; weaving of daily necessities. Taking advantage of the advantages, Kha village, Sap Vat commune was chosen by Yen Chau district to become a tourist village. The roadmap for building tourism products in 5 years, with a total investment of about 43.2 billion VND, focuses on building main items, such as: Welcome gate to the village; building a reception point at the parking lot; parking and electric car system to transport tourists to the village to ensure the environment; sales points and experience games; building an experience route; beautifying the village landscape, building toilets.

Along with Kha village, many other localities of Son La have been promoting the development of local tourism associated with preserving the culture of ethnic minorities. Promoting the advantage of being a mountainous province in the Northwest, located at an average altitude of 600-700m above sea level, mountainous terrain and having the Ma River and the Da River flowing through, creating an attractive natural landscape. Besides,Son LaIt is also home to 12 ethnic groups, with traditional cultural features, historical and cultural relics, revolutionary historical relics... creating an attraction, attracting tourists to Son La to relax, experience, conquer adventures or learn about the culture of ethnic minorities.

In order to promote the development of community tourism in the area, the People's Council of Son La province issued Resolution 22/2016/NQ-HDND dated December 14, 2016 on policies to support the development of community tourism in the province until 2020; Resolution No. 41/2022/NQ-HDND dated August 31, 2022 supporting the development of community tourism in the period 2022 - 2026.

Accordingly, Son La province has supported the implementation of many tourism skills training courses; supported the construction of 6 community tourism villages; supported 31 households to build homestays to do community tourism business in the villages and supported 2 homestays with low-interest loans with a total cost of 750 million VND.

The province also issued projects to innovate, improve the quality and efficiency of the Museum's operations associated with tourism development; Build projects associated with tourism development such as: Project to develop community tourism in Chieng Di village, Van Ho commune; "Research and build a typical model of green tourism development in Moc Chau national tourist area"; "Research and build a model oftourismsustainable Son La Hydropower Reservoir area”. Implement the Project “Preserving and promoting the values ​​of folk songs, folk dances and folk music of ethnic minorities in Son La province associated with tourism development”.

From the attention to investment in tourism development, up to now, Son La has had 5 tourist areas and spots recognized as meeting the conditions and criteria prescribed by the Law on Tourism. The whole province of Son La currently has a total of 626 tourist accommodation establishments, of which 29 hotels and resorts have been rated stars, 89 accommodation establishments have met the conditions to serve tourists.

According to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Son La, in the first 6 months of 2024, Son La tourism continued to have impressive development and achieved many positive results. The total number of visitors to Son La reached 2,973 thousand, equal to 61.9% of the plan, with estimated revenue of about 3,560 billion VND, equal to 64.7% of the plan.

People's lives change

Investment in tourism has brought a better life to local ethnic people. Mr. Vi Van Khe - Owner of Son Khe homestay, Mong village, Hua La commune, Son La city, said: Previously, the family mainly relied on income from 24 mineral baths, health recovery pools, with an average income of about 40 million VND/month. In 2018, after investing 1.6 billion VND to build a stilt house in the traditional Thai architectural style to run a homestay business, the family also received 45 million VND from the city to renovate public toilets, and support to buy beds, blankets, and mattresses. In addition to mineral bath services, the family also provides resort and culinary services, organizes xoe dances, and bamboo dances to diversify cultural experiences of the Thai ethnic group, doubling the family's revenue, and significantly improving their lives.

Linking tourism with preserving and promoting unique ethnic cultures, creating jobs for local workers.

Ms. Vi Thi Thiem - Kha village, Sap Vat commune, Yen Chau district, Son La province shared: To contribute to building a tourist village, creating a green - clean - beautiful landscape, the family still maintains the old stilt house style, does not cut down ancient mango trees. Besides, promoting and mobilizing children to participate in training classes on traditional Pieu scarf embroidery and traditional weaving, up to now there are 30 mother-child pairs participating. Planting flowers along the fences along the roads leading to the village creates a beautiful landscape. Thanks to that, the number of tourists coming to Kha village is increasing.

From the achieved results, Son La province's goal by 2025 is to welcome about 5.2 million visitors, including about 500,000 international visitors, with total revenue from tourism services estimated at 5,800 billion VND.

The focus will be on developing tourism in conjunction with rural agricultural development and the national target program for new rural development. At the same time, through the development of community tourism, it will contribute to protecting ecological resources and the environment, preserving and promoting unique cultural features of ethnic groups, creating jobs for local workers, and promoting sustainable socio-economic development.

In addition, Son La province also focuses on implementing National Target Programs (NTPs), especially the NTP for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021-2030, phase I from 2021-2025; at the same time, mobilizing resources from NTPs to support the development of tourism types, including community tourism associated with tourism development, cultural identity preservation and sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minorities.

According to: Industry and Trade Newspaper