Indigenous Tourism: The Way Forward
The best measures for tourism development come from those who can design unforgettable journeys to meet tourists’ demands
Vietnam is home to 54 people from over a hundred ethnic groups, facilitating unique tourism products such as tours to learn about indigenous cultures.
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I visited Luong Thi Sun, a Thai Trang (White Thai) ethnic woman from Luot Village (Ngoc Chien Commune, Muong La District, Son La Province). While strolling around, I thought I smelled durian. Sun pointed to the fence around her hut where a shrub was growing. “Thai people call the plant ‘phac nam min’,” she said. “Phac means vegetable, nam means thorn, and min means stinky; the stinky thorny vegetable.”
Sun spent some 15 minutes picking the young buds around the fence. On the way home from the hut, I followed her to enjoy the distinct scent of the vegetable in the basket she carried on her back.
Back in her stilt house by Chien Stream, Sun put the vegetable in a flat basket, took out the stems, washed the buds, and fried part of them with fresh bamboo shoots, fried another part with chicken eggs, and served the remainder with grilled fish. Enjoying these unique, delicious Thai-style dishes by the stream under the cloudy sky with high mountains in the background made me happy and gave me great memories from my journey to discover native gastronomy.
“Aside from its deliciousness, the vegetable is also used to relieve joint pain and boost the functioning of the digestive system, intestine, stomach, liver and kidneys,” said Luong Van La, Sun’s husband.
The stinky thorny plant (Acacia pennata) grows naturally in the forests in the northwestern provinces of Son La, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Tuyen Quang and Hoa Binh. It is also planted as a fence by the local people. The plant grows well and can be harvested all year round, but it is at its best from March to June every year. The Thai, Dao, Kho Mu and La Ha ethnic people use the young buds and leaves of this plant to prepare their specialty dishes such as a salad with ban flowers, or fry or boil the vegetable and serve it with grilled fish, or cook a soup with fish caught from the stream.
It is just a wild plant, but it has many interesting stories pertaining to indigenous cultures. Therefore, other accompanying tourists and I love such tours that focus on a niche market.
Nguyen Thi Kieu Trang, who is in charge of indigenous tourism in Gori Vietnam JSC, recalled, “At Tet in 2016, we led a group of Japanese and Korean guests on a tour of the Dong Van Karst Plateau in Ha Giang Province. During a dinner at the Chung Pua ancient house of the White Mong ethnic people in Meo Vac Town, the tourists said that in their few days in Vietnam, they had meals and stayed with four ethnic groups, Tay, Lo Lo, Giay and Mong. They were very impressed. At that time, I realized another competitive advantage of Vietnamese tourism, which is the diversity of the peoples with their different living conditions, faith, religions and cultures that give rise to unique indigenous knowledge. We then launched the indigenous tours.”
Indigenous tourism has been operational since January 2016, following the homestay model established by the company since 2000.
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Most community-based tourism operators in Vietnam have learned the job from Lac Village (Chieng Chau Commune, Mai Chau District, Hoa Binh Province), which is the center of this tourism model in Vietnam, with Ha Cong Nham (1926-2013) being considered the founder. He told me his story as I was a close friend of his family for over 20 years.
“In 1963, I was vice head of the Agro-Forestry and Service Cooperative and a member of the People’s