In Vietnam, homestay is becoming more popular tendency. A local family run this business can be found throughout Vietnam, from mountainous to the central highlands, or even in the big cities such as Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An.
It does not only provide the tourists the accommodation and meals, but the real vision of Vietnamese living also. A young visitor from United States stayed with a local family in the mountainous of north east shared his view.” It is so amazing to spend my time with them. I can witness the rawness of Vietnam throughout their meals, daily stories and daily routines.”
It is said that homestay has appeared in Vietnam in the early of 1990. For local people, this model has brought a reasonable income to improve their life. As they just live and act as they do, it is really an ideal tourism model. Mr Minh – a famer offering this service in Ninh Binh province added “Without asking much investment, our family did not hesitate to do homestay. And it has helped us get more chance to improve our life.”
However some tourism experts showed their concern about the lack of rawness because most of homestay units are expanding like the small hotels. An illustration of expanding is Mr Minh – he is going to build 12 rooms to receive much more visitors during peak season. When widening, if local people are well-trained, the service is certainly the same. However, almost providers of this tourism model are local without training. It is really big concern. Seeing the prospect of homestay development in tourism, the ESRT program has committed to bring some useful training for local people. The aim of ESRT program is to preserve the special aspects of Vietnamese culture under professional training.
