Homestays in Nghe An are ready to welcome the Tet holiday tourist season.

Infrastructure renovation and upgrading

Ban Nua, Yen Khe commune (Con Cuong district) was the first locality in western Nghe An province to have community-based homestay tourism in the early 2000s. From the initial hesitant steps in approaching this new business model with the sponsorship and guidance of experts from the JICA Project (Japan), homestay owners in Yen Khe commune have persistently pursued this profession and continuously upgraded and innovated their operations to meet market demands.

In the last days of December 2024, just before the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Snake, the village of Yen Khe was bustling with activity as people worked and produced to prepare for the traditional Tet holiday. The homestays there also began preparing for the business season. While harvesting and drying the golden corn from her family's field, Ms. Lo Thi Hoa, owner of Hoa Thu homestay, selected the large, beautiful ears to decorate her stilt house.

“Every year we try to create something new, both in the home decor and the food, to excite guests. This year, the homestay chose yellow and red as the main colors to create a vibrant atmosphere. Additionally, a new highlight is the addition of rooms equipped with air conditioning,” Ms. Hoa happily shared. Besides the bright yellow of corn symbolizing abundance, this year the homestay also commissioned brocade fabrics for decoration, creating a festive atmosphere rich in local ethnic identity when combined with traditional rattan and bamboo items.

A distinctive feature of the homestays in Nua village is the traditional stilt house of the Thai ethnic group, with the dining area located under the floor and the sleeping quarters on the ground floor. These stilt houses also serve as the main homes for the families, built and passed down through generations.

At Nhuong Thanh homestay, Ms. Vi Thi Thanh introduced her family's tourism business and explained that the stilt house, built during her grandparents' time, has been renovated and upgraded to serve as accommodation and food for tourists for over 10 years. In 2024, she invested in upgrading the rooms on the ground floor with new furnishings and added more sturdy wooden partitions. Furthermore, surrounding the homestay, Ms. Thanh and her husband have created a garden space with neatly trimmed plum trees, encircling plots of land planted with corn, flowers, and seasonal vegetables.

In Con Cuong district, there are currently 25 accommodation establishments, including 14 homestays serving ecotourism linked with the local community, mainly concentrated in the communes of Yen Khe, Luc Da, Mon Son, Bong Khe, and some others in Chi Khe and Chau Khe.

According to the Culture and Information Department of the Con Cuong District People's Committee, homestays and other accommodation establishments in the area have seen significant investment in upgrading their infrastructure to better serve tourists. In addition, they have prepared a sufficient supply of food, featuring dishes and ingredients that reflect local identity, mostly grown and prepared by the local people themselves.

Besides investing in infrastructure upgrades, tourism establishments also pay equal attention to building photo spots and spaces to serve tourists. Each year, homestays at each destination change their designs and scenery to create appeal and avoid monotony.

For example, in Que Phong district, homestays and farmstays such as Lam Khang Homestay (Hanh Dich commune), Nhat Minh Farmstay (Chau Thon commune), Pu Kep ecotourism site (Chau Kim), Tam My ecotourism site (Tri Le commune)... each year feature attractive, friendly, and culturally rich landscape designs with flowers, plants, and photo opportunities to meet the needs of tourists who want to "eat well and take beautiful photos".

Proactive food sourcing

Similar to homestays in Con Cuong district, households and communities engaged in ecotourism in Ky Son and Que Phong districts have also proactively decorated their homes, both to welcome Tet (Lunar New Year) and to prepare for the upcoming tourist season. In Muong Long commune of the high-altitude Ky Son district, the fields and farms of farmers are lush with various vegetables and fruits. Ms. Le Thi Van, a member of the Muong Long Community Agriculture and Tourism Cooperative, said that November each year is the peak time for cooperative members to prepare food supplies to serve tourists during the Tet season.

Given the unique topography and climate of the highlands, coupled with the culinary customs of the Hmong people, during this time the villagers focus on planting various vegetables such as cabbage and taro, harvesting and storing upland sticky rice, green squash, cucumbers, and bamboo shoots. In addition, they raise native yellow cattle, black chickens, and black pigs to produce specialties like dried beef, dried pork, sausages, cured meat, and smoked meat, as well as to prepare fresh food for culinary activities. "All cooperative members participate in raising and cultivating these specialty crops and livestock, with a commitment to ensuring quality and food safety," said Ms. Van.

The trend of proactively self-sufficiently sourcing food for culinary activities has been implemented by most community-based tourism homestays for many years. Growing and processing food themselves at homestays not only ensures quality but also preserves the unique flavors and culinary identity of the local area, as the food is prepared by local people.

Ms. Vu Y Ai from Muong Long 2 village, Muong Long commune, said that since her family joined the production linkage with the cooperative supplying vegetables and black chickens to food services when tourists visit, her family's income has become more stable, and they no longer worry about unsold goods like in previous years.

In Yen Khe commune (Con Cuong district), most households engaged in community tourism services have their own flower gardens, ornamental plants, and areas for growing vegetables and raising chickens and pigs. Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha, Vice Chairman of the Yen Khe Commune People's Committee, said that the commune's People's Committee always pays attention to supporting homestays to operate effectively, and also regularly reminds households to comply with regulations on food safety and hygiene, and provides training to improve community tourism skills.

During the period leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year), higher-level departments and agencies also have many activities to support local areas in improving tourism skills and expertise. For example, recently, the Department of Science and Technology and the People's Committee of Con Cuong district organized a scientific workshop on "Building, selecting and promoting Thai ethnic elements in community tourism models in Con Cuong" in Yen Khe commune.

Thanks to this workshop, homestay businesses gained a better understanding of how to select culinary elements and local knowledge to incorporate into community tourism models. In particular, they learned how to utilize local knowledge related to brocade products, woven goods, weaving techniques, and local materials to design and build spaces for culinary practice.

And now, homestay owners are actively putting into practice the knowledge and training they've just received, getting ready to welcome tourists when Tet (Lunar New Year) arrives.