Son La province has 12 main ethnic groups living together: Thai, Kinh, Mong, Muong, Dao, Kho Mu, Xinh Mun, Khang, La Ha, Lao, Tay and Hoa. Each ethnic group has its own cultural identity from customs, traditional costumes, folk cultural treasures... These are invaluable resources for developing the tourism economy.

Nowadays, community tourism has spread and been successfully implemented in many localities across the country.Son La province, especially the highland villages where the Thai and Mong ethnic groups live such as: Community tourism villages of Bo, Hun, Hum (Son La city); Ang, Doi (Moc Chau); Luot, Na Tau (Muong La); Bon (Quynh Nhai); Hua Tat, Na Bai, Phu Mau (Van Ho)...; Ngoc Chien commune (Muong La)...

Bo Am hot spring in Na Bai village, Van Ho district attracts tourists.

The community tourism model in the villages of Van Ho, Muong La, and the City, after a period of construction and development, is still an attractive community tourism destination chosen by many tourists, especially on weekends, holidays, and Tet. In addition to the service of welcoming guests to stay and rest, households in the village still maintain rice cultivation, grow crops, preserve traditional brocade weaving, protect natural landscapes, and the ecological environment. These are the factors that attract tourists to visit and experience.

In recent times, the province has issued many tourism development projects associated with exploiting the traditional cultural values ​​of ethnic groups living in the area. These include Resolution No. 22/2016/NQ-HDND dated December 14, 2016 of the Provincial People's Council on policies to support the development of community tourism in the province until 2020; Resolution No. 41/2022/NQ-HDND dated August 31, 2022 on Regulations on a number of policies to support tourism development in Son La province for the period 2022 - 2026.

In localities, the promotion and preservation of ethnic minority culture has also been focused on. For example, the People's Committee of Phu Yen district has directed specialized departments to coordinate with communes and towns to collect documents and exploit information from the elderly in the villages to restore festivals and traditional cultural beauty of the Thai people, such as: Tet Xip Xi; cuisine; brocade; bamboo and rattan weaving; along with language and writing, associated with local tourism development. Implement plans to preserve and restore festivals and traditional cultural features that are at risk of being lost.

In addition, Phu Yen district focuses on preserving and maintaining traditional dances and musical instruments of the Thai ethnic group. Communes and villages maintain mass art troupes, regularly practice, exchange, discuss, and choreograph new performances, both preserving traditional cultural features and combining them with modern styles, suitable for the requirements of each competition, performance, and performance to serve the people and tourists during holidays and Tet.

Along with that, the provincial Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism also actively cooperates with localities to open training courses on methods to preserve traditional costumes of ethnic minorities; training for art troupes.community tourism; classes to teach folk songs, dances, and traditional music of ethnic minorities to serve tourism development; guide and support local people to develop unique tourism products based on indigenous culture; at the same time, create conditions for local people to participate in the management and exploitation of cultural heritage. From there, tourism development is associated with the good preservation of local culture.

Xuyen Kim