III. The study purpose and study objectives
3.2 Study objectives
Three specific objectives are focused on this study as following: (1) To explore the Covid-19 impact on different ethnic groups, focusing on H’ mong Dao, and Kinh ethnic group, in the tourism industry of Sa Pa town; (2) To analyze the government support program/policy for these stakeholders; (3) To seek for alternative economic solutions in response to the Covid-19 crisis for ethnic minorities, vulnerable groups living in Sa Pa. In order to that, the research content covers several topics, including Covid-19 impact on stakeholder livelihoods /life; stakeholders’
access to Covid-19 information / Covid-19 preventing measures; state and local government’s support program/policies: Who benefit from what? And their coping strategy and strategy in the post-pandemic period.
III. Research methodology and data collection
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4.1 Methodology
The study uses different methods and techniques to examine the research questions. First, focus group discussions, and intensive interviews are used to explore how the Covid-19 and the anti-Covid-19 campaigns by the government impacts different stakeholders in the tourism industry, especially ethnic differentials. The focus group discussions are carried out in two communes in Sa Pa. In each commune, two group discussions (one is ethnic minorities, and the other is the Kinh majority) are conducted. The conversation topics mainly concentrate on the Covid-19 impacts and current state and local policies supporting local people in response to the pandemic consequences. Tả Phìn, one of the selected communes for the survey is located in Sa Pa with a natural area of about 275 ha, about 10 km from the center of Sa Pa town, located along Provincial Road 152 and is one of the
important tourist destinations in the tourism route: Tả Phìn - Ma Tra - Sa Pa Tả Van Hầu Thào Sử Pán -Nậm Cang. There are more than 40
households providing
accommodation services (homestay), 14 catering services, 24 local tour guides, and some tens of female retailers of handicrafts. The ecological space and landscape of Sả Xéng and Tả Chải villages of Tả Phìn have the potential to develop community- based tourism, explore and experience the nature and cultural space of the Dao ethnic group (Red Dao) such as Tả Phìn Cave, traditional houses and cuisines with
Figure 1: Tả Phìn commune in the Sa Pa Tourism Map
(Source: Sa Pa’s planning report for community tourism, 2019)
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characteristics of the Dao and natural medicinal herbs.
Sử Pán or Mường Hoa commune now is another selected commune for the survey. It has a natural area of about 933 ha, about 14 km from the center of Sa Pa town, located along the Provincial Road 152 and is one of the important tourist destinations in the tourism route: Ma Tra - Sa Pa - Hầu Thào - Sử Pán - Tả Van. There are over 40 households in
the commune providing
accommodation services (homestay), 10 catering services, 115 local tour guides. Regarding ecological space and landscape of Hoà Sử Pán 1 and Thào Hồng Dến village in Sử Pán, there are many potentials and resources to develop
community-based tourism, explore and experience the nature and cultural space of the H’Mong people, such as the ancient village of Tẩn family, Ngựa Bay waterfall, Chestnut hill, bamboo forest, orchid hill, traditional forging village.
Second, based on the discussions, in-depth interviews are conducted to focus on particular circumstances to have better explanations of pandemic consequences as well as its intervention effects. The intensive interviews are also used to local authorities and experts to have a better understanding of these policies as well as effectiveness from the state and local government’s perspectives.
Figure 2: Mường Hoa Commune in the Sa Pa Tourism Map (Source: Sa Pa’s planning report for community tourism, 2019)
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Third, community asset mapping is another method used to explore community assets and seek community solutions in response to the pandemic. To effectively mobilize local assets in pandemic circumstances, the study applies the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, a strategy for sustainable community-driven development. The appeal of ABCD lies in its premise that communities can drive the development process themselves by identifying and mobilizing existing, but often unrecognized assets, and thereby responding to and creating local economic opportunity. Community asset mapping is used in all three research sites. Participants include representatives of local tourism business owners, local handicrafts, tour guides, other local tourism service providers, and residents.
Finally, the institutional approach, which requires policies need to be well matched with people’s demand or problems, especially, vulnerable groups, also be used in the data collection and reporting stages. During the data collection stage, the institutional approach allows conducting information on current policies dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic from the state and local informants to have a better understanding of the state strategies and policies and their consequences to the studied population. Furthermore, adopting the institutional approach at the reporting stage is to advocate policies and seek collaborations from related provincial and district governmental offices, mass organizations, and other partners to disseminate the findings in practices. In order to do so, local authorities are engaged in the study from the early beginning.
4.2 Data Collection
Fieldwork activities for data collection were carried out sequentially as follows: include:
(1) Consultation in Sa Pa town with 2 main activities: group discussion with town authorities and in-depth interviews with typical cases; (2) group discussions and in-depth interviews in Muong Hoa and Ta Phin communes. In fact, the group discussion with the local authorities in Muong Hoa could not be done as expected due to the coincidence of another meeting between the commune leaders and provincial authorities. The working plan with villagers in Muong Hoa also had to be changed to the evening meeting instead of the day because of harvesting seasons in the area, (3) sharing the preliminary report, (4) consultation workshop for final report preparation and finalization.
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IV. Main findings
The main objective of the study is to understand the impacts of Covid-19 on the ethnic groups whose work-related to tourism in Sa Pa, the effectiveness of current campaigns, and suggestions for recovery and sustainable tourism development among ethnic minorities
5.1 Data description
The study was conducted based on data collected from more than 100 group discussion participants. Accordingly, district officials participating in the discussion are 8, tour booking agencies and hotel in the district are 4, at commune level: 20, and at villages: 90. In which, female accounts for 57%, male 43%; Dao ethnic group accounts for 42%, H’Mong people 38%, Kinh people (15%) Tay and Nung groups 5%. Ta Phin commune accounts for 50%, Muong Hoa commune 37%, and 13% are officers and company owners from Sa Pa. Out of 90 participants in the villages, the number of people who own the homestays is 16, providing food services is 9, selling handicrafts as souvenirs are 10, the local tour guide is 33, motorbike taxi is 5 and doing other jobs related to tourism activities: 17.
Figure 3: Gender of research participants Figure 4: Ethnicity of research participant
Male Female 43%
57% Male
Female
42%
38%
15%
5%
Dao
Hmong
Kinh
Other ethnic minorities
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Figure 5: Living places of research participants 5.2 Asset mapping by sites
The assets and potentials of the surveyed communes are analyzed based on Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. There are 5 types of assets including
- Human asset: individual skills / indigenous knowledge and labor force - Social asset: relationships, traditions, and culture.
- Natural asset: land, rivers, mountains, and weather/climate.
- Physical asset: infrastructure, equipment for production, and daily life.
- Financial asset: cash and other values that can be converted into money.
The table below are local assets of Muong Hoa and Ta Phin communes.
Table 1: Local assets of Muong Hoa and Ta Phin communes
T Mường Hoa commune Tả Phìn commune
Human asset - Planting (rice) on sloping land / terraced fields - Tourism service skills (homestay, tour guide…) - Planting flax,
- Planting orchids - Tourism service skills (homestay, tour guide, cooking, traditional bath)
37%
50%
13%
Mường Hoa Tả Phìn Thị xã
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Social asset H’Mong culture and related festivals. There is a cultural space of the H’Mong like the ancient village of Tan family,
Natural asset - Majestic nature with mountain, wide land, and
Physical asset - All inter-village roads have been covered with concrete - Having community centers (halls)
- Stable electrical system - All houses have internet and wifi
- All inter-village roads have been covered with concrete - Having community centers - Stable electrical system - All houses have internet and wifi
- Having a good system of local grocery shops and communal market Financial asset - The main source of income
for households comes from homestay service and other additional tourism services
- The main source of income for households comes from homestay services, medical herb bathing services, or
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5.3 Key stakeholders in Sa Pa’s community-based tourism value chain system
Below are the main stakeholders and actors in community-based tourism value chain system:
Figure 6: The main stakeholders and actors in community-based tourism value chain system
The roles of the stakeholders in the above diagram are as follows:
- Stakeholders (enabling actors) that create the environment for the operation of the chain of as well as state management of tourism activities include: Sa Pa Town People’s Committee and Commune People's Committees. Next is Sa Pa’s Culture & Information Department which
Local Travel
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is responsible for the orientation and development of tourism activities.
- Stakeholders (supporting actors) support the operation of the chain including Sa Pa Tourism Association; Local banks and credit institutions; Private investors; and Lao Cai Vocational Training School, which provide basic training in English, customer service, cooking…. for households doing tourism activities in the communes.
- Key actors in the value chain include local tour operators; households providing transportation services including motorbike taxi and taxi; groups of households to act as a local tour guide; homestay facilities and medical herb bathing services (mainly in Ta Phin commune), restaurants, grocery shop owners, groups of women selling handicrafts and finally, households that provide cultural experience services to tourists.
5.4 Ethnic minority participation in the tourism supply chain
According to the report of the Sa Pa’s Department of Culture and Information, ethnic minorities in the area participating in tourism through providing homestay services, handicrafts, and souvenirs, tour guides, motorbike taxis, agricultural products to the restaurant system. The study shows that by May 2020, Sa Pa town has 607 household registering accommodation services with 6710 rooms and 13191 beds.
While a large proportion of hotels and motels are concentrated in the central wards of Sa Pa town, such as Phan Xi Pang (17.58%) and Sa Pa (74.55%). Homestays are mainly located in communes, with 247/277 homestays. In which, Ta Van commune in the commune with the most homestays established, 96 homestays (34.66%), followed by Muong Hoa communes, 43 homestays (15.52%), Ta Phin 34 homestays (12.27 %), and Ban Ho with 30 homestays (10.83%). All remaining communes also have homestays but less than 10%. Most homestays have been run by local ethnic minorities, about about 70% in Ta Van by mainly H'Mong and Giay, about 88% in Muong Hoa by H'Mong group, and 89% in Ta Phin by Dao group. Beside accommodation (homestay) service, traditional cuisines of ethnic minority are also offered to tourists as an additional service. Ethnic minorities also provide food services which often attaches homestay services. In addition, traditional medical herb bathing service is also one of the popular services in Sa Pa, they operated mainly by the Dao and concentrated in Ta Phin
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commune. Ethnic minorities, especially H’Mong and Dao people, also provided tour guide services and transportation activities (motorbike taxi). However, most of them are part-time and informal work, simple tasks. In addition, items and services that they provided are often at low prices. Ethnic minority-owned homestays also often only obtain single guests, short length of stay, and depends much on the tour guides and the tour companies in Sa Pa and Hanoi, so their revenue is often low. According to Lao Cai’s Department of Culture, Sport, and Tourism, there was about 2000 ethnic minority people involved in tourism in Sa Pa. However, a study shows that the proportion of ethnic minorities who benefit from Sa Pa’s tourism industry still accounts for a low proportion of the total population in Sa Pa (La Thi Bich Quang, 2018).
Table 2: Accommodation Service Providers in Sa Pa
No Awards/Commune
Hotels/Motels Homestay
Total
Num. % Num. %
1 Cầu Mây 2 0.61% 27 9.75% 29
2 Hàm rồng 11 3.33% 0 0.00% 11
3 Ô Quý Hồ 0 0.00% 2 0.72% 2
4 Phan Xi Păng 58 17.58% 0 0.00% 58
5 Sa Pa 246 74.55% 1 0.36% 247
6 Sa Pả 13 3.94% 0 0.00% 13
7 Bản Hồ 0 0.00% 30 10.83% 30
8 Hoàng Liên 0 0.00% 17 6.14% 17
9 Liên Minh 0 0.00% 12 4.33% 12
10 Mường Bo 0 0.00% 5 1.81% 5
11 Mường Hoa 0 0.00% 43 15.52% 43
12 Ngũ Chỉ Sơn 0 0.00% 7 2.53% 7
13 Tả Phìn 0 0.00% 34 12.27% 34
14 Tả Van 0 0.00% 96 34.66% 96
15 Thanh Bình 0 0.00% 3 1.08% 3
Total 330 100% 277 100% 607
Sources: Department of Cultural and Information
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Meanwhile, hotels, motels, restaurants, and other services locating in the center are mainly run by Kinh people. Most of these facilities are well invested, well managed and well connected with travel agents and companies. Therefore, they have more customers and revenue compared to the ethnic minority owner- facilities. According to Lao Cai’s report, Kinh people working in the tourism industry in Sa Pa account for 67% of the total labors in 2016 (La Thi Bich Quang, 2018), about 7000 people in 2020.
5.5 Influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on the income of the ethnic minorities working in tourism in Sa Pa
Figure 7 shows that, after nearly 10 years of high growth, the Sa Pa tourism industry has suffered great losses. The number of tourists coming to Sa Pa has decreased significantly. After reaching 1 million tourists since 2015, especially more than 5.1 million tourists in 2019, Sa Pa has only reached more than 700,000 tourists in the first 9 months of 2020, only 30% compared to the same period in 2019. While the pandemic has not shown signs of being completely overcome and only 3 months left to the end of the year, the number of Sa Pa visitors is unlikely to exceed 1 million at the end of the year.
Along with the decrease in the number of tourists, revenue from tourism also decreased in Sa Pa. It is considered a bumper year for the tourism revenue of over 9,000 billion VND in 2019, this figure is only 2300 billion VND for the first 9 months of 2020. These figures mean that nearly 10,000 workers involved in the tourism and services industry face threats losing their jobs. This means about 7000 people are Kinh and 3000 people are ethnic minorities working in the tourism industry in Sa Pa are vulnerable.
The survey conducted in September 2020 by the Sa Pa’s Department of Culture and Information of Sa Pa shows that the Covid-2019 pandemic has caused 270 tourism business shutdown. In which, 136 homestays had to completely shut down. They are mainly located in 3 places: Cau May (27), Ban Ho (30), Hoang Lien (17) accounting for 50% of the total. Although homestays in Ta Phin and Muong Hoa have not completely closed, the service capacity used is just under 10%. Also, 43 hotels and motels were closed, accounting for 16%, 36 restaurants, account for 13%, were closed and the rest of services such as souvenir sales, herbal baths, transportation have 55 cases closed, accounting for 20%.
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Figure 7: Tourists flows and revenue in Sa Pa from 2015 to 2020
Four tour operators and hotels that have relationships with and often send tourists to visit or stay in the communes of Muong Hoa and Ta Phin are selected to survey the impact of Covid-19 on their business situation including Cuong Huong company, Sa Pa EcoLodge Joint Stock Company, Huong Sen Hotel, and Golden Villa Hotel. According to the companies and hotels, the first 9 months of 2020’s revenue is decreased by 70-95%. All most all the businesses in Sa Pa maintain minimal staffing. For example, one of the above companies only retains 5/20 employees enough to operate in a minimal capacity. A representative of one of the above businesses said: “Our company is at the point of death. We only earned 70 million Dong from the beginning of the year until now compared to 3 billion Dong in the previous year. We will try to maintain our operation, however, if it is still affected by the epidemic, we may have to close”.
The results of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews showed that the Covid-19 and government anti-pandemic programs affect the income of people engaged in tourism activities. According to participants in Muong Hoa and Ta Phin communes, homestays targeting
1,114,000
208,369 250,000 259,370 288,000 320,000
74,667
Revenue Domestic visitors International visitors Total visitors
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foreign tourists lose 100% of their income, while homestays often welcoming domestic tourists gain only 10% compared to the previous year. Other services such as motorbike taxi, the tour guide have also had absolutely no guests since the pandemic began. Businesses providing cultural experiences, agricultural products for the tourism system also had their revenue reduced by up to 90%.
Mr. Tan A L, owner of a homestay expressed: “My family and the other households who are doing homestay business in the village have almost no customers since national social distancing because we mainly welcome international tourists. Domestic visitors do not like to stay in our homestay facilities very much because it does not have a toilet in each room”.
For Muong Hoa and Ta Phin communes, the households participating in the tourism supply chain are as follows:
Table 3: Types of tourism services by sex of ethnic minority households
Commune Homestay
The survey results show that the participation of two sexes in tourism services has been clearly divided as follows: a tour guide and handicraft selling are by women, transportation services (motorbike taxi or taxi), silver carving and knife forging by men. When the Covid-19 epidemic takes place, women lose 100% of their income because the main source of income is from (international) tourists. Knife smithing and silver carving male workers/masters still have
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a temporary income from domestic sales (to local residents and Vietnamese tourists).
Transportation service households can earn some money but very little.
Mr. Chau A S, who is running a taxi service said: “Before the Covid-19, making 10-12 million Dong per month was very easy. Now I hardly touch my car except someone in my neighborhood hires me. I have earned almost nothing in recent months. I also do not want to run a taxi service in the downtown Sa Pa because it is far from home and it costs me some money to drive down there”.
According to data from the Department of Culture and Information of Sa Pa town, H'Mong people had the highest proportion of homestays closed by Covid-19, 45%, followed by the Tay (28%). ), Kinh people (19%), and Dao people (8%). Meanwhile, 43 hotels and motels of Kinh people also closed completely.
The group discussions show that the ethnic differences in homestays which were a closed result from differences in location, service types, market targets rather than the ethnic identity itself. For example, while Kinh people mainly focus on business in restaurants, hotels, travel services, and tour organizers, and they are mainly located in the town center. Ethnic minority groups such as H’Mong, Dao, and Tay mainly take advantage of the residential area and family facilities to provide community tourism services, especially homestays. In Muong Hoa commune, the tourism services are mainly ethnic cultural experiences and homestays attracting foreign tourists. In Ta Phin, the community-based tourism products go along with the Dao ethnic culture such as traditional medical herb bathing experience often attracts domestic customers.
In addition, Covid-19 resilience is also governed by the ability of community resources mobilized in each business. The study shows that, while ethnic minorities mainly take advantage of family facilities and housing to provide homestays and catering services. Many other outside investors, mainly Kinh ethic people, use loans from commercial banks to run their business.
Therefore, when the market fails due to the Covid-19, local businesses still can run at a minimum
Therefore, when the market fails due to the Covid-19, local businesses still can run at a minimum