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Tribal Culture Experience

Awakening the Sleeping Beauty in Sa Thay district, Kon Tum province

  • Sa Thay district, located in Kon Tum province on the border with Cambodia, has a lot of potential for tourism, with its gong-playing culture, fine textiles made my ethnic minorities, magnificient waterfalls and endless forests. The tourism potentials here is like Sleeping Beauty - who needs to be awakened.
    This is the conclusion of a new study on the potential for tourism development in Sa Thay district. Kon Tum Provincial Union of Scientific Associations, People's Committee of Sa Thay District together with CIRUM conducted this study from 28th September to 8th October 2018. Ecotourism experts, artisans, village patriarchs, village leaders, Chu Mom Ray National Park staff and people in seven Sa Thay District communes all participated in the study.
    In order to identify and asess the potential for tourism in the district, the research team actively divided into two groups. One actually lived with indienous groups of people to find potentials for indigenous culture tourism. The other group focused on exploring the potential of tourism based on natural landscapes and history. 

    The results showed that there are 13 potential destinations for sight-seeing, three historical places and seven villages with ethnic minority people, including the Ho Lang, the Ro Ngao, the Xe Dang and the Ja Rai to develop cultural tourism. We also recorded and documented many stories and images on video.
    After the survey, all  the information was reported and  shared with the district leaders and stakeholders, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the survey sites as well as providing suggestions for improvement. One of the suggestions is to create a pilot project for developing tourism in the area.
    Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Sam, Chairman of Sa Thay District People's Committee remarked that,  "The study has provided an overview of all ecological, cultural and historical landscapes in the field with clear and suitable sugestions. On that basis, the district People's Committee will soon develop a project for tourism development and submit it to the Provincial People's Committee for approval. Kon Tum Provincial Union of Scientific Associations and CIRUM should continue to accompany and advise the District People's Committee to develop the project".