New expectations for community tourism in Ban Lien

With 4 key solutions for the period 2025 - 2030, community tourism in Ban Lien commune is expected to develop remarkably.

On Saturday morning, following a group of tourists, we went to Ban Lien to experience the community tour “Tea picking - tea drying - Shan tea tasting”. After a journey of nearly 30 km from Bac Ha, we arrived at the ancient Shan tea forest in Doi 4 village.

Having been to Ban Lien many times, I am not unfamiliar with the ancient tea forests and tea hills here, but many tourists seem surprised. Mr. Hoang Quoc Loi, from Hung Yen exclaimed: I imagined tea fields stretching as far as the eye can see, neatly trimmed, only waist-high, but in reality, here are towering ancient tea trees, with lush branches and leaves in no order!

I briefly explained that everyone was stopping at the ancient tea forest first to admire the tea trees that produced ancient tea products that were "famous" far and wide, even in Europe, and the tea hill like a fishing net was located in the village of Team 3.

Ancient tea forests or small tea hills are one of the sources of “inspiration” for the people of Ban Lien to “create” a unique tourism product, which is a tour of picking, drying, and enjoying tea. Growing, harvesting, and processing tea is the daily work of farmers, but recently it has become a tourism product of Ban Lien commune and Bac Ha district (formerly).

Ms. Vang Thi Thong, owner of Pine Homestay (Doi 3 village, Ban Lien commune) said that her family has been welcoming tourists for about 5 years. At first, she was very confused, but with the help of the local government and support in loan procedures, she and her family have renovated the house, toilets... to welcome guests.

“My family's indispensable service, which tourists are always excited to participate in, is picking tea with the locals, drying tea, then making and drinking that tea,” said Ms. Thong.

Ms. Vang Thi Thong's family is one of 8 households in Ban Lien that operate homestay services. Not only these 8 households, but many households in Ban Lien village have been organized by Ban Lien commune, functional agencies of Bac Ha district and the old Lao Cai province to learn about community tourism experiences in some localities in the province. Some households that provide guest reception services have linked up to create experiential services with strong local identity, attracting and creating deep impressions on tourists, such as harvesting agricultural products, processing specialty dishes, experiencing unique local culture...

From these activities, along with the fresh climate, majestic and pristine landscape, indigenous culture... Ban Lien increasingly attracts domestic and foreign tourists to experience and stay, with an average of 450 visitors/year, revenue reaching 165 million VND/year. The main tourist attractions are Pac Ke waterfall, the old forest of Doi 4 village, Ban Lien stream, tea hills of Doi 3 village, watching terraced fields in the ripe rice season, the water pouring season...

Although some results have been achieved, it is easy to see that tourism activities in the area are mainly spontaneous and follow trends... without any planning of tourism space or orientation for sustainable development.

Mr. Sung Quang Hung, Deputy Head of Department of Culture - Society, People's Committee of Ban Lien Commune

Mr. Sung Quang Hung analyzed: Tourism activities in Ban Lien not only lack regional connectivity, but also households in the region do not have close connections, not to mention the lack of professional human resources, leading to limited communication and tourism service skills; the preservation of traditional crafts has not been linked to the tourism value chain, there are no typical tourism products but are still "similar", even overlapping with other localities.

Implementing the administrative unit arrangement, Ban Lien commune was merged with Nam Khanh commune to form the new Ban Lien commune. Mr. Luong Manh Ha, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ban Lien commune said: "New development space, new opportunities open up for Ban Lien to develop socio-economy, including tourism".

One of the breakthroughs that the Commune Party Congress for the 2025 - 2030 term identified is to build 3 unique tourism products (experiential tourism, local cuisine, traditional crafts) and strive to form a community tourism village in Doi 3 village as a highlight for the entire term.

Luong Manh Ha, Chairman of People's Committee of Ban Lien Commune

“From the assessment of the global context towards sustainable - responsible - community-based tourism, the development of community tourism in ethnic minority areas such as Ban Lien is not only an inevitable direction, but also an important driving force for restructuring the rural economy, sustainable poverty reduction, preserving traditional culture and strengthening local internal strength. The commune strives to attract 25,000 or more visitors in the 2025 - 2030 period, with total tourism revenue reaching 17.5 billion VND or more,” Mr. Ha added.

That also means, Ban Lien strives to welcome an average of 5,000 visitors per year (about 10 times higher than the 2020 - 2025 term), with an average revenue of 3.5 billion VND/year.

This is a very high goal and to achieve it, Ban Lien has identified four key solutions. That is, building a community tourism model in the direction of a value chain where each homestay is a "cultural destination", where visitors not only eat and sleep but also experience, learn and integrate; linking households into "Community Tourism Groups", with general coordination on prices, services and communications.

In addition, develop tourism products associated with experiences and identities such as organizing seasonal tours: planting season, rice harvest season; tea harvest season; festival season...; encourage the restoration of traditional crafts such as brocade weaving, weaving, making đàn tính, hand forging... to serve tourists with direct experiences; build service products such as "Tay Ban Lien cuisine", "My hometown kitchen", "Tea picking - tea drying - Shan tea enjoyment".

At the same time, promote communication and digitalization of tourism such as fully exploiting the effects of the "Haha Family" program, creating promotional clips, posting on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook platforms; putting Ban Lien tourism information on Google Maps, Booking...; organizing famtrip groups (tourism product surveys) for the press, travel bloggers, and travel agencies.

The fourth key solution is to advise on building support policies through the Community Tourism Development Project for the period 2025 - 2030, prioritizing capital from the advanced new rural construction program and the national target program for ethnic minority areas, supporting training of local human resources, building a set of criteria for "Tay village model homestay"...

“The commune is also calling for socialization to develop a tourism, economic and social development project. Particularly for community tourism, this is like a master plan with a system of goals, “long-term” solutions, and breakthroughs in development” - Mr. Luong Manh Ha “revealed”.

With solutions to develop community tourism services associated with preserving national cultural identity and traditional crafts, a Ban Lien that is both pristine and professional will certainly be a place to experience not only pure tourism, but also a journey back to the origin and become a destination loved, chosen and especially wanted to return by domestic and foreign tourists.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/ky-vong-moi-cho-du-lich-cong-dong-ban-lien-post881872.html