How a rising tourism tide lifts all boats in Vietnam
The country is expecting 17 million tourists this year and it is not only the usual suspects like Nha Trang and Da Nang that stand to benefit
Among them is Zu, a Black Hmong woman from the tiny village of Ta Van in northwest Vietnam, who walks the rice terraces of her neighbourhood for almost six hours every day.
She married at 16 and had her first child soon after. Now 24 and a mother of two, Zu takes tourists on treks around the Dao minority villages just outside the district’s capital and one of Vietnam’s major tourism destinations, Sapa. Her story is of perseverance and entrepreneurship as strong as the granite mountains from which her family home protrudes.
“I learned English from tourists, mostly,” Zu says as she leads our group through a small bamboo forest on the edge of Ta Van. “It took me six months.”
The new language meant she was able to start offering her services as a tour guide. “Before this, I was selling scarves and bags like the other women in the villages. But there were so many of us doing the same that I didn’t make much money,” says Zu. “I get tired from walking, but this work is better for my family.”
