THANH HÓA — A number of community-based tours have debuted in Đôn Hamlet in the central province of Thanh Hóa. 

Pù Luông is a nature reserve established in 1999, covering Bá Thước and Quan Hóa Districts. It is considered a valuable natural reserve for scientific research, socio-economic and ecotourism development.

The tours offer visitors activities to discover local primaeval forests, waterfalls, rivers and mountains.

They can also participate in traditional festivals of the locality, visit traditional trade villages, enjoy local specialities and experience daily activities of locals, especially those from ethnic minority groups. Visitors can take one-day tours in Pù Luông, or two-day tours across three districts of Bá Thước, Quan Hóa and Lang Chánh. There are also tours going across Hòa Bình Province to Bá Thước.

Chairman of Bá Thước District People’s Committee Lò Văn Thắng said the development of community tourism hopes to help with poverty reduction, raise incomes and improve the livelihoods of local residents, thus contributing to bolstering the locality’s socio-economic development. 

He highlighted the significance of the launch of community-based travel tours in the locality, saying that this will help attract more holiday-makers.

Bá Thước hopes to create a breakthrough in tourism development, Thắng said, adding that the locality has set a goal of welcoming 30,000 visitors by 2020, of which about one third will be international tourists.

In recent years, Bá Thước District has focused on upgrading infrastructure in many tourist destinations. It has also enhanced promotion of community tourism, restored many traditional cultural activities, in connection with conserving and developing intangible cultural values and training human resources for the tourism sector. — VNS