People who have long been familiar with fishing and farming have now boldly learned, invested, and practiced tourism using the strengths of their homeland.
In October 2023, the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province issued Decision No. 2356/QD-UBND on recognizing Ninh Van commune, Ninh Hoa town (old) as a location with potential for community tourism development in the province. This is the basis for the locality to officially incorporate community tourism into the economic structure, creating conditions to preserve and promote potentials and advantages, contributing to increasing income for people.
Change from old profession
Getting to Ninh Van today is very easy with a beautiful mountain pass running across the mountain range that is the natural boundary between Van Phong Bay and Nha Phu Bay. Not many tourists know that this road was only opened in the early 2010s, and before that, Ninh Van people mainly traveled by sea. Thanks to the road, traders, tourists, and visitors come to Ninh Van more and are impressed by the space, scenery, and pace of life of a purely Vietnamese fishing village.
Realizing the increasing number of visitors and the urgent need for accommodation, in 2019, Mr. Le Van Bao, taking the opportunity to build a new house, immediately discussed with his wife to open more rooms for rent. Originally a fisherman, for many years he only worked in diving and fishing, now starting to provide tourism services, he was surprised. However, the economic efficiency encouraged him and the people of Ninh Van. “I initially invested about 400 million VND, and seeing that it was operating well, I was able to open five closed rooms. During peak times, on average, my family welcomes about 50 visitors per month, with room rates ranging from 200,000-300,000 VND/night. This is the main source of income for the family. After seeing how well we did, many others followed suit,” Mr. Bao shared.
From spontaneous steps, the community tourism model in Ninh Van is increasingly taking shape because it can be considered a sustainable livelihood for the people, while promoting the preservation of indigenous lifestyles and cultural heritage. Realizing this, the local government has established a Community Tourism Management Board and issued management regulations, building support policies for the people.
According to Head of the Board Nguyen Tra Nhat Tien, there are currently 19 participating households, providing food, accommodation, and sightseeing tours... Members are supported in promoting, introducing customers, purchasing suitable equipment, attending professional training courses, learning English... for free. "We always listen and accompany the people to develop the local economy. In the immediate future, households will continue to operate in parallel with their old jobs and provide additional services for tourists to experience. The people are the main subjects, they not only provide services but also play a role in preserving and introducing culture, customs, and lifestyles to tourists," said Mr. Tien.
That is also one of the factors that makes Ninh Van interesting when tourists have authentic experiences and can "live like a local", explore local customs - something that is not easy to find in mass tourism. Mr. Hang Lam Kiet, born in 1994, is a pioneer in organizing diving and fishing tours - a long-standing profession of Ninh Van people, combined with coral viewing, camping, and enjoying seafood caught by tourists themselves.
To operate the model systematically and professionally, while ensuring the safety of tourists as well as himself, he and his colleagues studied and took exams to obtain international diving and sea rescue certificates. “We provide a number of services such as coral diving, fishing in the form of freediving, snorkeling, and also scuba diving for guests who have a diving license. All activities are reported to the border guard station and committed not to affect the natural coral reef. The income when there are guests is relatively good compared to the consumption level here, but not stable yet,” said Mr. Kiet.
Preserving the village soul amid the flow of tourism
How to attract a stable number of visitors is always a problem for all types of tourism. From creative models, the story of community tourism in Ninh Van shows a direction that needs to be organized more systematically, associated with the coordinating role of the government. The local community tourism management board has deployed the installation of information boards, signs, and instructions on community tourism; at the same time, together with the people, actively participated in building an electronic information page, fanpage and group on social networking platforms to promote the image of the homeland.
Mr. Dinh Nhat Truong, born in 1992, grew up in Tay village, Ninh Van commune (old) in a family of fishermen. Although he is working in Nha Trang, he often visits his hometown and always takes the opportunity to post beautiful images of Ninh Van to promote online. “For me, Ninh Van is where I grew up and matured - beautiful memories of the poetic and peaceful sea are always with me. In my heart, I always have the desire to contribute to doing something positive and sustainable for my hometown”, Mr. Truong shared.
He built the Ninh Van Locals group on Facebook, aiming to promote the life, culture and natural beauty of Ninh Van; connect families who want to develop accommodation, food and beverage services, experiences; update community events, weather, environment, new facilities; create a library for tourists to easily learn, contact, and connect directly. Up to now, the group has more than 4,000 members, receiving the attention of many tourists through simple stories, images, video-clips about the landscape and people of Ninh Van.
According to Mr. Bao, many visitors come because there are directions on applications such as Google Maps and are attracted by beautiful photos of peace, wildness, and gentleness that are spread online. However, businesses also need to further improve the quality of service to retain visitors.
In 2024, his establishment was one of the households granted 30 million VND by the local Community Tourism Management Board to invest in improving facilities. Together with members of the board, he participated in environmental protection activities, periodic cleaning; ensured security and order, and fire prevention at the establishment; and created a green-clean-beautiful environmental landscape.
In addition, the local community tourism management board also strives to create more forms of entertainment, but consistently on the basis of preserving the landscape and life of the coastal village. Head of the board Nguyen Tra Nhat Tien said: “We have suggested and encouraged people to organize more tours such as cycling, camping, experiencing a day as a fisherman/farmer through typical local activities such as welcoming boats at the pier early in the morning, going to the market, diving to shoot fish, picking garlic, picking peanuts...; visiting the National Historical Site of the C235 Ship Memorial Site (Ho Chi Minh Trail at sea)... Domestic and international tourists are very interested in these things”.
Agreeing with the policy of maintaining the inherent identity of the coastal village, Mr. Truong further proposed: “I think that, in order for tourists’ experiences to not be fragmented, and at the same time turn community tourism into a true economic spearhead for the locality, people need to be trained in communication skills, service, accommodation management, first aid, legal skills... The locality also needs to build an experience map of “what to eat-what to play-where to stay” and establish a team of local tour guides, who are villagers, understand the village and tell village stories.”
Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Khanh Hoa province Le Van Hoa said that Khanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee has issued Resolution No. 34-NQ/TU dated December 22, 2023 on promoting cultural heritage values associated with sustainable tourism development in Khanh Hoa province until 2025, with a vision to 2030. "Implementing the tasks and solutions stated in the resolution, we always encourage local communities to proactively participate in heritage management, linking the interests of local communities with the preservation and promotion of heritage values, developing community tourism, creating a driving force to promote socio-economic development, improving the material and spiritual life of the people, ensuring a harmonious relationship between cultural development and socio-economic development", Mr. Hoa affirmed.
The story in Ninh Van shows a thought-provoking direction for many localities across the country: Development does not necessarily have to start from large-scale planning or massive investment, but can originate from the internal strength of the community - the people who understand the land, understand the profession, understand the culture of their village. In the context that the whole country is promoting green economic development, building new rural areas associated with heritage conservation and improving people's spiritual life, the lesson from Ninh Van is worth referring to: Taking people as the center, taking culture as the foundation, taking the locality as the brand - and thanks to that, each small coastal village can have a new and spacious path...
Source: https://nhandan.vn/doi-thay-o-lang-bien-post896740.html
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