Part 2: Connecting and creating breakthroughs in highland tourism
Not only does it help erase the gap in time and space in economic development and agricultural product consumption, but the application of digital technology also helps highland localities promote and exploit their tourism resources.
Thanh Phuc - Hoai Thu • September 25, 2024
Not only does it help erase the gap in time and space in economic development and agricultural product consumption, but the application of digital technology also helps highland localities promote and exploit their tourism resources.
Before the eventMuong Long Plum Picking Festival2 days, we went to "Sapa of Nghe An" to "prepare" for articles about tourism in the West. On the small, precarious path running along the hillside, winding through plum gardens laden with fruit, we met Mr. Vu Xai Chu with a heavy bundle of green grass on his back, and a black chicken under his arm, heading towards his house. After greeting, Vice Chairman of Muong Long Commune People's Committee Vu Ba Xu asked Mr. Xai Chu: "Nho rong nu no ko mu lua tro co tu lo" (where did Mr. Xai Chu go to cut grass?). Mr. Xai Chu happily replied: "Kò ua va man ba to khua tua du lich lo" (Cut grass in the plum garden, this year the festival has a lot of visitors booking tickets online).
The young commune official added that for the past 3 years, Muong Long people have had new terms that appear daily in their lives, such as "doing tourism", "ordering online"... Along with that change are new ways of doing business from developing tourism services, homestays... "The beautiful landscapes of the locality such as Dragon waterfall, the ancient plum gardens of the locals that have been there for decades, along with the climate and customs of the people for generations in Muong Long, thanks to digital technology, the internet, and smartphones, Muong Long waterfalls and mountains can attract tourists and be known to the world" - Mr. Vu Ba Xu confided.
The beautiful local landscapes and customs of the people of Muong Long, thanks to digital technology, the internet, and smartphones, attract tourists and are known to the world.
Mr. Vu Ba Xu - Vice Chairman of Muong Long Commune People's Committee
As for tourists, many people who come to Muong Long also confirm this. Happily recounting unforgettable memories after a trip to the highland localities of the Western Nghe An region on the occasion of the children's summer vacation in 2024, Ms. Tran Thuy Lam in Dien Chau district said, "By chance, while surfing the internet on my phone, I saw a series of photos of waterfalls in the West along with the lush green scenery of the mountains and forests, and there was also a very attractive homestay service. Curious, Ms. Lam contacted the Fanpage, then asked more friends and decided to experience traveling to theWestern Nghe An.
Having said that, she happily said, my family used to organize a few days for the children to go on summer vacation, and most of them went to other provinces. Now through the feedback on social networks, seeing many comments praising the beauty of my hometown Nghe An, I also wanted to explore. That was the experience of seeing Khe Kem waterfall in Con Cuong, hunting clouds in Na Ngoi and participating in the Plum Picking Festival in Muong Long Ky Son - the most remote border district of Nghe An.
A trip full of memories, surprising, interesting and quite… tiring, but very worth it. It turns out that my hometown still has many beautiful places like that.”
Ms. Tran Thuy Lam, Dien Chau district
Currently, localities along National Highway 48 and National Highway 7 all have unique natural landscapes as well as cultural identities with great potential to develop the "smokeless industry". In addition to the resources of forest area, scale and biodiversity in the space of the Western Nghe An Biosphere Reserve, the tourism resources of the Western region also include natural beauty spread across many districts. For example, Pu Mat National Park (Anh Son, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong); Kem waterfall, Pha Lai dam, Nuoc Moc stream (Con Cuong); Thanh Chuong has Liep waterfall, Cay Tram waterfall, Lua waterfall, Song Ro lake, tea island (Cau Cau dam); Anh Son has But valley, Giang river - Veu village; Tuong Duong has Ban Ve hydroelectric lake, Sang Le forest, Co stream; Ky Son has Muong Long heaven gate,Pu Xai Lai Leng peak, many natural waterfalls such as Huoi Giang waterfall (Ta Ca commune), Rong waterfall (Muong Long commune), Ka Noi waterfall (Na Ngoi commune)...
And those resources are mostly known to tourists near and far through digital technology promotion and internet connection. Ms. Vi Thi Tham - President of Western Nghe An Tourism Coordination Center Company Limited (TNT Tay Nghe Tourist) also affirmed this. Ms. Tham expressed that she is a child of the people, born on the land of the West, understands and is attached to her homeland. She also established a business company in the field of tourism services, and now expands its coordination and connection activities for tourism routes inside and outside the province.
For most businesses and individuals doing tourism business in Nghe An, initially, communication always plays a decisive role in bringing the image of the destination and services to tourists through social networks and the support of digital technology.
Ms. Vi Thi Tham, President of TNT Tay Nghe Tourist
For ethnic minorities, cuisine not only serves the needs of individuals and communities in daily life and traditional festivals, but is also a cultural heritage with the identity and flavor of each ethnic group. The cuisine of the Thai, Mong, Kho Mu, Tho... is increasingly spread and widely promoted to domestic and international friends through social networks. Along with the landscape and unique cultural identity, unique cuisine has created an "attraction" to promote the development of highland tourism.
For many years now, Vi Kham Mon - a dynamic and enthusiastic young man in the field of indigenous tourism development (Ta Ca commune, Ky Son) has actively used Facebook to promote and introduce the unique features of his ethnic group. The natural beauty of the highland landscape with the foggy valley seen from Pu Nghieng peak, sa mu roofs, poetic terraced fields,... were captured by him on camera, staged into very interesting and lively cultural experience programs.
In particular, the culinary culture of the Thai and Mong ethnic groups is of the utmost interest to this young man. Many images and videos of people picking wild vegetables, catching fish, processing and cooking dishes, exploring and experiencing wild nature and enjoying clean, original cuisine of tourists in the village have been viewed, shared and left positive comments by many people. Images of unique and attractive dishes such as grilled chicken with mac khen; long-legged dancers crawling through bamboo shoots, stream fish in bamboo tubes appear vividly through Mon's Facebook, Zalo and TikTok channels with a strange appeal, making anyone who clicks to watch them amazed, excited and wishing to try them once. And many tourists, both local and foreign, and even from Laos, have "out of curiosity" and "excited" when watching Mon's videos, come to Ta Ca and Ky Son to experience them.
Coincidentally, during the recent April 30 holiday, we went to Quy Chau and met the family of Ms. Duong Xuan Anh, a tourist from Hanoi who was at Dong Minh restaurant - specializing in Thai cuisine in Chau Hanh commune, Quy Chau. A bit awkward in her Thai dress, she and her two daughters, under the guidance of the restaurant staff, were picking vegetables in the garden: doi leaves, young banana trees, bamboo shoots... to prepare the soup. “Honestly, I don’t know much about Quy Chau, and it’s not a place that attracts me on my trips. However, the dishes: grilled fish with mac khen, canh ot, canh bon, cheo bamboo shoots, xoi cam... of the people through the realistic and vivid images of Facebookers are really attractive. So, even though I live in Hanoi, every holiday, my whole family and I go to Quy Chau to experience the life of the Thai people, such as picking vegetables and bamboo shoots; cooking with the restaurant owner to make Thai dishes and enjoy Thai cuisine,” Ms. Duong Xuan Anh shared.
Honestly, I don’t know much about Quy Chau, it’s not a place that attracts me on my trips. However, the dishes: grilled fish with mac khen, canh ot, canh bon, cheo bamboo shoots, xoi cam… of the people through the realistic and vivid images of Facebookers are really attractive.”
Ms. Duong Xuan Anh, a tourist in Hanoi
It turns out that Ms. Xuan Anh, like most tourists, knows about Dong Minh restaurant - specializing in Thai cuisine through the posts shared by the owner Lang Van Hiep. Accordingly, every time he prepares dishes, Mr. Lang Van Hiep films the steps from picking ingredients, preparing, processing, cooking, serving... and posts them on his personal page, groups, and pages about Thai cuisine in Quy Chau. Initially, the restaurant only served the needs of people in the area, in the district or guests from the lowlands brought by local people and the work at the restaurant was just a "side job", only making dishes and serving when customers ordered. Gradually, through social networking sites, through Mr. Hiep's livestream sessions shared and spread by friends and relatives, the press learned about the restaurant, about him and articles promoting Thai cuisine prepared by him were posted, from there, more and more tourists learned about Dong Minh Thai cuisine restaurant. Every group of guests coming to Quy Chau came to the restaurant to enjoy Thai cuisine. Among them, there are many people who come to Quy Chau because they are so fascinated by the Thai dishes of Mr. Hiep. Thanks to that, the restaurant is increasingly crowded, having to expand the space and hire more workers. In particular, thanks to the appeal of cuisine, it has actively contributed to promoting and attracting tourists to Quy Chau.
Ethnic cuisine is a type of culture closely associated with the daily life and livelihood of the community. Promoting and popularizing ethnic cuisine through social networks and digital platforms so that culinary values can come into life and spread across the "flat world", serving all audiences, especially in the field of tourism activities, is considered a key economic sector of localities in general and ethnic minority and mountainous areas in particular.
Mr. Nguyen Manh Loi, Director of Nghe An Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center
In the context of integration, many programs and projects of the Government support digital transformation and international networking to sectors, levels and regions across the country. The most recent is the Project on applying information technology to ethnic minority and mountainous areas, under the National Target Program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021 - 2030, with an amount of over 1,549 billion VND. Taking advantage of this advantage, many young ethnic minority people have effectively exploited social networks to introduce and promote ethnic cuisine, contributing to preserving and spreading the traditional culture of ethnic groups to friends at home and abroad. This is also a way for ethnic minorities to exploit the advantages of tourism development, attract tourists, and create more sustainable livelihoods.
When technology exploded, digital transformation was closely linked to tourism, because the nature of users liked new experiences, which both technology and tourism brought. To bring about special, attractive rural tourism experiences, especially those that could retain tourists, so that visitors would come back many times after coming once, localities needed to build unique and special products. Based on natural features and climate, to create unique products.
"In the 4.0 era, connecting via cyberspace helps blur geographical distances, as well as create initial impressions and experiences for tourists. Developing virtual reality products to help tourists develop experiences has great commercial potential, because this is what creates the first impression to attract tourists. However, this is a big problem, requiring policies and fundamental solutions from management agencies, because businesses lack resources and data to build. In addition, products built based on digital transformation need to be designed in sync with real products," said Mr. Vo Nguyen - Director of a travel company specializing in intra-provincial routes.
Sharing the same opinion on this issue, according to Ms. Vi Thi Tham, promoting images, destinations, and potentials is very necessary, especially for companies and individuals who are just starting to develop and are small in scale. Because, if there is no promotion, no reliance on digital transformation, on social networks, very few people will know about the destinations, scenic spots, unique culinary culture... However, at the same time, to develop tourism in the West, it is necessary to invest in infrastructure and service quality to avoid the difference between the beautiful promotional image but when many people know and come, the facilities and infrastructure do not meet the requirements, causing tourists to "go once and never return". For example, traffic jams at Western destinations during peak season; lack of food, lack of decent accommodation...
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.jpg "Quỳ Hợp - miền đất hữu tình trên bản đồ du lịch xứ Nghệ")
