Community-based tourism not only offers rural residents a gainful economic model but also offers rich experiences for tourists.

According to the
United Nations World Tourism Organization, Vietnam currently stands among the world’s
fastest-growing tourism markets, posting growth of some 21 per cent in 2025; far
exceeding the global average of 5 per cent and the Asia-Pacific average of 8 per
cent.

At the World Travel
Awards (WTA) 2025 ceremony on December 6, meanwhile, Vietnam was honored in 16 global
categories. Notably, this marked the sixth time it was named “World’s Leading Heritage
Destination,” recognizing sustained efforts to preserve and promote heritage in
line with a sustainable tourism development strategy.

Boost for rural economies

As demand for deeper,
more meaningful travel experiences continues to rise, community-based tourism is
emerging as a highly-promising direction for Vietnam’s tourism sector, with tangible
and intangible cultural heritage becoming a glittering “treasure trove” that captivates
international visitors.

One day in late
November, at My Tho Marina in the Mekong Delta’s Dong Thap province, the exhibition
space of the Xuan Ron Cacao Co. attracted large numbers of domestic and international
visitors. In a small glass house overlooking the Tien River, visitors were able
to create a complete chocolate bar themselves, from roasting cocoa beans and grinding
them into paste to mixing and molding.

“This is the first
time I’ve made a chocolate bar,” said Charlotte, a 38-year-old tourist from France.
“The aroma of the cocoa feels stronger and deeper. I think this will be the most
memorable experience of my Mekong Delta trip.”

Meanwhile, from
a once-poor village in Vietnam’s northern reaches, Lo Lo Chai in Tuyen Quang
province has risen to become one of the world’s Best Tourism Villages. Guided by
the belief that “to go far, you must go together,” more than 100 households in Lo
Lo Chai reached consensus to cooperate, share the benefits, and jointly shoulder
the responsibilities of growing the local tourism industry. Each household plays
a specific role: operating homestays, cooking food, performing traditional music
and dance, serving as local guides, or producing handicrafts and agricultural products.
This flexible division of labor has helped curb unhealthy competition.

In Hanoi in recent
years, experiential tourism at traditional craft villages has also gained in
popularity, offering authentic insights into local life. In Uoc Le, a village famous
for its traditional pork sausage (gio cha), Mr. Vu Van Linh, a local resident, said:
“When we first became familiar with social media platforms, our initial goal was
simply to preserve the hand-pounded sausage-making technique. Later, through social
media, many domestic and international tourists found their way here, gradually
forming a community-based tourism trend.”

To accommodate visitors,
wooden pestles and mortars – tools used for generations in Uoc Le – are displayed
in many households’ courtyards. “For visitors to really experience it, we need three
to five mortars at a time,” said Mr. Nguyen Viet Minh, another resident. “Usually,
we prepare five to seven kilograms of meat, depending on how many guests want to
try pounding the sausage themselves.” The joy of visitors has become the joy of
local families, creating a unique connection that drives tourism development along
a distinctive and effective path.

In practice, by
directly leveraging natural and indigenous cultural values, community-based tourism
is a model initiated, managed, and benefited from by local people themselves. In
Vietnam, it is increasingly seen as a vital catalyst for remote and disadvantaged
areas, while also reviving many traditional handicraft techniques.

In northern Ninh
Binh province, Ms. Trinh Thi Ly from the Sinh Duoc Cooperative said many local producers
have joined the “race” to develop experiential activities for international tourists
over the past two years. “Visitors can make herbal soap with their own hands,” she
explained. “We also organize tours where guests wear traditional Vietnamese attire,
or wellness tours using ancient remedies. These activities both meet international
tourists’ demand for deep experiences and align with green, healing, and sustainable
values.”

Elsewhere in Ninh
Binh, artisan Dao Xuan Ngoc helps visitors make decorative motifs from Vietnam’s
Dinh and Le Dynasties on traditional “do” paper, the Bo Bat Pottery Cooperative
offers hands-on pottery experiences in Hoa Lu ancient town, and Hoang Thanh Phuong,
owner of the Bo De Tay Phuong gallery, organizes calligraphy writing on bodhi leaves.
What these models share is the creation of spaces for encounters and storytelling,
retelling the country’s cultural identity through fresh perspectives while maintaining
deep respect for its heritage.

Sharing and spreading values

The 21st century
has witnessed profound shifts in the global economy, with creativity and experience
emerging as new engines of growth. In the Asia-Pacific region, the rise of creative
hubs such as Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Busan, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok shows that
creativity is not merely an artistic field but a catalyst linking heritage, technology,
design, media, education, the digital economy, and experiential tourism.

These “cultural
ecosystem” and “creative destination” models are opening up new approaches to development,
grounded in community, identity, and the capacity to generate value from cultural,
artistic, and indigenous knowledge assets. Vietnam is emerging as a bright spot,
with numerous models in various provinces expanding the country’s “creative map”
across heritage, handicrafts, music, film, design, and marine culture.

At a workshop on
“Developing sustainable community tourism in ethnic minority and mountainous areas,”
Associate Professor Pham Hong Long from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities
at Vietnam National University, Hanoi, noted that community-based tourism is not
merely about providing accommodation and food and must also integrate indigenous
cultural activities. “Leveraging culture does not mean ‘selling’ culture, but sharing
and spreading values,” he explained. :The driving force of this process must be
the local community. When people are empowered to take ownership and receive fair
benefits, community-based tourism can truly take off.”

“The effective development
of community-based tourism requires that localities promote the ethnic cultural
identity in order to build distinctive tourism products suited to each region,”
Dr. Tran Huu Son, Director of the Institute of Applied Folklore Studies, added.
“This process demands systematic research to create attractive product systems tailored
to different visitor segments. Each product needs clear positioning and a unique
identity based on the specific resources of each locality.”

From a business
perspective, Ms. Ly said community-based tourism is a journey that requires balance,
between tradition and innovation and between preserving core values and meeting
the changing demands of modern travelers. “We need to develop tourism based on genuine
indigenous values,” she believes. “At the same time, we must creatively ‘stage’
these cultural values so that they retain their traditional essence while also being
entertaining and appealing to visitors.”

Crucially, education
and communication within local communities are key. Local residents are the central
guardians of culture, and need to be equipped with knowledge and skills to tell
the stories of their homeland’s unique cultural values with pride and inspiration.
Each individual must understand that preserving culture means activating internal
resources to create value, ensuring that heritage exploitation is directly and fairly
linked to community benefits.

VET-Minh Anh