Published:  13:52 Thursday - April 04, 2013

No where in Vietnam do people hear the word “money” as much as in Sapa, a tourist destination in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.

In the hot summer, tourists flock to Sapa, the idealist place to avoid heating of the North. Sapa, Ha Long Bay and Hue ancient city are the must-visit places in Vietnam for foreign tourists. But no where in Vietnam that they can hear the word “money” as much as in Sapa.

The kids only know about money

Sapa attracts hundreds of thousands of international and domestic tourists each year. When the French discovered and explored the pristine beauty of the place, they were planned and built it into second to none resort in northern Vietnam. Sapa developed early but that early “mature”, plus loose management and lack of proper investment have brought disaster to Sapa. Implications from tourism development has taken a lot of things of Sapa. The biggest loss is the losing of a simple and hospitable beauty of many local residents.

The media has talked too much about the problem of Sapa’s tourism – vendors stalking tourists. The local government has taken a lot of measures to address this situation. But apparently, their effort fails to touch on the root of the problem. And they keep discussing measures to save Sapa.

In the early morning, when Sapa is covered by mist, ethnic minority people, including many children, leave their home to Sapa town to work as vendors. They carry souvenirs on papooses on their back. The daily work of children here is not going to school but selling souvenirs to make a living.

The Mong ethnic kids attract the attention of visitors for their innocent and pristine looks. But when tourists take pictures and talk to them, they will show their unsatisfied attitude. Some kids will wave their hands and say: “Do not take pictures, not taking pictures” or “Do not buy souvenirs, do not take pictures” and “No money, not take pictures.” The fiercest response of the kids is that they turn away or turn their ass to the lens of visitors.

I led a group of foreign visitors to Sapa, seeing them being screamed out in their ears “no money, no photo,” I was ashamed.

From Sapa town, tourist groups go up to Ham Rong for sightseeing, visit Ta Phin grotto, Silver Waterfall, Rattan Bridge, down to the villages of Ta Van, Ban Ho and Lao Chai to learn about the lives of ethnic minority people. At any place, when they has just stepped down from the bus, visitors are immediately surrounded by a crowd of Mong, Dao, Giay women and children wearing colorful clothes and offered souvenirs. They follow tourists to everywhere.

At first glance, the scene is fun and is the hospitality of the local people, but no one will be comfortable and excited if they are bothered all the time of their journey.

The problem of cultural tourism is more pressing, making a headaches for the local government.

“It is painful for Sapa”

At night, vendors still chase after tourists, even though the number of vendors is
less than during the day.

I spoke to Trieu Lo May and Ly San May, Dao women who earn their living from their small papooses of souvenirs. Lo May innocently said: “I have two children. They also go to school. I have to send them to school to escape the poverty of their parents. I don’t allow them to go to the town to sell souvenirs.”

Asking them about local vendors’ clinging to tourists, the two Dao women said: “We do not like that. We just sit here selling goods because we know that clinging to visitors is impolite.”

In Sapa, if other vendors have the same thought like Lo May and San May, Sapa’s project on building civilized lifestyle in commercial activities, tourism for the 2011 – 2015 period will soon be completed.

Dr. Tran Huu Son, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lao Cai province said that vendors’ clinging to tourists is a big problem of Sapa and it must be solved radically. “When tourism develops, benefit must be evenly distributed. The local community is the master of this land. They must receive the benefits from tourism,” he said.

Son cited a funny example: “I’m the host. Tourists visit my house but they do not use any service at my house. I earn nothing from them. Only the people in Sapa town earn the benefit. Tourists go to my village to take pictures. They take everything they need with them from the town. Even water bottles they also buy from the town. They come to my village; they drink the water and throw the empty bottle here. I have to collect the bottle for them. So I have to collect fee if you take picture of me. I have to force you to buy my brocade… We should not blame local people because they earn very little from tourism. We have to regulate at the macro level. The most important thing is how to help people benefit from tourism.”

Many people said, the above thing is even realized by a three-year-old child but tourism managers ignore it. Then many innocent people have to “chase” tourists as a way to find “equality.”

According to Dr. Tran Huu Son, the more tourism develops; the gap between therich and poor in Sapa is wider. “I have a research on this issue since 2005. Accordingly, the gap of income between people in Sapa town and Mong people is eight times. The profits from 25 years of tourism development belongs to tourism business people while ethnic minority people do not earn anything.”

How to balance benefit from tourism?

In the development of the tourism industry, the homestay services (tourism community) has strongly developed in Sapa, initially brought benefits to the people in the villages of Cat Cat, Ta Phin, Lao Chai, Ta Van, Ban Ho and Ban Den. The process to improve and expand this type of tourism is still a long-term plan.

Dr. Tran Huu Son continued the story of sustainable development in Sapa: “Now the people offer community-based tourism, like those in Ban Den, Cat Cat villages. But this model is not optimal. We can learn from other countries, where have models of sustainable tourism development. Sapa people should keep farming, not doing tourism business. But travel firms who take visitors to Sapa must share their profit to the local people. For example, in Africa, travel firms have to share up to 70 percent of profit to the local people, though these people do not do anything related to tourism. But this is the land of my ancestors, my country, so I must benefit from it.”

“But it is contrary in Sapa. There are even tour guides, when visitors want to buy original brocade in Ta Phin, they take tourists to Sapa to buy Chinese brocade, just because Ta Phin villagers do not pay commission for them. People do not benefit at all, because of such reason. So that the root of the problem is how to harmonize the interests between businesses and people. The interests of the people must be on the top!” Son added.

The Sapa District People’s Committee has taken measures to develop tourism, while limiting the harmful effects, the negative effects of commercialization, urbanization or excessive building of hydropower plants. The implementation of the project on building a civilized lifestyle in commercial activities and tourism is considered the great efforts of the local authorities in promoting cultural tourism and conservation in Sapa.

Vietnamnet