Exploiting cultural elements to develop tourism both preserves traditional cultural identity and spreads values to elevate public income. The key issue involves determining how to exploit traditional cultural identity, what tourism products to build, and how to introduce and promote them so tourists know and visit to experience. Practical reality over recent years shows Điện Biên selected several ethnic minority villages to develop into cultural tourism and community-based tourism villages, as 8 Mường Thanh basin villages were selected as cultural tourism villages in 2003 yet operated sluggishly for many years afterward.

Later, several ethnic minority villages in other areas across the province sought tourism development directions by visiting and learning models and methods from other localities, yet tourism development remained mainly small-scale and fragmented by individual households without concentration, orientation, or master planning.

Clearly identifying potential and advantages in tourism development, the 15th provincial Party Congress Resolution set targets to turn tourism into a spearhead economic sector, leading party committees and local authorities at all levels to attend to developing tourism sustainably and competitively based on three pillars: historical - spiritual tourism; ethnic cultural identity and natural landscape discovery tourism; and resort, entertainment, and healthcare tourism.

From that orientation, localities selected villages possessing traditional culture and distinct natural landscapes to develop community-based tourism, ensuring that when cultural heritage and natural landscapes connect strategically with community-based tourism, ethnic minority groups gain opportunities to master livelihoods, achieve sustainable poverty reduction, and develop deeply while preserving traditional cultural identity.

From the above orientation, several representative villages of Thái, Mông, and Hà Nhì ethnic groups were constructed into centers for preserving, promoting, and introducing traditional cultural values, cuisine, and distinct community-based tourism spots. To enhance impressions on tourists, the province selected and invested in constructing 7 representative community-based tourism villages, leading Nà Sự village in Mường Chà commune, A Pa Chải village in Sín Thầu commune, Phiêng Lơi village in Điện Biên Phủ ward, Quan Chiêng village in Mường Lay ward, Lồng village in Quài Tở commune, Che Căn village in Mường Phăng commune, and Huổi Nhả village in Mường Pồn commune to develop community-based tourism synchronously and sustainably linked to preserving ethnic traditional cultural identity, with each village attached to specific living habits and culture of each ethnic group, representing villages that developed community-based tourism models whose tourist attraction, product creation, and destination promotion remained lacking in distinctiveness.

Most ethnic residents engage in tourism spontaneously without much knowledge of constructing tourism services, communication skills or attitudes, or measures guaranteeing tourist safety. For community-based tourism to become a livelihood for sustainable poverty reduction, ethnic residents require training and hands-on guidance to build and preserve cultural identity. When a village is designated as a tourism spot, residing villagers join hands to clean homes, sweep village roads, create clean landscapes, and preserve customs, habits, and traditional crafts.

Villagers run homestays right inside traditional stilt houses, preserving culture through brocade weaving, festival activities, folk art performances featuring Xòe dances, Sạp dances, panpipe sounds, and Tính lutes while tourists experience and savor local native cuisine. Everyday living tasks, when attended to and executed collectively, build destinations attracting tourists to sightsee, experience, and explore culture, awakening traditional culture and heritage through community-based tourism models to create livelihoods where products created by villagers preserve culture while delivering additional income.

To develop sustainable tourism from culture requires building unique and novel products that entice tourists to experience and generate income sources. Beyond orientations and support from party committees and local authorities, ethnic minority villagers themselves carry responsibilities to conserve and preserve traditional culture and intangible cultural heritage, which stands as the true potential to develop tourism and build public livelihoods.