Awakening the “Green Gem” of Da Bac

Endowed with majestic natural landscapes and a rich depth of distinctive traditional culture, Da Bac is likened to a “green gem” hidden alongside Lake Hoa Binh. Awakening this potential and transforming tourism into a spearhead economic sector, the locality is concentrating resources to complete infrastructure and unblock travel routes; while concurrently creating a chain of products spanning high-end resorts, eco-tourism, and community homestays — driving a sustainable transformation by marrying natural experiences with heritage preservation.

Da Bac — An ideal eco-tourism and resort destination.

Established through the merger of Tu Ly, Toan Son, and Hien Luong communes with Da Bac Town, Da Bac Commune possesses a vast development space extending up to 136 km2 with a population scale of nearly 20,000 residents. This wide-open space represents a convergence of unique tourism resources, featuring both a synchronized core infrastructure center and pristine valleys alongside a diverse eco-forest system. In particular, the Da River bay sub-zone within the Lake Hoa Binh National Tourism Area is regarded as a golden advantage helping the locality achieve breakthroughs.

Blending seamlessly with those natural resources is a rich treasure of intangible cultural heritage belonging to the Muong, Tay, Dao, and Kinh ethnic groups, alongside meaningful historical relics and spiritual destinations. The harmony between picturesque nature and village daily life forms a solid foundation for Da Bac to develop attractive eco-tour routes combined with traditional cultural experiences.

Despite possessing vast potential post-merger, tourism in Da Bac has yet to develop in line with expectations. Ecological and community-based models remain spontaneous, fragmented, and monotonous. This reality stems from loose connections between local households and travel enterprises, leading to a lack of professional service quality. Furthermore, promotion and marketing efforts have not truly reached major target markets. These limitations keep tourist numbers and revenues modest, failing to generate a powerful economic impetus.

To realize the objective of turning tourism into a spearhead economic sector, Da Bac Commune is proactively shaping a fundamental, systematic path aligned with modern green development orientations. Comrade Bui Duc Hau, Secretary of the Da Bac Commune Party Committee, shared: “The core goal of the locality in the coming period is to step up green economic development, focusing on completing infrastructure and unblocking interconnected tour routes. Among these priorities, the commune emphasizes creating a diverse, synchronized service chain ranging from lakeside luxury resorts and exploratory eco-tourism to a community homestay network; determined to make sustainable breakthroughs on the foundation of tightly coupling natural experiences with preserving and promoting the unique traditional cultural values of ethnic groups across the area.”

Currently, Da Bac is concentrating on developing tourism in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. The locality’s overarching strategy is using ethnic cultural identity as the foundation, and Lake Hoa Binh landscapes together with historical and revolutionary relic systems as the driving force to construct deep, meaningful products. To eliminate fragmentation, commune authorities are focusing on standardizing cultural experience activities while promoting sustainable rural tourism models to gradually replace former spontaneous methods. This systematic shift is expected to clearly define a professional destination segment, generating a stable value chain for the entire region.

In tandem with elevating core product quality, the commune pays special attention to planning and diversifying auxiliary service chains to fully satisfy tourist needs. Accordingly, economic sectors are strongly encouraged to invest in transport networks, hotel and restaurant systems, large-scale entertainment complexes, and supporting logistics services. Local specialties are also aggressively developed, creating quality souvenir products for tourists while increasing local incomes.

However, to realize its economic breakthrough targets, Da Bac Commune identifies unlocking internal strengths combined with attracting external resources from major corporations and investors as the decisive factor. The locality is decisively executing solutions to improve competitiveness and comprehensively innovate investment, trade, and tourism promotion methods.

Commune authorities commit to accompanying, offering all favorable conditions, and promptly resolving difficulties to provide maximum support for enterprises investing in agriculture, services, and tourism. In particular, the Commune Party Committee and local government will step up guidance and mobilize the close involvement of the entire political system in site clearance work to accelerate project schedules. Proactively creating clean land funds and constructing an open, safe, and transparent investment environment serves as the locality’s strongest affirmation of readiness to welcome strategic investors.

With innovative thinking, a clear long-term strategy, and the shared resolve of both the political system and local residents, the “green gem” of Da Bac will undoubtedly shine brightly soon, affirming its status as a high-class, sustainably developed green destination on Phu Tho’s tourism map.

Tran Tinh