{"id":14649,"date":"2016-10-17T12:30:19","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T11:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/?p=14649"},"modified":"2016-11-02T18:47:55","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T17:47:55","slug":"how-to-communicate-sustainable-tourism-and-build-trust-interview-with-sapa-ochau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/10\/how-to-communicate-sustainable-tourism-and-build-trust-interview-with-sapa-ochau\/","title":{"rendered":"How to communicate sustainable tourism and build trust: Interview with Sapa O’Chau"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sapa<\/p>\n

S<\/span>apa O\u2019Chau is the first ethnic minority-owned tour operator in Vietnam. Its main activity is providing treks and tours, and also\u00a0runs a caf\u00e9 and handicraft store. The money that is earned with the treks, the\u00a0caf\u00e9 and the handicraft store is reinvested in the community.<\/p>\n

\"Shu
Shu Tan with her daughter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For this interview, which is the third in our\u00a0series talking with all the finalists for this year\u2019s World Responsible Tourism Awards<\/a>, Anula Galewska speaks\u00a0with\u00a0Shu Tan,\u00a0Founder and Director at Sapa O’Chau.<\/p>\n

Anula: How do you communicate your efforts towards sustainable tourism to your guests?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> We had a volunteer, who is a graphic recorder, she helped us put our sustainable tourism\u00a0model on our cafe wall. Our guests can see how their money is being used to support the\u00a0trekking guides, homestay host, high school students, tour staff, handicraft staff and cafe\u00a0staff.<\/p>\n

We also highlight our sustainable tourism efforts on our website<\/a>. We have placed it as the first tab so that our\u00a0guests can recognise that it is our core operating principle. All our trekking guides are our ambassadors of sustainable tourism, some of them went\u00a0through their training program with Sapa O\u2019Chau.<\/p>\n

We highlight our sustainable tourism approach on our Facebook page. We had the\u00a0privilege of a volunteer who is doing his post-graduate studies on social impact\u00a0assessment. He helped us to assess our social impact for 2015. We only share this\u00a0assessment with our donors and only snippets on our social media pages. There is a\u00a0copycat business in Sapa that always copies information and uses them as their own publicity\u00a0materials. Hence we have to take precautionary measures to prevent our information from\u00a0being misused to their advantage.<\/p>\n

\"Sapa<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anula: What\u2019s your biggest challenge in communicating sustainability?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> The biggest challenge is when our trekking guests are price sensitive. Supporting\u00a0sustainability is the last thing on their mind when deciding to book their tour with us. Regardless of how much community work we do and how fair our wages are, these group\u00a0of people only see our tour prices as overpriced. Many of our trekking guests also have no\u00a0regard for the cost already spent on arranging their treks when the weather turns bad. They\u00a0will\u00a0demand a full refund or write bad reviews on Trip Advisor.<\/p>\n

Anula: How do you engage the local community in what you do?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> Sapa O’Chau is fully ethnic minority owned and run for the improvement of the ethnic\u00a0minority communities. Thus it has full board level commitment to local ethnic minority\u00a0community issues. We strive to provide opportunities for ethnic minority families to lift\u00a0themselves out of the poverty cycle. Policies for community engagement are\u00a0embedded\u00a0across the organisation. Our trekking guides, office staff, cafe staff, handicraft staff, board\u00a0of directors and students are our ambassadors of empowerment. They are our living proof\u00a0of how their lives and their families\u2019 lives improve in standard of living.<\/p>\n

\"sapa-ochau-handicraft\"Our handicraft\u00a0department also sources materials from local supply chains so that they will continue the art\u00a0of making them. We engage the community by encouraging high school youth to continue education. Our\u00a0boarding facility supports 35 high school students yearly. We also provide scholarships to\u00a0support 10 ethnic minority youth tertiary education. Sapa O\u2019Chau is pleased to announce\u00a0that all 21 of our grade 12 students 2015\/2016 batch graduated successfully. Our Founder\u00a0and Director Ms Shu Tan also graduated grade 12.<\/p>\n

14 managed to get into\u00a0university\/college. 12 are also being supported by our scholarships in addition to the 10 we\u00a0support from last year. This year we will increase our student intake to 40 students. We plan to take in students in\u00a0batches after carefully interviewing the teachers about their family condition and capability\u00a0to study. Sapa O\u2019Chau rented a residential building opposite our main boarding facility. The rental is about USD400 per month.<\/p>\n

In the months of August to October, Sapa O\u2019Chau\u00a0partners with Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to provide\u00a0accommodation and classroom facility support for 25 youth to be trained as tour guides. MOLISA will provide the trainers. The tour guide students pay for their own food expenses\u00a0that Sapa O\u2019Chau cooks for them.<\/p>\n

Our social enterprise business provides sustainable careers for 48 ethnic minority staff out\u00a0of a total of 52 staff. We maintain a sense of place and cultural heritage by preserving our unique\u00a0cultural identity and ensuring that tourism activities do not disrupt the lives of communities\u00a0or dirty the environment. Each trekking group is kept small, no more than 6 people.<\/p>\n

“People nowadays do not pay attention to advertisements, advertisements have become an annoyance. We grow our fans by attracting people who\u00a0are passionate to our cause.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We made\u00a0significant investment in creating and maintaining community projects. Sapa\u00a0O’Chau started the cooperative in 2011. It invested in building the first Black Hmong\u00a0homestay in Lao Chai Village, Sapa. In 2013, Sapa O’Chau obtained its international tour\u00a0operator license having earned the deposit USD12,000 required for it. It is the first ethnic\u00a0minority owned tour operator in Vietnam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We insisted on setting up a handicraft department although the market is already flooded\u00a0with handicraft products. The rationale is that these handicrafts out in the market are not\u00a0authentic handmade ones or are second hand goods. We hope that by setting up a\u00a0handicraft business to sell quality handicrafts, we can preserve the art of making them. The craftwomen will continue to make the handicrafts as they see value in them. They will\u00a0also pass on the art to the next generation. We hope to set an example to street touts who\u00a0are increasingly using their young children to sell on the streets that what they are doing is\u00a0not sustainable.<\/p>\n

\"sapa-ochau-school\"<\/p>\n

Anula: How do you engage your suppliers in what you do?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> We are the main supplier of our services. We have small partnerships with suppliers like\u00a0Halong Bay cruises, transport partners, tour partners from other countries that like our\u00a0social enterprise model, etc.<\/p>\n

Anula: What is unique or innovative about your marketing and communication approach?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> We mainly use Facebook marketing and other social media pages like Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and You Tube. uch\u00a0marketing is effective in reaching out to our\u00a0fans with information about\u00a0our community efforts. Furthermore, many people are referred to us by our\u00a0fans.<\/p>\n

TripAdvisor is also effective in reaching out to potential guests, though there are\u00a0many challenges. For example hundreds of our five star\u00a0reviews get deleted because they are multiday reviews inclusive of homestays; or we have\u00a0fake\/unfair negative reviews which are written by disgruntled guests or competitors. We\u00a0subject ourselves to reviews by Lonely Planet, World Travel and Tourism Council and\u00a0World Responsible Tourism Awards judges. This earns us accreditation as well as publicity.<\/p>\n

Anula: What have you learned\u00a0about marketing so far, what works and what doesn\u2019t?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> Facebook marketing works the best. Our fans follow our developments and they refer their\u00a0friends to us. Our friend referral network after 3 years of operation is very big, estimated by\u00a0randomly surveying guests on how they found out about us. Many said their friends\u00a0recommended them to us. We never paid for any advertising and it works better than those\u00a0who paid for advertising. People nowadays do not pay attention to advertisements, advertisements have become an annoyance. We grow our fans by attracting people who\u00a0are passionate to our cause. This is the surest way to retain and grow fans.<\/p>\n

\"sapa-ochau-food\"<\/p>\n

Anula: What motivated you to apply for World Responsible Tourism Awards?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> We want to be accredited by third parties so that we know we are moving in the right direction of\u00a0assessing our social impact; and also to learn from similar organisations. This helps to\u00a0increase our visibility to potential guests who do not know which tour operator to trust when\u00a0everyone claims to be socially responsible.<\/p>\n

Anula: What expectations do you have if you win?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Shu:<\/strong> We expect to increase our visibility to potential guests so that we can support more needy\u00a0students. We can also receive affirmation that our social impact assessment is done\u00a0comprehensively and will continue to document our work.<\/p>\n