CBT Management Board in Ta Phin taking great leaps

CBT Management Board meeting

On Wednesday evening, we held our second meeting with the Ta Phin Community-Based Tourism Management Board. The focus of this meeting was to make some decisions at the CBT Management Board level that would be brought to the homestay owners on Thursday morning. The Board worked through a number of issues, and the meeting was very productive.

We covered five key items:

1. Product pricing: The CBT Management Board was working on creating a list of tourism products available through the homestays in Ta Phin, and setting a fixed price for each. This will allow them to market themselves to the tour operators in Sapa and Hanoi more effectively, and be able to sell package tours through the Board. The group generated pricing for each of their products to be presented to the homestay owners for approval.
2. Fee for CBT Management Board: In order for the CBT Management Board to be sustainable, we are concerned that the work is being done on a volunteer basis. The group agreed on a percentage for each product offering that would be allocated to the Board in order to ensure ongoing operations and to contribute to community projects. This percentage will be presented to the homestay owners for approval.
3. Charity donations: In the past, the community had a box for receiving charitable donations from tourists for making improvements in the village, but it was not well managed. However, it generated quite a bit of revenue when it was in use. The Board would like to initiate a process for charitable donations.
4. Quality control: In this type of situation, it is important to have a strong degree of quality control. If a tour operator has a poor experience in one homestay, it negatively impacts every other homestay in the village. The Board discussed how they would manage complaints and also considered the creation of an exit survey to gain a better understanding of tourists’ experience in the village.
5. Regulations for tourists: In order to ensure a quality experience, a set of regulations was drafted for the process off tourists coming to Ta Phin. The possibility of creating a leaflet to share this information was discussed.