The newly aired Family Haha program has had millions of views. Gathering a group of famous artists such as Jun Pham, Rhymastic, Bui Cong Nam, Duy Khanh, Ngoc Thanh Tam, the program recorded the 7-day experience of living with the people of Ban Lien.
Not only attracting viewers with images and honest stories about local people, but Haha Family also makes many young people want to "leaving the city to the forest", going to Ban Lien to have a "healing" vacation.
Many comments said that the attraction of the program is the family of Ms. Vang Thi Thong, Mr. Ha and the farming life of the Tay people in Ban Lien, Bac Ha district, Lao Cai province.
Thanks to the program's effect, since mid-June, many young people in Ban Lien homestays have been searching for information and wanting to book rooms to travel this summer. Most special is the homestay of Ms. Thong - the host of Haha Family.
Currently, Mr. Ha's family is one of the typical homestay households in Ban Lien. The homestay currently has a stilt house in the form of a collective room to serve a maximum of 20 guests and a bungalow for 4-5 guests when traveling with groups of friends and family.
The family started providing accommodation services at the end of 2019, however, COVID-19 hit, so it was not until 2022 that tourists returned through small local projects. Starting from 2023, more tourists know about Ms. Thong's homestay as well as Ban Lien.
Ms. Thong shared with Lao Dong newspaper: "After Haha Family aired, personal communication channels such as Facebook, Zalo, TikTok all received a series of messages contacting to book rooms, searching for information about homestays and Ban Lien. The house has been fully booked until the end of July (only 1-2 days off to clean the room) and there are some days off in August and September".
Compared to 2024, the house currently has customers on weekdays and weekends, and there are even times when there are many customers and we cannot receive more. Every year in August and the 9th rice harvest season is also the time when the house is most crowded with tourists.
Thanks to the program that makes people know me more, I also have more confidence and confidence to do tourism in a sustainable spirit, she said.
Not only does she spend her days off between groups to clean the house, she also recommends other homestays in Ban Lien to those in need. To do sustainable tourism, she believes that not accepting the maximum number of guests is both to ensure services and a complete experience for guests and to give the family time to rest and do housework.
Do Quynh Chi, who has just returned to Hanoi after her summer vacation at Ms. Thong's homestay, said: "At first, I intended to go to Ta Van, but when my family found out about Ban Haha, they went to Lien and booked a room there right away. Two days at Ms. Thong's house during the rice planting season, I get to meet and eat with my family, relatives and villagers. The experience here makes me feel welcome as a family member.
Currently a tour guide in Hanoi, Do Ngoc Phuc has known Ban Lien for many years as an English teacher volunteer in Bac Ha. Phuc once led tourists to Ban Lien, introduced friends to come here many times and every year he returned to visit Ms. Thong's house.
After the Family Haha program, Phuc and his group booked a room for the weekend but there were no more seats. However, visitors from other homestays can still visit her house, experience, and chat.
Ban Lien people started doing community tourism in 2019 with the help of the project to enhance the livelihood and status of ethnic minorities through the development of community tourism in Bac Ha funded by the Australian government. Many families have renovated their houses to make homestays, combining local agricultural development and traditional occupations.
Besides Ms. Thong's house, other homestay families in Ban Lien such as Ms. Vang Thi Can, Mr. Lam A Nang, Ms. Vang Thi Binh, Huong Hoan... also have more regular and large customers thanks to the fan Family program effect. According to Ms. Thong, "the source of customers coming to homestays is starting to be more diverse, from introduced customers, freelance customers, some connecting travel companies, to customers knowing through Facebook, TikTok".
room rates in Ban Lien range from 150,000 VND/night. In addition to staying at Tay stilt houses in the vast mountains and hills, visitors can experience from plowing to traditional Tay people's occupations such as picking tea, making tea cones, making palm hats, roofing palm trees...
