Muong Khuong and Bat Xat districts in the northern mountainous
province of Lao Cai boast high potential for tourism development
alongside popular destinations like Sa Pa town and the Bac Ha
market.
The districts are endowed with striking
natural scenes and rich cultures suitable for developing eco-tourism and
community-based tourism.
Sitting in the northeast
part of Lao Cai, Muong Khuong is home to 16 caves scattered across 15
communes and towns, including Ham Rong, Ta Lam, Nam Ooc and Seo Tung
caves.
The People’s Committee of Muong Khuong
district has set aside 34.4 billion VND (1.67 million USD) to restore
and upgrade local heritage sites between 2011 and 2015.
The district has been upgrading clusters of caves and building more
traditional craft and cultural villages such as brocade weaving villages
in Sa Pa, Coc Ngu, Na An and Di Thang.
Along
highway 4E connecting Muong Khuong and Si Ma Cai – dubbed the sleeping
princess in Bac Ha district – visitors can pop into cultural villages
such as Sin Cheng, Can Cau and Bac Ha.
Vice Chairman
of the district’s People’s Committee Pham Ba Uyen said the five-year
tourism development project is intended to move a number of workers in
agriculture production to trade and services sectors in order to
preserve and promote the traditional cultures of ethnic groups.
Located in the southwest part of Lao Cai, Bat Xat district is famous for its Y Ty primary forest and A Mu Sung Mountain.
Tourists can take a nearly 150-kilometre journey by car or motorbike
to visit Sa Pa and Bat Xat towns or Y Ty and Muong Hum communes
and explore the stunning landscapes and vibrant cultural lifestyle of
ethnic minority people such as Giay, Dao, Mong and Ha Nhi.
To tap the tourism potential, Bat Xat district has been launching
tours, building community-based cultural sites such as Lung Lo, Lao
Chai, Den Sang, Muong Hum and Ban Xeo, each featuring the unique culture
of different ethnic groups and becoming a must-see destination for
foreign visitors.
Authorities have also built a
development strategy to create a new tourism image in the district,
including better management of tourism services and opening training
courses for tourism staff.
They also encouraged the
involvement of businesses and families while activating promotion
programmes and building infrastructure systems to develop
community-based tourism, said Chairman of the local People’s Committee
Bui Huu Loi.
According to the local Department of
Culture, Sports and Tourism, Lao Cai welcomed over 1 million visitors in
the first six months of 2015, a year-on-year rise of 15 percent.
The tourism sector garnered nearly 2.3 trillion VND (103 billion USD)
in revenue in the period, a yearly increase of 15 percent.
Sa Pa, Bac Ha, Bat Xat and Muong Khuong are the most popular
destinations with 20-30 percent growth in the volume of visitors.-VNA