Tan Hoa: From ‘flood navel’ to world best tourism village
WVR - From a village called “navel flood”, Tan Hoa has overcome hundred competitors in the world to achieve The Best Tourism Village in the World from UN World Tourism (UNWTO) for the year 2023.
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| Tan Hoa Commune, Minh Hoa district, Quang Binh province. (Photo: Quang Binh Tourism Department) |
Overcome the adversity
Tan Hoa is a mountainous commune in Minh Hoa mountainous district, Quang Binh province. The commune has a natural area of 7,427.20 hectares, located in the middle of limestone mountains, with many cave systems created over millions of years such as: Rat cave, Bat cave, Tung cave, Tu Lan cave, etc.
This unique terrain has created a charming landscape with the inherent peacefulness of a Central Coast village. However, this unique terrain is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially during the rainy season.
From the mid-September to mid-November annually, when there are heavy, long-term rains, water from the upstream flows in, causing major floods that deeply inundate Tan Hoa.
The most memorable was the historic flood in 2010 with a 12m high water level that submerged most houses in Tan Hoa. Local residents had to evacuate to caves and cliffs to take shelter and wait for the water to recede. Since then, phrases such as “flood navel", "water valley" have been mentioned and associated with Tan Hoa as a land that suffered much from natural disasters.
Looking for ways to live with adversity and difficulties, Tan Hoa people have come up with many solutions, but the most valuable is the creation of floating houses that would always float over the flood water.
Over the years, floating houses have been improved more and more to suit their functions. Normally, it is a house like any other house, but when a flood comes, it is like a boat carrying valuable items, such as food, clean water and people to help them survive the rainy days.
Mr. Truong Xuan Hung, Vice Chairman of Tan Hoa commune People’s Committee, said that Tan Hoa had about 620 self-floating pontoon houses, each households have at least 1 floating houses to response to flood. From that day, people reduce their anxiety when the rainy season come.
People in this area are always proud of their own floating houses and the way they overcome adversity and live in harmony with nature.
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| Houses are made to adapt with tough weather in Tan Hoa commune. (Source: VGP) |
In 2011, Chua Me Dat Company Limited (Oxalis) set a headquarter in Tan Hoa to invest and bring tourists to admire the beautiful scene here. From there, endlessly beautiful images of the green grass valley stretching as far as the eye can see or the Tu Lan cave system and the romantic Rao Nan river have reached people all over the world.
In addition, floating houses have been invested by local people, equipped more items to make it into homestays to welcome tourists.
Reaching out to the world
After that, people in Tan Hoa follow Oxalis to do the tourism, find jobs for having higher income and improve living standards. Until December 2023, Tan Hoa commune has had 120 people doing tourism usually, with the average income from 8-10 million VND/month.
Tourism activities in Tan Hoa commune indirectly create jobs for more than hundred people in the area. Specialties, products and foodstuffs which were once produced for self-sufficiency now have been added to tourism services.
Only in 2023, people in this commune earned more than 5 billion VND from selling goods to serve tourists.
According to statistics from Quang Binh Tourism Department, in the period of 2013 – 2023, over 63,100 tourists have visited Tan Hoa. In which, the majority have come through Tu Lan route (more than 45 thousand people), and Hang Tien route (more than 18 thousand people).
International tourists especially love experiencing dinner service at the local people’s house for exploring more about culture and livestyle in the place called “flood navel”.
Benjamin Edward Leslie and his family from Australia reviewed: “This place truly is a wonderful journey for us. Tan Hoa has caves where we could camp, sleep in tents, and enjoy impressive food. We get to experience life in the flood season and immerse ourselves in nature."
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| UNWTO give the certificate of “The World’s Best Tourism Village” for Tan Hoa Tourism Village. (Photo: Quang Binh Tourism Department) |
Especially, in October 2023, Tan Hoa surpassed many competitors in the world to achieve the prize from UNWTO. It’s a first and only tourism village in Vietnam voted by UNWTO in the list of 260 tourism villages from 60 nations joining for the year 2023.
It shows the determination by Quang Binh People’s Committee and Tourism Department, local authorities of Tan Hoa commune and Minh Hoa district, along with relevant agencies in buiding Tan Hoa into a tourism model living in hamorny with weather in Vietnam and in South East Asia region as a whole.
The prize is the global initiative highlighting villages where tourism preserves, promotes values, products, and livestyle based on community and rural life, at the same time promoting innovation and suistanbility. This initiative also recognizes the contribution from villages for goal of developing suistainably through tourism.
As Vice Chairman of People’s Committee Quang Binh province Ho Anh Phong affirmed, The Best World’s Tourism Village prize is just the first step in tourism development roadmap of Tan Hoa.
“This honorable prize is the opportunity for Tan Hoa firmly reaching out to the world and gradually becoming the bright pot of Vietnam’s tourism. However, in the process of developing tourism, Tan Hoa needs to maintain the culture and identity of Vietnam’s villages, not to break out the green living space,” Mr. Ho Anh Phong stated.
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