Outdoor Tourism and the Changing Cultural Narratives in
Vietnamese Ethnic Minority Communities
A 2-year international action research project funded by The British Academy, bringing together researchers from VinUniversity, Vietnam National University, the University of Cumbria, and collaborators from Hmong, Mường, Giáy, Dao, and Tày communities in Vietnam.
The project explores how outdoor tourism both influences and is influenced by the cultures, perspectives, and lived experiences of ethnic minority communities in Vietnam’s northern mountains. Through this work, we seek to understand and share diverse ways of knowing and being that are often overlooked or overshadowed by dominant cultural narratives. The project is conducted in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair in Vietnam.
Spanning 2.5 years, our achievements include…
700
photo-voice
images
~15K
photos & videos
60+
days of field trips
44
interviews & focus groups
8+
public exhibitions, workshops, talks, presentations
4+
publications
Methodology
This project uses a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to explore the social and environmental impacts of outdoor tourism on ethnic minority communities in northern mountainous regions of Vietnam.
The team employs a narrative-photovoice method, giving local participants cameras to document their everyday experiences and perspectives, which are then discussed in focus groups and developed into collaborative photo montages for exhibitions (see photo gallery).
Our team is working closely with local enterprises, trekking guides, and community members. By combining ethnographic inquiry, visual storytelling, and collaborative analysis, the methodology ensures that community members act as co-researchers, shaping research questions and outcomes as they tell stories from their perspectives.
Research Sites
Mù Cang Chải
Get to know our collaborator.
(Click on photos to see our collaborators' profiles)
Mù Cang Chải, Yên Bái is a “rising” tourist destination. It sees a significant influx of new tourism forms (ethnic-, eco-, adventure-tourism) due to its scenic rice terrace and the local Hmong communities.
Climate change, agricultural alternatings, local cultural erosion, emergence of tourists and tourism infrastructures are accelerating in this 500-hectare land. These acute changes construct and are constructed by the Hmong community, their cultural practices, beliefs, and lived experiences.
Sa Pa
(Click on photos to see our collaborators' profiles)
Sa Pa, Lào Cai is an “established” tourist destination. As a “hill station” during the French colony in the early 19st century, Sa Pa witnessed early arrival of “outsiders” starting with French colonial administrators, Vietnamese (Kinh ethnic) immigrants to modern domestic and international tourists. Today, Sa Pa welcomes millions of tourists and earns thousands of billions VND in revenue annually. Juxtaposing the trekking trails, restaurants, resorts and homestays are the local Hmong, Giáy, Tày and Xa Phó communities who participate in tourism as trekking guides, homestay owners, stage perfomers or vernacular textile artists.
Learn
their stories.
Through photos.
Hòa Bình
(Click on photos to see our collaborators' profiles)
Đà Bắc, Hoà Bình is a community-based tourist destination. Đà Bắc tourism emerged only lately with the community-based tourism model set up by international NGOs and governmental agencies. Hoà Bình lake, well-preserved forests and local cultures attract international tourists seeking “authentic” and “nature” experiences.
The Dao and Mường communities are, for the first time, welcoming foreigners to their villages, earning tourism income, at the same time, experiencing the complications of these social, cultural and material forces to their community traditions and surrounding ecology.