FIDR started the tourism project in 2012, in order to activate an area where the Catu ethnic minority people live by ensuring both the improvement of people’s livelihood and the conservation of local resources. In March, 2016, when the project nearly came to be accomplished, we heard great news from Catu villages.

“11 groups of 170 customers will visit us within a month!”

The customers who joined the tour were from several countries like France, Japan, Germany and the United States.

There are currently two types of Catu one-day tour. One is called “Catu Festival Tour” which is for the group with more than six people. This tour will visit several villages during the tour. The other one is “Catu Village Walking Tour.” It is for the smaller group with less than five people, and they visit one village and spend plenty of time there.

Catu people have discussed on the improvements after every tour by themselves. They always observe and share the customers’ feedback and how to improve the tour program. Then, they try new activities and make the tours better than before. It is surprising to see how they apply the improvements.

When Catu people received the feedback from the customer saying, “It would be better if we could have more experiencing type of attractions,” then Catu people brought an attraction in at lunch time, “Traditional Catu’s Food Preparation”, at the next tour. They are encouraged by the atmosphere that participants enjoy the tour, so that they can make it better and better.

In addition, the tourism cooperative with 254 members was organized and recognized by Quang Nam Province in November, 2015. It is the second cooperative after the weaving cooperative recognized in 2011, which was formed as the weaving group in 2008 and became the first cooperative in the area run by ethnic minority people.

Catu people have been able to experience how to run the tours in the past four years. Since each member can take a leadership now, they are going to start a new chapter to run the tour by themselves.