Located in Moc Chau National Tourist Area, Van Ho district has diverse and unique natural tourism resources and cultural tourism resources of ethnic groups, which have been exploited and become attractive tourism products, attracting tourists to visit and experience.
Tat Nang Waterfall, Chieng Yen Commune, Van Ho District is a tourist attraction.
Van Ho has a cool, fresh climate, beautiful, majestic, and pristine natural landscape, including waterfalls in Chieng Khoa; Tat Nang waterfall, hot springs in Chieng Yen commune; grasslands, tea hills, pine forests in Van Ho commune, Xuan Nha nature reserve, majestic Pha Luong range; peach and plum valleys in Long Luong commune... In the area, there are 5 ethnic groups: Mong, Thai, Muong, Kinh, Dao living together, converging many unique cultural values in festivals, customs, practices, rituals, costumes, traditional occupations, and house architecture.
Mr. Vu Thanh Hai, Vice Chairman of Van Ho District People's Committee, said: The district determines to develop tourism on the basis of maximizing potential and advantages, focusing on implementing detailed plans in the overall Moc Chau National Tourist Area; developing community tourism, eco-tourism, spiritual tourism, gradually forming high-quality tourism products; investing in technical infrastructure systems; branded tourism products, imbued with national cultural identity.
The tourism planning of Van Ho district is built in the direction of zoning key tourist destinations, focusing on and aiming at resort tourism, eco-tourism, associated with nature conservation, sports tourism, hiking tourism, village visits, border tourism, spiritual tourism and commercial shopping tourism. From 2020 to present, the district has proposed to put 12 tourist, tourist and rest stops of Van Ho on the tourism map of Son La province. The district has implemented policies to attract investment in the service and tourism sectors, aiming to diversify tourism types and products. At the same time, it has attracted 8 investment projects in the system of high-class hotels and resorts, with the total capital attracting social investment in tourism reaching over 452 billion VND. There are currently 2 resorts, 10 motels and 20 community motels in operation in the area.
The rice cake pounding competition at the Long Luong Peach Blossom Festival in 2024 attracts tourists to experience.
Activities to promote, link and develop tourism products have received attention. The district has coordinated to organize the VTV Cup Off Road motorcycle racing tournament in 2022 and 2023; the VTV Cup 2024 mountain bike racing tournament in Van Ho; the Long Luong peach blossom festival, the Ban flower festival, Chieng Khoa commune... attracting tourists to visit and experience.
In addition, the district focuses on preserving and embellishing traditional housing architecture; restoring and developing traditional craft villages; preserving and embellishing relics and scenic spots, associated with developing community tourism villages. Coordinate with the AOP project to conduct surveys and support the development of community tourism in Na Sang village, Chieng Xuan commune and Muong An village, Xuan Nha commune; survey and develop a plan to renovate the S-shaped road on National Highway 6 in Long Luong village, Long Luong commune, creating a highlight for Van Ho tourism; build a community tourism site in Chieng Di 1 village, Van Ho commune, to become a provincial-level tourist destination.
Currently, many scenic spots of the district are known to many domestic and foreign tourists, such as: Hang Mieng Temple, Quang Minh commune; Tat Nang waterfall, hot spring, community tourism village associated with fish stream of Ban Buot, Phu Mau community tourism village, Na Bai in Chieng Yen commune; Nang Tien waterfall, seven-storey waterfall, Muong Khoa waterfall, Bang Muong Temple in Chieng Khoa commune; community tourism spots of Ban Chieng Di 1, Ban Chieng Di 2, Hua Tat village, "The Nordic" resort, Vigolando resort in Van Ho commune...
Chieng Yen is one of the tourist destinations that attracts visitors to admire the beautiful scenery and experience the community culture. Mr. Ha Trong Hieu, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Chieng Yen commune, said: Exploiting the tourism potential, the commune has 18 households doing homestay tourism business, 2 agricultural cooperatives associated with community tourism. From 2020 to now, the number of visitors coming to visit and experience in Chieng Yen commune has reached more than 5,700 people.
VTV Cup Off Road motorcycle racing conquers the racing track amidst the fresh mountain and forest space.
Community tourism villages have promoted the strengths of both natural resources and culture to attract tourists. A typical example is "A Chu Homestay" in Hua Tat village, Van Ho commune, with a peaceful village space, imbued with the unique culture of the Mong ethnic group. Mr. Trang A Chu, the homestay owner, shared: Every month, the homestay welcomes about 200 tourists, including many international visitors. We organize cultural experiences, such as beeswax painting on fabric, pounding rice cakes, traditional games, and Mong flute performances and dancing, both preserving and promoting the cultural identity of the Mong ethnic group and attracting tourists.
Promoting potential and strengths, Van Ho tourism is growing stronger and stronger. From 2020 to now, Van Ho has welcomed 583,100 tourists, with revenue reaching over 250 billion VND. This is an important premise for Van Ho district to continue to carry out well the planning and management of planning, construction order, development and synchronous connection of technical infrastructure in tourist areas and spots in the area, associated with preserving and promoting cultural values; researching and developing new tourism products that are attractive to tourists.
Pham Duc