Assessing the impact of community-based tourism on ethnic culture preservation in Hoa Binh reservoir area and proposing sustainable conservation process

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2022-0024

Abstract

Hoa Binh reservoir area is a unique ethnic tourism destination with 6 main ethnic groups living together in the area. This study aims to assess the impact of community-based tourism (CBT) on ethnic culture conservation in Hoa Binh reservoir area, thereby proposing solutions for sustainable conservation. Ethnographic fieldwork and sociological survey methods were applied to interview 80 households and 100 tourists in the study area. The results show that CBT plays an important role in restoring and preserving the typical cultural values of the ethnic community, creating an environment for ethnic cultural practice, and raising the awareness of traditional culture. Traditional cultural elements such as cuisine, performing arts, and housing architecture have been exploited much for tourism development. While other elements such as beliefs, customs, traditional festivals, costumes, traditional production activities, and ethnic languages are still ignored in the development of CBT. Besides the positive effects, CBT has caused significant changes in traditional houses and costumes, conflicts in community relations. Ethnic cultural values have only been exploited at the level of identification without cultural interpretation, leading to tourism products in each village lacking its own characteristics and identity. From the research results, this paper proposes the process of preserving and promoting ethnic cultural values in CBT.