Lang Son maintains stilt houses, opens up livelihoods from community tourism

Travel right in the living space

About 120km from the center of Hanoi, Huu Lien commune (Lang Son) attracts visitors with its wild, peaceful beauty, where Dong Lam grassland is green, Pac Mo lake is as calm as a giant mirror reflecting the sky and clouds...

Currently, Huu Lien commune is also widely known by tourists as a community tourism destination with many attractive traditional cultural experience activities.

Huu Lien commune has 1,873 households with 8,042 people, mainly 4 ethnic groups: Kinh, Tay, Nung, Dao. Scattered across 16 villages and hamlets of the commune, there are currently 36 households providing homestay accommodation services.

Mr. Ngo At Mao - one of the first homestay businesses in Huu Lien commune said that at first, participating in the model was still facing many difficulties, after a few years of operation, he and his family were very happy when the model brought positive economic results.

Mr. Mao's family participates in the community tourism model mainly based on the unique traditional cultural features of the locality. Taking advantage of the fresh, peaceful space, mountains, streams and waterfalls cheering throughout the season along with simple stilt houses, attractive local cuisine, Mr. Mao's homestay as well as many other facilities in the commune bring visitors the most complete experience. Tourists can spend time with local people, enjoy a gentle, rustic life in the primeval natural landscape.

According to Mr. Mao, most of the guests staying at his facility are foreigners. The point they love most when coming to his family's homestay is still preserving the simple, rustic stilt house style. In addition, accommodation services such as meals, sleep, and accommodation are carefully prepared to meet the needs of tourists.

Since switching to homestay business, Ms. Vi Thi Anh (Tay people, Huu Lien commune) shared that her current life compared to previous farming is easier, and her income is also more stable.

According to Ms. Anh, her facility currently has guests staying every week, mainly domestic guests. Among them, many groups of students came to participate in experiential activities such as making pumpkin cakes, banh mi, banh giay com...

Maintaining identity for community tourism to go the long way

Through traditional cultural experience activities of the locality, visitors not only learn about indigenous culture but also contribute to spreading those cultural features to the community.

According to Ms. Duong Thi Hong - owner of the social network channel "Hong Sinh Vien", Lang Son culinary culture in particular is very rich, and Vietnamese cuisine is also very diverse. When she directly experienced and personally made dishes such as pumpkin cakes, shoe cakes... in Huu Lien, she felt that the discovery trip became much more meaningful and interesting.

In particular, at Huu Lien community tourism village, in addition to exploring the landscape and cuisine, visitors can also participate in cultural and artistic exchange activities: Pao Dung singing of the Dao people, ancient Cheo singing, Then singing in a rhythmic way...

The vibrant music space, in harmony with the wild scenery, friendly people, gentle with a simple lifestyle help visitors have many memorable experiences both of the land and people of Lang Son.

To develop sustainable local tourism, culture is an important endogenous resource that creates attraction and difference to help tourists have an experience that is not only rich but also profound. At the same time, developing tourism associated with culture not only creates livelihoods but also helps preserve indigenous knowledge, folk arts, architecture and customs of each ethnic group.

Not only focusing on promoting traditional values such as stilt houses and cuisine, Huu Lien commune is currently promoting sports such as mountain climbing, creating a new experience that attracts a large number of international tourists to visit and experience.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, working at the Center for Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion of Lang Son province, shared: Huu Lien commune (formerly Huu Thinh commune) owns a special sports mountain climbing product, based on very good limestone quality.

VietClimb Company has surveyed many localities, including Ninh Binh, but limestone in other places is not "old enough" to drill holes for climbing ropes. Since 2016, the enterprise has started to build and exploit the type of mountain climbing for sports in Yen Thinh, along with the company coordinating with local people to provide food, accommodation services and technicians to support product exploitation.

Having experienced mountain climbing for the first time and successfully reaching the top of the mountain in Huu Lien commune, Mr. Dang Van Du shared that when standing at the top, he felt a wonderful experience when he overcame the difficult climbing distance. In addition to activities to explore the natural beauty, the peaceful pace of life under the stilt houses, mountain climbing activities here bring visitors a memorable new experience.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thao added that Huu Lien commune is actively promoting the development of mountain climbing sports tourism, experiencing "a strong feeling", considering this a unique product, the main difference of the locality compared to other localities.

In developing tourism associated with culture, balancing economic exploitation and cultural preservation plays an important role in ensuring sustainable development, bringing economic efficiency and promoting cultural identity.

Promoting cultural values in tourism needs to ensure the principle of preservation along with development, avoiding commercialization, hybridization or distorting the original value of heritage.

According to Mr. Ngo At Mao, to develop a sustainable and long-term community tourism model, his family focuses on three factors: sleeping place, eating place and hygiene system. The sleeping place and hygiene system must ensure adequate amenities, giving visitors the most comfortable experience. Meals served to tourists are mainly prepared from local agricultural products, which helps preserve the typical flavors of the homeland, creating a connection between tourists with the simple life of the tourist destination.

Some households participating in the community tourism model such as Mr. Mao and Ms. Vi's family in Huu Lien community tourism village have achieved positive results, both thanks to developing tourism associated with traditional culture and thanks to activities to improve the quality of accommodation services to meet the needs of tourists in today's life. This combination helps to enhance the local cultural identity, while increasing sustainable income, creating jobs for economic development for local people.