Homestay tourism services offer chances for people in many mountainous districts of the central province of Thanh Hoa to escape poverty and improve their livelihood.

Though a poor village 10 years ago, thanks to developing community based tourism, many households in Don village, Ba Thuoc district have improved their livelihood. Over the last five months of this year, the village hosted nearly 10,000 tourists, mainly foreigners. Ha Van Thuoc, a local resident in Don village said since the beginning of the year, the village  welcomed 300-400 visitors, with 60 percent being foreigners, mainly from France, Switzerland and the US.  “We have been providing tourism services since April 2017,” said Ha Van Hoanh, another local resident in Don village. “We have improved our livelihood thanks to tourism. We hope the roads will be widened to make it easier for tourists to travel here”. Ba Thuoc district is now home to 58 homestay accommodations. More than 100 other households benefit by planting clean vegetables and weaving brocades for these homestays. According to Lo Van Thang, Vice Chairman of Ba Thuoc district People’s Committee, Thanh Hoa province, the locality is focusing resources on developing community based tourism in Don and Kho Muong villages.  “We also combine building new style rural areas with this tourism service in the localities,” said Thang. The initial successes in Bá Thước are a vivid example for other districts to make community based tourism an economic spearhead.-VNA