Awakening Potential, Elevating Community Tourism

Morning in Long Coc — the “Ha Long Bay on land” — as stove smoke still lingers over the stilt house roofs, is also when local residents prepare to welcome their first guests. A tray of local food, stories of traditional crafts, folk songs, and dances... things once so ordinary in community life have now become the very experiences sought after by tourists.

From existing values of landscape, culture, and people, community-based tourism (CBT) is opening a new direction of development across many localities in Phu Tho Province. However, turning a region with potential into an attractive destination capable of retaining visitors remains a long journey, in which the quality of products, services, human resources, and promotional methods play a decisive role.

Long Coc — an attractive destination with characteristic tea hill landscapes and potential for community-based tourism development.

Awakening Local Values

Blessed by nature, Long Coc stands out with its rolling, overturned-bowl-shaped tea hills, creating a lush green complex unique to the midland region. That scenery attracts not only nature lovers and photographers, but increasingly appeals to tourists seeking experiences close to rural life.

The charm of Long Coc also stems from the cultural identity of the Muong and Dao ethnic groups, with dishes, customs, festivals, and dances preserved through generations. Leveraging those advantages, the locality has identified tourism development — particularly CBT — as one of the paths to generate additional livelihoods for local residents. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Viet, Chairman of Long Coc Commune People’s Committee, stated: The commune has issued and implemented a project to foster internal strength, boost investment attraction, and develop the economy linked with green tourism for the 2026–2030 period, with a vision to 2045. Alongside infrastructure investment, the locality focuses on diversifying and upgrading product quality, constructing multi-value circular agricultural models to serve tourism, preserving cultural values, and enhancing dining and accommodation services.

The story in Long Coc illustrates Phu Tho’s ample room for CBT development. Following the administrative unit restructuring, the province’s tourism space has become even more diverse, converging various terrains, landscapes, and ecosystems. From the ancestral cultural space, cool-climate midland regions, tea hills, and hot mineral springs to Xuan Son National Park, the Da River reservoir area, and high-altitude ethnic villages... every area holds the potential to build tourism products with distinct characteristics.

If landscapes serve as the “backdrop,” culture is the factor that defines the identity of CBT. The Worship of Hung Kings, Xoan singing, systems of traditional festivals, customs, cuisine, folk arts, and the daily life of ethnic communities represent exceptional resources. With around 1,000 traditional festivals, Phu Tho possesses ideal conditions to develop products tied to seasonal, regional, and community-specific cultural experiences.

A greater advantage lies in the ability to connect these values into a single journey. Tourists can start from the Ancestral Land cultural space, continue with agricultural experiences, explore nature, savor local cuisine, learn about traditional crafts, and stay overnight in village homestays. When individual resources are connected into an experiential chain, not only is the visitors' length of stay extended, but multiple stakeholders within the community also gain opportunities to benefit.

Enhancing Quality for the Long Run

From advantage to product, and from product to an attractive destination, there is a considerable gap. Therefore, along with exploiting potential, local authorities are gradually shifting from a mindset of “exploiting whatever is available” to crafting products with narratives, experiences, and distinct identities.

One of the prioritized approaches is linking CBT with agriculture, OCOP products, craft villages, and indigenous culture. Localities are mobilizing resources to invest in infrastructure, auxiliary works, showrooms, and product presentation centers, while upgrading power, water, telecommunications, and transport systems to ensure security, safety, and service conditions for tourists.

To date, the entire province features 4 OCOP products in the tourism services group, of which 3 achieved 3-star ratings — including Hung Lo CBT, Xuan Son CBT, and Da Bia CBT; and 1 product achieved a 4-star OCOP rating: Mo Hamlet CBT in Thung Nai Commune.

In Mo Hamlet, CBT development has gradually brought about changes in local life. According to Mr. Dinh Van Dan, Head of the Mo Hamlet CBT Cooperative Group, alongside investing in transport infrastructure, parking lots, and bridges over streams, the locality also emphasizes forming ethnic performance groups and training skills for local residents. Tourism not only generates extra income but also raises community awareness of cultural preservation and resource and environmental protection. In 2025, the per capita income in the hamlet reached over VND 41 million; the hamlet retains only 4 poor households and 2 near-poor households.

Another factor driving clear changes is the approach to destination promotion. Rather than relying solely on traditional promotion activities, many localities have proactively leveraged digital platforms to bring the image of their homeland closer to tourists. In Van Son, Commune Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Duy Tu directly films videos introducing local landscapes, culture, and people. As of July 2026, nearly 20 videos have been published across social media platforms, each attracting from thousands to millions of views. This social media effect quickly sparked interest among travelers. Many search for information about Van Son, asking about travel routes and activity spots. On weekends, locations like Thung Waterfall and Păng Field are frequently packed with visitors. According to Secretary Nguyen Duy Tu, Van Son Commune sits at an average altitude of 800m to 1,200m above sea level, enjoying a cool climate, along with primary forests, waterfalls, caves, and Muong villages that still retain traditional cultural features. The locality aims to develop Van Son into a provincial-level tourism hub focusing on eco-tourism and resorts, striving to add around 20 homestays each year to step-by-step establish a community accommodation system meeting tourist demands.

From Long Coc to Van Son, from Xuan Son to the Da River reservoir area, different approaches share a common goal: transforming advantages into products, products into livelihoods, and making the community the true subject of tourism.

In the coming time, localities will continue to strengthen linkages between OCOP products and destinations; build experiential tours and routes tied to specialty production zones, craft villages, and indigenous products; raise accommodation standards, train human resources, intensify promotion, and accelerate digital applications. Ultimately, the appeal of CBT lies not merely in scenic beauty, but in the story behind a stilt house, the flavor of a dish, the singing of local people, and the way a community preserves what belongs to them.

Ensuring that every destination has a unique product, every product has a story, and local residents truly benefit from the values they preserve — that is the path for Phu Tho’s community-based tourism to move from tapping potential to sustainable development.

Le Oanh