The tourism development cooperation program between 08 provinces of the Central Highlands and Ho Chi Minh City, signed in November 2020, includes Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Ha Giang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Implementing the Program, the provinces have strengthened tourism promotion and communication activities to attract tourists to the region, effectively promoting the implementation of cooperation contents and activities; thanks to that, tourism products linked between the provinces on the "Northwest Arc" route have been of interest to many travel businesses in the region and the whole country to build tours, introduce to tourists, and become tourism products chosen by many tourists in their journey to explore the Northwest.

As a member province of the program for cooperating in developing tourism in 08 provinces of the Northwest and Ho Chi Minh City, Son La Province has actively participated in the activities; the cooperative program in developing tourism has repeatedly received the attention and close direction of the People's Committee of Son La through the issuance of an implementation plan, allocating funds according to the province's actual conditions and directing the organization and participation in usual activities to achieve progress and effectiveness.

Tourism promotion and digital transformation applications activities have been innovated and promoted. In the first 06 months of the year, Son La Province has advised on organizing many cultural, tourism, promotion, and trade events in the province as well as in provinces and cities across the country; the activities are rich, diverse, rich in the cultural identity of ethnic groups, leaving many good impressions, continuing to spread the image of the people, land and tourism of Son La, beautiful and hospitable in the hearts of each citizen, domestic and international tourists, contributing to creating high efficiency in promoting and promoting tourism in Son La province in particular, the provinces of the Central Highlands and Ho Chi Minh City in general, promoting tourism growth by the common development cooperation agreement.

At the same time, continue to support, perfect, and improve the quality of tourism products associated with promoting cultural identity, natural landscapes, and local agricultural products at tourist destinations and villages, developing typical tourism products of the province such as community tourism, eco-resort tourism, agricultural tourism, etc. researching the development orientation of adventure tourism products in potential localities, continuing to affirm the tourism brand for Moc Chau National Tourist Area.

The development of typical tourism products of the province is focused, developing a plan to survey and investigate tourism resources to specify the tasks in detail in several articles of the Law on Tourism on the investigation, assessment, and classification of tourism resources; At the same time, aiming to form a tourism resource database system to serve the management, planning, development of tourism products, and development of tourist areas and destinations nationwide, which focuses on implementing a plan to survey and evaluate potential to build and develop Trekking and Hiking tourism products in Son La province in 2025.

Continue to invest in upgrading and renewing tourism products at tourist destinations: Moc Chau National Tourist Area, Son La Hydropower Reservoir Area; continue to implement the program "Supporting the strengthening of destination management in Son La province - Implementation phase" under the GREAT 2 Son La project; orienting districts, towns and cities to develop tourism products associated with national cultural identity and local products; directing to continue effectively implementing the Rural Tourism Development Program in the construction of new rural areas from 2021 to 2025 approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 922/QD-TTg dated August 2, 2022 on approving the Rural Tourism Development Program in the construction of new rural areas from 2021 to 2025, maintaining 74 communes meeting new rural standards, 08 communes meeting advanced new rural standards, 03 tourism products meeting 4-star OCOP standards: Ngoc Chien community tourism site, Muong La district; Pha Din Top tourist site, Thuan Chau district; Dai Yem Waterfall eco-tourism area, Moc Chau town.

By investing in and upgrading specific tourism products and continuing to develop new tourism products based on strengths, differences, and competitiveness in the market and promoting the exploitation of tourism products linking provinces and cooperative groups such as coordinating to develop a Plan and survey program and a Workshop on building and promoting trekking and hiking tourism products in the Northwest region. In the first 6 months of 2025, Son La province has implemented coordinated activities to promote, introduce and link the consumption of OCOP products and typical products of Son La province to domestic and international localities such as: Cooperating with Vietnam Airlines to bring up, promote and supply Son La strawberries and Hau plums on the airline's flights; coordinating to organize the Week of agricultural products and safe food of Son La province in Hanoi, Hai Phong city... and at events and exhibitions organized by ministries, central branches and provinces and cities.

In parallel, Son La province regularly coordinates with the cooperation group to update the above information and maintain hosting, manage the Son La Tourism Information Website (dulich.sonla.gov.vn), and decentralize Son La tourism on the Tourism Information Website of 8 Northwestern provinces (dulichtaybac.vn, expanded tourism fan page of 8 Northwestern provinces. At the same time, promote Son La tourism on social networking platforms such as Zalo, YouTube, Facebook, etc., organize booths to participate in promotional activities such as Vietnam International Tourism Fair - VITM Hanoi 2025; 21st Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival in 2025; "Colors of Tourism of the Ancestral Land - Phu Tho" event in 2025; Ban Flower Festival in 2025 and the 8th Dien Bien Province Ethnic Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival.

To enhance cooperation activities and tourism development for travel agencies, restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions between the two provinces of Son La and Phu Tho, the Son La Tourism Association in coordination with the Phu Tho Tourism Association organized a seminar on tourism development cooperation with the theme "Linking - Cooperation to Develop Tourism in Phu Tho - Son La" in Moc Chau town. Through the cooperation and development program, delegates from the two provinces exchanged and shared experiences in developing members and attracting members to participate in association activities; experiences in developing and managing tourism services and community tourism; policies to attract investment and create conditions for businesses to invest in tourism services; experiences in organizing events at the provincial, district and commune levels to attract tourists; communication and promotion of domestic and international tourism; linking tours and routes, creating a tourism connection chain between Phu Tho and Son La, exchanging visitors between the two provinces.

                                                                                                                    Nhu Thuy

Translated by Tuan Minh Dang