Culture has become and continues to be an internal resource, helping to drive rural economic development and create a new impetus to take the country into a new era—the era of the nation’s rise.
Cultural tourism development
Vietnam’s northernmost province of Ha Giang is home to 19 ethnic groups. The ethnic minority communities here continue to preserve rich traditional cultural values, including traditional architecture, artistic performances, rituals, beliefs, and attire.
According to the Ha Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, community tourism sites in Ha Giang currently attract between 2,000 and 50,000 visitors annually, helping to boost residents’ incomes. Accommodation service providers earn an average of 70 to 100 million VND per year.
Besides accommodation services, Ha Giang residents are leveraging traditional festivals, gradually transforming them into cultural tourism specialities. These include the Ban Vuong Festival of the Dao people in Hoang Su Phi, the fire-burning ceremony of the Pa Then people in Quang Binh, and the Dao initiation ceremony. These are distinctive cultural features of the 35 existing cultural community tourism villages in the province.
According to Sin Van Phong, a cultural and belief artisan from My Bac Village in Tan Bac Commune, which is renowned for its fire-jumping festival, the festival is typically held in front of the village cultural house in the tenth lunar month and can extend to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Before young men jump into the sacred fire, a shaman performs a ritual requesting permission from the local spirits. In a mystical atmosphere, the shaman sits on a chair, recites prayers, and taps a bamboo stick on a musical instrument called "Pan Dieu", with each tap seeming to bridge the connection between humans and spirits.
Hoang Ngoc Ben, Chairman of Tan Bac Commune, noted that the Pa Then people not only have the fire-jumping festival but also preserve traditional house architecture, traditional folk songs, and weaving crafts. These distinctive cultural features are being promoted and have become unique tourism products, attracting domestic and international visitors to Ha Giang. Residents can develop tourism economics from traditional fabric weaving through the Pa Then Traditional Weaving Cooperative in Tan Bac Commune.
Viewing culture as a solid spiritual foundation, a resource for socio-economic development, and an internal driving force in building new rural areas, Son La Province has in recent years focused on comprehensive cultural development. This approach aims to both meet people’s cultural needs and preserve the traditional cultures of ethnic groups. Traditional cultural and historical festivals have been systematically organised, maintaining their authentic ethnic character, and have become tourism products that help increase residents’ incomes.
According to the Ha Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to enhance the appeal of traditional festivals, the province has successfully established 3,300 art troupes in villages and periodically organises mass art performances. These activities not only expand the folk art movement across the province but also showcase the beauty of the cultural traditions of the 12 ethnic groups to domestic and international tourists.
In 2024, Son La Province attracted 4.9 million visitors, equivalent to 107% of its target, with tourism revenue reaching 5.8 trillion VND, representing 122% of the target. This internal resource has enabled the province to swiftly advance its new rural area development.
Culture as a driving force in building new rural areas
Pham Hong Thu, Deputy Director of the Son La Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Pham, noted that to support local development and cultural tourism, the province has developed 19 cultural heritage dossiers for its ethnic minority groups. Of these, 17 have been incorporated into the national intangible cultural heritage register, particularly the Thai people’s art of Xoe dance, which has been included in the UNESCO list of representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Son La Province has worked with the Music Institute and provinces including Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, Phu Tho, Dak Lak and Hanoi to submit a dossier on Mo Muong to UNESCO for recognition as intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. Simultaneously, the province has implemented projects to preserve and promote the valuable traditional cultures of ethnic minorities, linking tourism development across Son La.
Over the past three years, Son La has organised 15 professional training courses on intangible cultural heritage, supported research and restoration of a potentially disappearing festival, developed two traditional ethnic minority cultural models, supported a programme promoting representative ethnic minority cultural values, comprehensively restored one heritage site and prevented deterioration of another heritage site.
In Ha Giang Province, local authorities have established over 190 folk artisan associations at the commune level, comprising more than 9,000 members. These include elders, village heads, and respected individuals knowledgeable about ethnic customs, who directly preserve traditional cultural values and teach younger generations.
Notably, Ha Giang was the first locality to integrate traditional culture into extracurricular activities from primary school to high school. Schools now regularly incorporate traditional cultural education through various methods, with education and cultural sectors collaborating to develop life skills and cultural educational materials.
Ha Giang has also prioritised cultural preservation through programmes such as cultural development linked to tourism, tourism development incentive policies, mountainous community tourism workforce training, and community cultural tourism village conservation projects.
From 2020-2025, Ha Giang is implementing projects to support traditional architectural preservation in cultural tourism villages, assist folk performance groups, support the collection of folk songs, dances, musical instruments, and traditional festivals, and support traditional handicraft production for tourism.
These efforts by Ha Giang and Son La Provinces have contributed to cultural value development in community life. These are also necessary steps for the two provinces and the country to successfully implement the national tourism development strategy through 2030.
