The journey of opening a web based tour to find Sa Pa of the Giay ethnic group

Vu Thi Ngoc Huong was born in 1999, is a Giay ethnic, from Sa Pa, Lao Cai. The 22-year-old woman has simply graduated from Development Studies, Faculty of International Studies, Hanoi University. In the previous few days, this native information has brought on a “fever” on social networks due to her new on-line tour enterprise.

During the epidemic days, Huong returned to her hometown, researched well-known locations and opened tour guides by means of on-line purposes resembling Zoom, Google Meet,… Participants will entry the hyperlink on-line, related working from afar to “visit” the surroundings of Sapa by means of the steerage of a neighborhood information, Giay Ngoc Huong.

In the dialog with ViGuide, Huong had fascinating sharing about her type of on-line travel.

Choose to go away the town to return to the hometown to make a profession

– While most younger individuals select an opulent city place to develop their profession, why did you resolve to return to your hometown?

When I went to high school and simply graduated, I, like younger individuals, have been confused between the selection between staying within the metropolis or going again to the countryside. For my main, staying within the metropolis may have numerous alternatives to develop, particularly I can work at worldwide organizations. However, after graduating, I made a decision to return to Sapa to begin a enterprise from tourism. The motive I returned to my hometown was partly from the will to develop the neighborhood, partly from the love of travel.

Born and raised in Sa Pa, I witnessed the years of this land growing tourism, from fundamental to trendy resembling including cable automobiles, purchasing facilities, 5-star inns… however I additionally realized that the velocity of urbanization in Sa Pa is going down quickly, making many tourism institutions ineffective, not reflecting the tradition and id of the land. In addition, there are lots of indigenous individuals who need to make tourism much less developed.

As a younger class of Sa Pa, I’ve realized about growth, so I need to share with guests the hidden fantastic thing about this land and encourage the native individuals to protect and protect the id of the individuals. and develop tourism from there.

– It appears that your main just isn’t associated to tourism, how did you begin with this path?

From a younger age, I typically heard the traditional tales of the Giay from my grandmother and uncles, so I’ve an incredible curiosity within the conventional tradition of the Giay individuals.

I’m an individual who loves freedom, discovery, likes to travel to expertise and study new issues. My dream is to have the ability to travel all over the world and arrange an expertise tourism enterprise, contributing to constructing sustainable Sapa tourism in addition to serving to my neighborhood to protect and promote the values. good tradition.

More particularly, as an individual who likes peace, cool local weather and loves nature, particularly my hometown, I wish to introduce to everybody about these beauties from the attitude of native individuals. In some fortunate occasions after I was capable of accompany my aunt to tour in Sa Pa, realizing the potential of tourism in my locality, I started to have a ardour for not solely touring but in addition doing tourism.

Although the sphere of examine just isn’t specialised in tourism, the information that I’ve realized within the Department of International Studies is expounded to growth, together with neighborhood growth. When I used to be in my 2nd and third years, I observed the issues of sustainable tourism within the homeland, the issues of inequality in society. These issues have motivated me to give you new concepts with the will to contribute to fixing the event issues of the homeland and the neighborhood. So, after finishing my college program, I went again to my hometown and began implementing my concepts, one in all which was the venture “Travel Experience Online with Sa Pa natives”.

Working against the industry and the effort to make up for the shortcomings

– In your opinion, what advantages and disadvantages do I have compared to those who study tourism in the right major?

In terms of advantages, I am a native born and raised in Sa Pa, a land with great tourism potential, so I have a good understanding of the nature, culture and people here. I witnessed the change and development of the village, my hometown, especially the change in tourism development, so I realized the problems and potentials in the development trend of tourism in my hometown.

Although I did not study tourism professionally and methodically, I do tourism out of love and concern for the tourism development of my hometown, so it has created a new and uniqueness that is not stamped out. mold, rigid. Not studying tourism but learning about development, I personally see the outstanding problems and potentials in Sa Pa so that when doing tourism, it is not only tourism but also towards sustainable tourism development. long-term sustainability.

Regarding difficulties, I do not have the professional knowledge and skills about tourism like those who study in the right major, lack of general knowledge about the tourism industry in general. For example, tourism students will learn about cultures, how to organize and operate tours professionally and professionally. However, I believe that trying and cultivating will help me improve this.

– Where did your idea for an online tour come from, do you have references from others?

In the 2 years since the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic, Sa Pa tourism has been severely affected, many tourist facilities have temporarily stopped operating or even closed completely (270 establishments in September 2020) due to the pandemic. The number of tourists decreased sharply, especially the number of foreign tourists. In parallel, the unemployment rate in the tourism sector has also increased (10,000 employees will lose their jobs in 2020) because most tourism businesses do not have enough funds to maintain operations and pay employees. As a result, the lives of people in Sa Pa have faced many difficulties because it is difficult to consume products from agriculture, traditional occupations, etc.

Facing the difficult situation caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, many tourism establishments are always looking for ways to maintain until the epidemic is over but still have no effective plan. In particular, local guides, who already have a certain number of old customers, must completely stop working and return to farming, unemployment or changing jobs while waiting for the Covid-19 outbreak to end.

Besides, most people (customers) are having to distance themselves, unable to travel to many special places that cannot travel during the Covid-19 period. So they are feeling very bored and have a desire to go somewhere or do something to relieve stress, relieve “loopy ft”.

In addition, now, according to my observations, more and more domestic tourists, especially young people aged 21-35, have the desire to experience and explore more deeply about the beauty of the world. culture, nature, people instead of just travel and check-in.

Therefore, I have implemented the idea of ​​​​building and organizing Sapa experience tours through the online form called: “Online expertise travel with Sa Pa indigenous individuals”.

– As a young girl, do you feel pressure when suddenly you are known by a lot of people? Because when the coverage is high, there are often side stories.

Although it is very happy and surprised when people know about my idea, it is also a great pressure. Since online travel is a very new tourism model in Vietnam and the product is still in the process of being perfected, certain shortcomings will inevitably arise. However, this is both a challenge and a motivation for me to improve myself and the product more and more.

What is the difference between online tours?

– How do you think your online tour is different from other tours?

My online tour is different from normal tours because this is the only and first online experience tour program in Sapa with many diverse, unique and different experiences, without any tourist facilities. There are other stories and information about places, things and things to experience compiled from many reliable sources, with depth, detail, imbued with the cultural identity of the ethnic groups in Sa Pa. , Lao Cai).

Secondly, the companions (guides) are all natives of Sapa. Finally, these experiences have human values ​​(preserving, preserving, and promoting national cultural values, towards sustainable Sapa tourism).

– The information and places you give can be found on the media, why do you think tourists should choose to join your tour?

Visitors should choose to join my tour because of the uniqueness, difference, no other tourist facilities have because the places and experiences are extremely new, very few tourists know about, almost or It is very difficult to find relevant information about those places and experiences in the media.

For example, Nam Cang is a village located at the southeast end of Sa Pa, previously almost only indigenous people knew about this place. Currently, although there is more information about this new place, it is only general information about the geographical location and landscape, not many people know and experience the unique cultural features. nature.

– Lead online tour with many difficulties? Because of the unusually sunny and rainy weather, you still have to walk and talk for 1.5 hours straight, moreover, the mountain tour often has an unstable connection.

Since that is a web based tourism, it relies upon quite a bit on exterior elements resembling climate, transmission line connection… That can also be my impediment and concern in the course of the tour. Although…