Ha Giang honored as Asia’s leading cultural destination 2024

On the evening of September 3, in Manila, the Philippines, the World Travel Awards 2024 (WTA) Asia and Oceania Awards Ceremony took place with the participation of representatives of organizations, state management agencies, businesses and experts operating in the field of tourism domestically and internationally.

The northern mountainous province of Ha Giang has been honored as Asia’s Leading Regional Cultural Destination 2024 by the World Travel Awards. This is an important category in the WTA awards system, focusing on evaluating related criteria such as cultural preservation and sustainable development of natural resources and natural ecosystems.

Known as the “Oscars of the World Tourism Industry”, the World Travel Awards (WTA) is the world's leading award in the tourism industry, held annually since 1993, to honor outstanding achievements of the tourism industry in all fields. After a period of voting and evaluation by WTA, Ha Giang was honored to be awarded the title “Asia's Leading Regional Cultural Destination in 2024”.  This is a recognition of the province's efforts in building its image and developing sustainably; at the same time, it is also a motivation for Ha Giang to continue to strengthen synchronous implementation solutions, promote the title, achievements, raise the level and affirm the position of the locality on the regional and international tourism map.

As the northernmost borderland of Vietnam, Ha Giang has majestic natural landscapes with many unique values in terms of geology, topography and a mild, cool climate all year round; many unique traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities are still being preserved and promoted. Each ethnic group here has its own unique traditional culture, creating a rich cultural treasure, many heritages are on the list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity and the country, including festivals, folk songs and dances.

Ha Giang is also known for many famous places such as Dong Van Karst Plateau Global Geopark, Ma Pi Leng Pass - one of the "four great mountain passes" of Vietnam, Quan Ba Twin Mountains, Tu San Canyon and Hoang Su Phi terraced fields. These are invaluable assets that the 19 ethnic groups in Ha Giang province, through many generations, have together inherited and preserved to create the cultural features and characteristics of their people, painting a unique and colorful cultural picture, creating a special attraction for tourists.

Fire dancing festival of the Pa Then ethnic group. (Photo: Chu Viet Bac).

Not only attracting tourists with majestic nature, visitors to the province can also immerse themselves in the vast grasslands, get lost in fairy-tale villages such as Lo Lo Chai, Nam Dam or Lung Cam Tren where there are small, pretty houses built in the traditional architectural style of earthen walls, roofed with yin-yang tiles, blending      with the indigenous people with a colorful culture. These are elaborate embroidered costumes made from natural materials by the hands of women, meticulously created  silver jewelry, or enjoying traditional cuisine with the typical flavors of the highland ethnic groups.

According to the Ha Giang provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, with the policy of "using culture to develop tourism, using tourism to preserve and develop culture", over the past time, the province has focused on building a system of highly competitive tourism products to ensure sustainable green tourism development. In particular, Ha Giang's tourism products are exploited year-round, completely overcoming seasonality, spread evenly across three spaces: Northeast, Southwest and central area, in which the main products throughout 12 months of the year are the indigenous cultural values of 19 ethnic groups associated with the model of cultural tourism villages; majestic natural landscapes and geological and geomorphological values.

Previously, Ha Giang was also honored as Asia's Leading Emerging Tourism Destination 2023 by WTA./.