Community-Based Tourism Development in Sapa, Vietnam
Keywords:
community-based tourism, Sapa, ethnic minorities, sustainable tourism, Vietnam, cultural heritageAbstract
Community-based tourism (CBT) has emerged as a sustainable development strategy in Sapa, Vietnam, a mountainous region renowned for its terraced rice fields and ethnic minority cultures. This study examines the evolution, impacts, and challenges of CBT development in Sapa, where tourism has transformed from small-scale homestays to a significant economic sector engaging diverse ethnic communities including the H'mong, Dao, Tay, and Giay peoples. Through systematic analysis of recent scholarly literature, this research explores how CBT initiatives balance economic benefits with cultural preservation and environmental sustainability. The findings reveal that while CBT has generated income opportunities and empowered local communities, challenges persist regarding benefit distribution, cultural commodification, environmental degradation, and power asymmetries between stakeholders. Successful CBT development in Sapa requires participatory governance structures, capacity-building programs, equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms, and integration of indigenous knowledge systems. This study contributes to understanding context-specific factors influencing CBT success in ethnically diverse mountain tourism destinations, offering insights for sustainable tourism development in similar settings across Southeast Asia.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Nguyen Thi Lan, Tran Minh Duc, Dhanang Thue Thai (Author)
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