In 2008 Footprint Vietnam Travel took the lead in teaming up with its competitors to promote and develop responsible tourism in Vietnam. With the support of SNV Vietnam in 2010, the Responsible Travel Club (RTC) was formed. The club is involved in a variety of activities and supports its members with knowledge sharing, regular events, skills training, and marketing incentives. Further, the club seeks to gain funds for a number of sustainability projects with local communities and government. With the establishment and growth of the RTC, the country’s tourism private sector looks to be taking a course towards a better form of tourism. Co-owner of Footprint Vietnam Travel and President of the RTC, Son Dang explains that it was a combination of the belief that tourism can be better and market demand that the idea of the club began. Footprint’s concerns for responsible tourism in Vietnam are shared by the RTC’s eight founding members. The club is...

  [video: http://www.vimeo.com/24594769 ] Above is a link to a newly-released video for a Capilano University / PATA Foundation community based tourism project in Vietnam. The project features tourism training to help sustain vulnerable ethnic cultures and maximize benefits of tourism to a small and unique village in Northern Vietnam. Although the video is a promo for an upcoming multi-series documentary it does show some of the challenges tourism has brought to a small village in Northern Viet Nam. The footage was shot on location during a training trip that happened this past March. The video was filmed and produced by Kyle Sandilands. We would love to connect with other projects doing similar things. Please leave a comment or email us at cbtvietnam(at)capilanou.ca....

Here is a Tourist Code of Ethics designed by Canadian and Vietnamese tourism students from Capilano University and Hanoi Open University (HOU). It is hoped that through this interactive Code a band of ethical tourists can be formed who, through their commitment and actions will minimize the harmful effects of tourism and as a growing body of committed travelers, force the Tourism Industry all over the World to change. It is also hope that tourism private sector adopts this code or one similar and presents it to their clients.    Our desire and curiosity to explore is innate and alive in all of us. As we venture out to satisfy this curiosity, we must also recognize that each and every one of us as travelers / tourism professionals has the opportunity to lessen the negative effect associated with tourism and more accurately has the human responsibility to do so. Ergo, we must dutifully endeavor to seek out more ethical...

  In March, Capilano University tourism students joined Hanoi Open University students in a community based tourism training project in the Sa Pa region in Viet Nam. The project, which began in the summer of 2010, is supported by the PATA Foundation. Two ethnic minority villages - Lao Chai and Ta Phin - are participating in specifically designed tourism training.  Training modules are being delivered in a variety of topics including: Homestay development, Community Homestay management, Entrepreneurship and Marketing, Environmental Stewardship, Understanding the Tourist, English, Events Planning and Management, and Tourism Planning. Much of the focus is on village women and youth, however, other community groups / stakeholders, such as local government, are highly involved in the training. The objectives of the project are to see the development of sustainable community based tourism, minimize the harmful impacts of tourism through community based planning and capacity building, and increase quality of...