Will Ha Giang develop adventure tourism on the Happiness Road?

Ha Giang is a land of very special values, where majestic nature blends with the unique identities of ethnic minorities, where the whole community is joining hands to preserve and promote the vibrant heritage on the vast expanse of brilliant terraced fields.

The northeastern border region always knows how to renew itself to bring emotional experiences, attracting more visitors to come back. So, what is interesting about this locality's strategy in the coming time and what products will it focus on building? The reporter had an interview with the Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ha Giang province, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai.

5 core product lines rich in experience

- In recent years, Ha Giang has become one of the "red addresses" of community tourism in the country. So, in your opinion, what outstanding values have helped the Northeastern border region of the Fatherland achieve such achievements and how can we further promote the value from the potential of the locality?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai: The most outstanding point is that Ha Giang has extremely majestic natural scenery, and we are always proud that Ha Giang is a place where 19 ethnic groups live together with extremely unique traditional cultural values that the Ha Giang ethnic community still preserves and promotes.

The reality for us is that Ha Giang has a lot of potential, but how to turn that potential into tourism products that attract tourists?

Not only domestic tourists but also international tourists are passionate about Ha Giang. (Photo: Vuong Cong Nam/Vietnam+)

Entering the 21st century, the trend of tourists is to find their own self. Therefore, the majestic and wild natural landscape along with the traditional cultural values of the ethnic groups are one of the points that help us attract domestic and international visitors.

Capturing the needs of the market, Ha Giang province is one of the localities that always take the lead in preserving ethnic cultural values, to turn those values into assets, develop tourism economy, help people to live in stone, escape poverty from stone and move towards getting rich on stone.

- So to realize that goal, in the coming time, how will local management agencies coordinate with tourism units and businesses to create new tours and routes imbued with the cultural colors and landscapes of Ha Giang?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai: Currently, we have implemented a planning strategy for 3 tourism areas with their own unique products.

For example, when visitors come to the Dong Van Karst Plateau Global Geopark, they will experience a production method of rock-climbing knowledge that is extremely unique to ethnic groups, typically the Mong and Lo Lo.

And when visitors go down to the central area of Ha Giang city, they can immerse themselves in the cultural space of the Tay community in the villages on the outskirts of the city, and more especially, experience the space recreating the historical moment of the war to protect the northern border of the Fatherland.

Meo Vac sinkhole, also known as the "death sinkhole", is located in Tia Chi Dua village (Giang Chu Phin, Ha Giang). (Photo: Vuong Cong Nam/Vietnam+)

Experiencing the western region of Ha Giang province with districts such as Xin Man, Hoang Su Phi, Quang Binh, visitors will be immersed in the space of the national scenic terraced fields. This is one of the scenic spots spread throughout Hoang Su Phi district.

If the terraced fields in Yen Bai are shaped like raspberries in the sky, the national scenic terraced fields of Hoang Su Phi in Ha Giang are cultivated on steep hillsides. That affirms the love of labor of the ethnic people of Ha Giang. They have carved terraced fields into the mountain rocks like colorful brocade strips.

April is the season when people prepare to sow and we call it the water season, to prepare for a bumper harvest in September, which will bring an extremely wonderful experience space for visitors.

Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ha Giang province, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai. (Photo: Mai Mai/Vietnam+)

From those unique spaces, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has advised the provincial leaders to implement a strategy to develop tourism products, and we have also identified 5 main product lines.

The first product line is community cultural products. The second product line is festival products; the third is ecological and resort products; the fourth is adventure sports products; the fifth is border economic products. These are the five main product lines that Ha Giang province is, has been, and will continue to implement.

Besides, we always hope that investors and tourism experts will come to survey the land and people of Ha Giang to continue to help the locality have new products, supplementing the traditional and typical tourism products, helping tourists have more experiences when coming to Ha Giang.

Developing adventure tourism on the Happiness Road

- Among the key products that Ha Giang has chosen to develop, adventure tourism and sports tourism with many organized marathons are also becoming community attractions. So how will the locality exploit this strength to be able to attract more large groups of visitors?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai: This is also a challenge that we have set. Ha Giang has organized marathon races on the Happiness Road in recent years. In 2025, we just finished the International Marathon "Running on the Happiness Road" in February with nearly 3,000 athletes participating in 6 distances.

For the first time, we tested the 71km distance and had more than 100 domestic and international athletes try their hand at this “blood and flower road”. Running on that legendary road really has many emotions, from overcoming yourself, overcoming challenges to feeling your soul open up.

Running on the mountain passes of the rocky plateau in Ha Giang offers an emotional experience for visitors. (Illustration photo: Vuong Cong Nam/Vietnam+)

Therefore, the Ha Giang Marathon always attracts tourists and we hope that this tournament will continue to be maintained. In addition to the traditional annual marathon, we also hope that the business community will continue to survey the routes of Ha Giang to expand the scale of the races on the Happiness Road.

Speaking of adventure sports tourism, we also had a Motorcycle and Off-road Car Show with the theme of Rock Spirit . This was a very attractive tournament, attracting players from many countries to participate.

We also have the Flying over the Golden Season Paragliding Competition, paragliding over the Geopark. However, to make the competition annual, we need professional partners. Because the nature of adventure sports tourism products is related to human life, the safety of tourists must be put first. Therefore, we need a roadmap, with professional partners to continue organizing.

The value and benefits of organizing adventure sports tournaments associated with tourism products are very clear. Because each athlete participating in the tournament will help the locality welcome more tourists who are relatives, friends, and family. Each image that tourists share through personal social networks helps Ha Giang promote and spread the destination in the most natural way.

Regarding the responsibility of state management agencies as well as local authorities, we will have to take measures to preserve the image of Ha Giang land and people to preserve indigenous cultural values, create landscapes, and create attractive marks to attract tourists to return to Ha Giang more often.

The natural beauty and life of Ha Giang people have a special appeal to domestic and international tourists. (Photo: Contributor/Vietnam+)

- It can be said that ethnic minorities in Ha Giang have started to do tourism and create livelihoods from their own traditional cultural values. So specifically, how has the local government accompanied and supported the people to be able to both develop tourism and preserve their own culture, madam?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai: To develop tourism, first of all we need to solve the problem of awareness. How to develop tourism in a sustainable way and how to attract ethnic communities to join hands in developing tourism. This is really a difficult problem.

However, after more than 10 years of focusing on developing tourism into an important economic sector of the province, the culture, sports and tourism sector, especially local authorities at all levels, have always accompanied and mobilized people, from holding hands to working together with people and mass organizations to create landscapes, build environmental sanitation, and design products from traditional stories that the people are the keepers and the subjects of.

Up to now, we believe that people have seen the value of tourism, they are unanimous and have joined hands to develop tourism.

- Thank you for sharing./.