Pârley stream attracts a large number of visitors
Right next to Highway 49, near the headquarter of the People's Committee of Hong Ha (A Luoi), the billboard introducing the eco-tourism Pârley streammade many touristscurious.The day when we arrived, despite the bad weather, there were still a lot of cars and motorbikes at the parking lots. It was about 10 minutes from the stop, following the path in the middle of the majesticforest, the Pârley stream would appear in front of the visitors. The stream ofclear water looked like a soft white ribbon winding around the mossy rocks. Mr. Phuoc An, a visitorfrom Hue city coming here for the first time, said that the Pârley stream had still remained its wildness, the most interesting point when coming here.
Mr. Le Van Hoi, Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Hong Ha commune, said that although it had been in operation since 2016, the Pârley stream attracted a lot of visitors. Just from March to August 2016, this tourist destination attracted over 19 thousand visitors; including more than 3,000 visitors from other provinces. International visitors also started to come here. The revenue was more than VND 900 million (including incomes from car keeping service; rental services of huts and life jackets; food, drinks and tickets).The tourist area also created jobs for many local people.Ms. Tran Thi Lem, a member of the tourism team, said that members' income was about VND 2 million/month, which was fine for the standard of living here.
Hong Ha has been also developing homestay tourism services to keep visitors staying.This is a type of "green tourism"; instead of a hotel or motel, visitors will choose to stay at local people’s houses and be able to experience the way of life and culture of the indigenous people. In order to meet this criterion, the local authority had experimentally built the accommodation based onthe traditional Guol house model, with wood, bamboo, neohouzeaua, palm leaf... At this place, visitors can experience the cultural space of the local people such as campfires, drinking booh wine, enjoyingthemselves with the Da da dance and the folk art. The cuisine from mountains and forests is also the thing that you shouldn’t miss, with typical dishes such as Lam rice, grilled hill-chicken, cassava soup ...
In addition, the commune also has many other tourist attractionsfor tourists to explore such as visiting the sacred stone column A Doi, exploring the nature at the reservoir areaof Huong Dien hydropower plant, visiting the villages, experiencingthe typical weaving occupation of ethnic minorities…
In order to diversifytourism types and attract more visitors, Mr. Hoi said that the commune had collaborated with tourism companies to promote, build short and longstay tours for visitors to visit the scenic sites and experience the life of ethnic people.
“Hong Ha commune has started the construction of a 2-hectare homestay area located at the stop before entering the Pârley streamto serve visitors and the floating routes on Cat Toom bay, Am Bat (ecotourism area of Pârley) so that visitorscan travel more conveniently,” Mr. Hoi said.
Hong Ha has been gradually improving the quality and professionalizing its tourism services. The local authority has also been cooperating with Hue friendship organizations to improve professional skills of 12 members from the tour team, establish a folk art group with 12 members, culinary team with 4 members, weaving team with 5 members and receptionist, tour guide team with 4 members.
Hong Ha tourism is completely able tobecome a destination attracting many visitors. However, at present not so many people know Hong Ha ecological tourism brand. Just with the information of "Pârley stream - Hong Ha homestay" on Facebook is not enough, Hong Ha tourism needs to find the way to promote its brand, image and to aim at building better services.
Story and photo: Minh Nguyen