As a poor mountainous district of Yen Bai province, in recent years Mu Cang Chai district has made outstanding efforts to develop community tourism, becoming a favorite destination. Ethnic minority women have made particularly important contributions to this process.

Mu Cang Chai district is home to many ethnic minorities, of which the Mong people account for more than 90% of the population. The Mong people have the habit of settling in mountainous areas from 800 - 1500m high with many unique cultural features.

Therefore, in addition to the majestic natural scenery and golden terraced fields in the ripe rice season, Mu Cang Chai cultural tourism has also become an attraction for many tourists.

In recent years, the Women's Union of Mu Cang Chai district has organized many programs for women to escape poverty through many forms of commodity-oriented agricultural economic development, community-based tourism associated with preserving the cultural identities of ethnic groups. Thanks to that, many women have become the breadwinners of their families.

For example, Ms. Giang Thi Gu's family (in La Pan Tan commune, Mu Cang Chai district) know how to develop household economy in association with homestay services.

For the past 2 years, the number of visitors to La Pan Tan commune has increased. Therefore, during the peak tourist season from September to the end of the year, Ms. Gu's family's 18 homestay rooms are always full.

Tourists often book rooms and food services in advance. Normally, Ms. Gu will prepare and serve tourists dishes with traditional flavors of the Mong people.

In addition, Ms. Gu also introduced the culture of the Mong people such as Khen dance, flower dance, bamboo dance... making visitors extremely excited.

Not only attending training classes held by the village authorities and commune women's association on how to build a sustainable tourism model, Ms. Gu also attended training sessions on capacity building of ethnic minority women and gender equality to be clearly aware of the role and responsibilities towards the family and society.

According to Ms. Sung Thi My, Chair of the Women's Union of Mu Cang Chai district, to help local women develop their family economy, the association has advised the district People's Committee on development programs for women.

Thereby, the association creates conditions for women to access capital sources from the Bank for Social Policies to have capital to develop production and increase income. Many good local economic models have been born and tourism products have been launched.

In particular, in the process of socio-economic development, members of the local women’s union always pay attention to preserving and promoting national cultural identity. Because this is the resource, the core for sustainable development.

To achieve the set goals, the District Women's Union has regularly propagated and proposed plans to preserve the values of Mong people's folk songs and folk dances, traditional costumes, and forming art troupes for village women.

When tourists come to Mu Cang Chai, these troups perform for tourists to earn extra income. Therefore, members are very excited to participate in the troupes.

After 2 years of developing a project to build Mu Cang Chai district into a tourist district in the period 2021 - 2025, gradually bringing the district out of poverty by 2030, up to now, Mu Cang Chai tourism activities are increasingly attractive, with varius form of tourism, such as experiential, adventure, and relaxation tourism associated with learning about national culture.

Mu Cang Chai tourism has created the image of a "Green - Unique - Safe - Friendly Destination", with the tourist growth rate of 131.7%/year, revenue from tourism up by 2.7 times compared to 2020.

The district has 10 products achieving provincial level OCOP, including 2 products with 4-star standards, 8 products with 3-star standards and 4 products with traceability labels posted on the e-commerce platform. The number of workers participating in the tourism sector has increased significantly.

To achieve the above results, women have contributed significantly by implementing production and business models that provide stable income. Ethnic minority women have increasingly contributed to the goal of hunger eradication and poverty reduction, building new rural areas, gradually improving and enhancing the quality of material and spiritual life of local people.