Starting a business in your hometown
In Cao Bang village, Ha Giang 1 ward (Tuyen Quang province), people still know Ban Thi Tin as the youngest homestay owner in the village. Because for the Dao people who have lived in this land for generations, a girl who is only 27 years old like Tin this year who has had such a break is very rare.
Born and raised in a mountainous area, Ban Thi Tin understood the difficulties and hardships in people's lives from a young age. Continuously cherishing the dream of growing up will develop the economy right in their homeland.
When Ha Giang tourism (now Tuyen Quang province) developed, Tin was one of the first people to boldly open a homestay community tourism service in Cao Bang village, which has great potential such as just over 10km from the provincial center, cool climate all year round, nature with many incentives and beautiful landscapes.
2 years ago, for the people of Cao Bang village, community tourism was still quite new, difficult because the village did not have the infrastructure to meet this requirement. But with determination, Tin decided to start a homestay right on his hometown.
"At that time, I only had a small amount of capital from savings, but the advantage was to borrow preferential capital from the Policy Bank. Thanks to that, my wife and I have built a spacious stilt house with a landscape campus of over 700 m2 to do homestay services," Tin shared.
Right from the beginning of opening the homestay, Tin chose a professional and methodical development path when serving a variety of services for tourists such as eating, sleeping, accommodation and tour consultation, connecting tourist attractions.
Ban Thi Tin recalled: "At first, when the couple first started a homestay, they encountered many difficulties, especially when the family did not support them, because the villagers were only used to farming and were not used to community tourism. When strangers were eating together, living with the family would be inconvenient.
Therefore, the couple had to convince relatives, brothers, and friends a lot to receive support and help both materially and spiritually".
After more than a year of operation, Ban Thi Tin's homestay has become a trusted address known to many domestic and foreign tourists. The average price for each tourist is from 250 thousand VND to 350 thousand VND/day and night, including breakfast, dinner and sleep.
On average, Ms. Tin's homestay welcomes nearly 200 guests per month. The revenue of 1 month after deducting expenses also brought Ms. Tin and her husband nearly 20 million VND. Compared to the income from farming, it is a great success for young couples starting a business in the field of community tourism.
Having stayed at Ms. Tin's homestay twice, Mr. Mark Chan (an American tourist) was very impressed with the service quality and professionalism of Ban Thi Tin.
"The landscape here is still quite pristine, suitable for those who love to explore. In addition, the homestay owner has English and understands customs well, guiding us to suitable destinations. I will come back," said Mr. Mark Chan.
Starting in a new field, Ban Thi Tin has been very active in learning, applying promotions on social networking platforms, actively posting information, and searching for tourists. Ms. Tin and her husband also cooperate with travel companies and international travel websites to introduce to many tourists about Cao Bang village as well as their homestay.
Ms. Tin and her husband also learn more skills in serving tourists, mixing drinks, cooking dishes to suit their taste, making each tourist coming to her homestay feel friendly, approachable and professional.
People in Cao Bang village have gradually had a positive view of community tourism from the successes of Ban Thi Tin. They saw Ms. Tin, a young person but bold, confident, daring to think, daring to do, opening up a new direction for economic development for people to exploit and create sustainable livelihoods.
In the near future, Ban Thi Tin plans to guide more households in the village with sufficient conditions to do tourism together, develop the economy, attract more tourists to the locality, and build a sustainable tourism community in the future.
dare to think, dare to do with the spirit of young people
More than 200km from Cao Bang village, in Sang Pa A village, Meo Vac commune, there is also a girl like that. Sung My Yen, a Mongolian ethnic group born in 1994, has been very successful with a homestay tourism model right in her hometown. Although for Ms. Yen, this was not the direction from the beginning.
Sung My Yen graduated with a major in English Pedagogy from Thai Nguyen University in 2016 and decided to return to Meo Vac to fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher. After more than a year, Yen stopped teaching and tried her hand at a new working environment at the Plan Ha Giang Office.
Perhaps this is also a turning point for Sung My Yen, the job of regularly communicating with foreigners. Ms. Yen clearly understands the travel needs, explores foreign visitors and has more skills in community tourism.
Yen also combines tours, learn from many typical models and methods of community tourism in Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa provinces and in Singapo, Thailand, and the Philippines to gain a deeper understanding of community tourism.
"My hometown Meo Vac has a lot of potential and advantages to develop tourism. So why not put your efforts and knowledge to get rich in your homeland? Thinking that I had to do it right away, in May 2018, I quit my job at the Plan Office and discussed with my parents to renovate the house and buy more equipment for community tourism," Ms. Yen recalled.
In the early days, Sung My Yen's parents did not support her because they only wanted their daughter to become a teacher to have a stable life. However, seeing Yen's determination and being able to interact with foreigners very openly and friendly changed Yen's parents' thinking.
To better meet the accommodation needs of tourists visiting the Dong Van Stone Plateau, Yen and her family have invested more than 700 million VND to build more rooms in Meo Vac. Invest in building 2 more houses with a budget of more than 2.5 billion VND at the Pa Vi Ha Ethnic Culture and Community Tourism Village, Pa Vi Commune.
With professionalism and creativity in community tourism, promoting tourist attractions in the 4 districts of the Stone Plateau, Sung My Yen has reaped sweet fruits as Sung My Yen's homestays are increasingly welcoming more and more guests and receiving positive feedback.
"My homestay welcomes an average of over 10 visitors per day, creates jobs for 4 local workers, has a monthly profit of over 20 million VND and has become the most effective homestay service in Meo Vac area," Sung My Yen shared.
In addition to providing homestay services, Yen also proactively connects with foreign volunteers to implement a project to support English teaching for ethnic minority students in the locality. In addition, Yen also helps and advises many people who need community tourism services in the locality to develop together, so that people can have a stable life in their homeland.
