Awakening tourism potential from local identity

With its large area and diverse terrain, transitioning from hills and mountains to plains, Thanh Son commune, Dong Nai province, offers many advantages for the strong development of an agricultural economy combined with eco-tourism.

The Tich Dien (field-going) festival is a traditional agricultural ritual bearing profound agricultural encouragement significance. Photo: Le Trung

In particular, with its unique geographical position, with one side backed by forested mountains and the other crossed by the La Nga River and the Tri An reservoir, Thanh Son has long been likened to a green "oasis" full of potential in the mountainous region of Dong Nai province.

Creating momentum from festivals and typical products

To make effective use of this strength, in recent years, the Commune People’s Committee has regularly drawn up plans to promote and showcase the locality's historical and cultural relics, while stepping up the introduction of its typical OCOP products (One Commune One Product Program) to visitors from within and outside the province.

The appeal of Thanh Son tourism is tied to the “treasury” of intangible cultural heritage of a community of more than 33.3 thousand people, where over 70% of the population works in agriculture and more than 25% are ethnic minorities. The most notable highlight was on February 24 (the 8th day of the first lunar month), when the Commune People’s Committee organized the Long Tong Festival, or Rice Planting Festival, of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups in Hamlet 8. This occasion is not only a spring festival but also an occasion to preserve the agricultural culture and long-standing cultivation beliefs of local people.

The festival was held solemnly, with rituals such as prayers for a good harvest, the first plowing ceremony, drum-beating to open the festival, and con ball throwing to usher in spring, accompanied by the singing and the lively sound of the tinh lute. Maintaining the festival each year helps Thanh Son commune preserve traditional values and motivates local people to enter a new production season with high hopes for a bumper harvest.

In the locality's development orientation, the Long Tong Festival is identified as an important foundation for Thanh Son commune to promote service and tourism development and attract visitors from near and far. By introducing the image of simple, hospitable people alongside unique cultural values, the locality is opening up many opportunities for investment and cooperation in developing tourism products and typical OCOP products. This undertaking is a key direction toward sustainable development grounded in cultural foundations, helping to improve the material and spiritual lives of ethnic communities here.

Tran Phong Lan, Vice Chairwoman of the Thanh Son Commune People’s Committee, emphasized: “To promote that heritage, in the coming time, the Party committees and local authorities will continue to pay attention to directing and investing in the preservation and restoration of traditional rituals and cultural values. This occasion is an opportunity for successive generations to learn, experience, and preserve the identity of their ethnic groups”.

Promoting and developing community tourism

The most impressive highlight in the series of recent activities of the locality is that the Thanh Son Commune People’s Committee officially announced the Cultural - Tourism Ambassadors for the 2026-2031 term. The two ambassadors are Thay Beo U40, a famous TikToker with a friendly style and strong influence on social media platforms, and Miss Grand Vietnam 2022 runner-up Mai Ngo.

The fact that a mountainous commune proactively invited influential figures in the field of digital content creation as ambassadors is not only a breakthrough step but also shows the innovative and flexible thinking of local leaders in approaching digital technology.

This is considered an important strategy to “rejuvenate” promotional methods, bringing the traditional heritage values of Thanh Son closer to millions of users on platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

Through the lens of tourism ambassadors, the rustic beauty of nature and the distinctive cultural identity of ethnic communities here will be widely spread, thereby stimulating tourism demand from visitors inside and outside the province, especially young people.

In the coming time, the locality will invest in promotion and has selected tourism ambassadors to further promote the Long tong Festival in particular as well as locations that can develop community tourism. The typical dances of the Tay and Nung people will be integrated into promotion as well as community tourism development in the coming time.

Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the Thanh Son Commune People’s Committee Vo Van Trung

In addition, identifying heritage preservation as a key task associated with economic development, Vo Van Trung, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the Thanh Son Commune People’s Committee said: “The preservation of cultural heritage as well as festivals is one of the key tasks of this term. Combined with cultural development, the Commune People’s Committee will link it with community tourism development. Therefore, the Long tong Festival will continue to be maintained and upgraded so that every resident recognizes that this is a festival of the entire commune, not a festival of a single family or a particular community group”.

By Hai Quan, Le Trung - Translated by Diec Quyen, Minho