Building home-stay tourism village in Cam Thanh eco-village

Objectives

Improving the role of women and raising awareness in ecotourism and community-based tourism operation for local people by creating sustainable livelihoods for women (building home stay village model owned and operated by women). 

Background

Despite the recent rapid growth of tourism in Hoi An, women don’t receive much benefits from it, particularly women in rural area. In fact, there should be many ways that women can gain more income from their daily activities and from where they live. The home stay village model will be a suitable choice that helps to generate stable and sustainable income for women in rural area by participating in community-based tourism. This model is also suitable for an eco-village like Cam Thanh, to conserve the Nypa Palm forest and the rural riverside environment.

The project will help to build women’s capacity in managing and implementing community-based tourism. The project will tackle two main issues: 1) Boosting women’s confidence in community-based activities; and 2) Increasing the cooperating capacity for self-managed groups.

In addition, the project will also help the commune to develop regulations for home stay village, which fullful tourism development planning by local authority and Hoi An city, as well as people’s wish. The project will pilot a home stay tourism village that is operated and managed by women. 

Target beneficiaries

• 20 households providing tourism services
• 7 households for homestay

Outputs

• Homestay tourism sevices organised and operated by women
• Trainings on eco-tourism and homestay operation
• Community agreement on homestay tourism and benefit sharing
• Marketing materials and communications
• 01 short project movie

Accomplishments and challenges

Accomplishments:

Developing the tourism will benefit not only the ancient city of Hoi An but also the neighboring rural areas.
The success of the project will limit the exploitation of coastal natural resources and the Nypa forests preserved.

Challenges:

The tourism industry in Hoi An in general and Cam Thanh area is quite competitive. Therefore, the community-based tourism model should have good perception, solidarity and high commitment both for the implementation and the maintenance.

Contributions to cross-cutting themes

• Community resilience
• Sustainbale livelihoods
• Gender equality

Lessons Learned

The project allowed the community to learn the advantages and drowbacks from other tourism models.
Propagating and mobilizing people to have the right awareness and determination to implement the project is very important: the people overcame difficulties, and participated in the project implementation.

To ensure the sustainability and advantages of the ecotourism and ecotourism model, households must commit to properly implement the model to ensure the preservation of cultural values and the local environment.

In addition to supporting the community on how to travel, the actual operating experience, additional initial support for a business plan (simple) including cost / benefits calculations, price and market development.