UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) has now completed its fifth selection of the world’s best tourism villages, and Vietnam’s presence among the chosen speaks to something deeper than mere tourism appeal. Five Vietnamese villages now hold this distinction—a testament to the country’s capacity to preserve what matters while welcoming those who wish to witness it.

The “Best Tourism Villages” initiative, launched in 2021, represents something more significant than a typical travel accolade. It emerges from the Tourism for Rural Development Programme, a UN initiative designed to recognise and support rural destinations that demonstrate genuine commitment to sustainability, cultural preservation, and community well-being.

The selection process demands more than beauty or charm. An independent advisory board of global experts evaluates candidates across multiple criteria: cultural and natural resources, preservation and promotion of those resources, economic, social, and environmental sustainability, tourism value chain development and linkages, governance and prioritisation of tourism, infrastructure and connectivity, health, safety, and security.

To date, the programme has recognised 236 villages worldwide, building a network of destinations that demonstrate how tourism can enhance local livelihoods while maintaining the authenticity and natural beauty of rural communities. In 2026, the network has expanded to include 319 rural destinations, with 230 villages already recognised and 83 participating in the Upgrade Programme—receiving technical assistance to strengthen their tourism strategies.

For 2026, each UN Tourism member state may nominate up to eight villages for consideration. Vietnam’s five existing honourees now await potential companions in the 2026 selection, with applications open until June 9, 2026, and results to be announced in the third quarter.

Where the earth flavours the nation

Twenty minutes from Hội An’s ancient streets, Trà Quế occupies a sliver of land between the Đế Võng River and the sea. Its forty hectares have supplied vegetables to central Vietnam for centuries, the soil enriched by seaweed harvested from the lagoon that borders the village.

What distinguishes Trà Quế is not merely the quality of its produce—though chefs across Vietnam will testify that its herbs possess aroma unmatched elsewhere—but the integration of cultivation with hospitality. Visitors arrive not as spectators but as participants. They plant, they harvest, they cook. The knowledge accumulated across generations transfers through touch and taste rather than pamphlets and presentations.

The village’s recognition by UN Tourism acknowledges what gastronomes have long understood: that flavour originates in place, and that preserving agricultural tradition is preserving culture itself.

Where the Tày people welcome the world

In the hills of northern Thái Nguyên, Thái Hải preserves more than architecture. It preserves a way of being. Established as an ecological reserve for the Tày ethnic minority, the village encompasses 60 stilt houses arranged according to traditional principles, surrounded by forests and lakes that provide both sustenance and sanctuary.

The village operates as a living community rather than a performative reconstruction. Residents continue their daily routines—weaving, farming, celebrating—while welcoming visitors who arrive with respect and curiosity. Homestays offer genuine immersion: sleeping beneath roofs that have sheltered generations, eating meals prepared from ingredients grown within sight of the table.

UN Tourism recognised Thái Hải not for its facilities but for its fidelity. The village demonstrates that cultural preservation and tourism development need not conflict—that the former can fund the latter, and the latter can validate the former.

Where the Nùng maintain their inheritance

In the northern province of Lạng Sơn, Quỳnh Sơn represents a different model of community tourism. The village, inhabited primarily by the Nùng ethnic group, has organised itself collectively to ensure that tourism benefits all residents rather than concentrating advantage among a few.

The hundred-year-old houses preserve architectural traditions that have largely disappeared elsewhere. The brocade weaving continues techniques transmitted across centuries. The traditional festivals proceed according to calendars older than memory.

Visitors to Quỳnh Sơn encounter not a curated experience but a lived reality. They stay in homes where life continues its rhythms. They eat meals prepared for family rather than for customers. They witness, if they are attentive, how tradition adapts to survive—changing just enough to continue, remaining just enough to matter.

Where the stone plateau holds its people

Perhaps Vietnam’s most dramatically situated recognised village, Lô Lô Chải nestles at the foot of Rồng Mountain in the Đồng Văn Karst Plateau Geopark, a UNESCO Global Geopark. The village, home to approximately 50 households of the Lô Lô ethnic minority, presents an image that has drawn photographers from across the world: earthen-walled houses with yin-yang tile roofs, their dark tones contrasting with the limestone cliffs that rise behind them.

The Lô Lô maintain traditions that distinguish them from neighbouring groups. Their language, their costumes—particularly the elaborate headdresses worn by women—their festivals and rituals all preserve distinctiveness within Vietnam’s ethnic mosaic. Visitors who arrive with patience may witness ceremonies that outsiders rarely observe, shared because trust has been earned rather than because performance has been arranged.

The village’s recognition by UN Tourism has catalyzed remarkable interest. Major airlines including Vietnam Airlines, VietJet, Bamboo Airways, Qatar Airways, and Emirates have added flights to accommodate travellers seeking this once-remote destination. The surge demonstrates how international recognition can transform accessibility without, if carefully managed, transforming character.

Where resilience meets welcome

In Quảng Trị province, a landscape marked by historical hardship, Tân Hóa demonstrates how tourism can restore not merely economies but spirits. The village, situated in a valley frequently flooded during rainy season, transformed challenge into opportunity by developing “floating homestays”—houses that rise with waters, welcoming visitors even as the river rises.

The model originated from necessity and evolved into attraction. Visitors arrive not despite the flooding but because of it—to experience a community that has learned to live with water, that welcomes nature’s cycles rather than resisting them. The karst mountains surrounding the valley provide hiking opportunities; the caves shelter both history and adventure; the local cuisine draws from ingredients that flourish only in this specific microclimate.

UN Tourism recognised Tân Hóa for demonstrating that rural tourism can emerge from constraint rather than abundance—that limitation, properly approached, becomes distinction.

As of March 2026, UN Tourism has opened applications for the sixth edition of the Best Tourism Villages award. Member states may nominate up to eight villages, with submissions evaluated by the independent advisory board against the established criteria.

For Vietnamese villages considering participation, the pathway requires submission to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism by May 25, 2026, which will select eight candidates for forwarding to UN Tourism. The final announcement will occur during the third quarter at a UN Tourism event, where the newest members of this global network will be revealed.

The programme has grown exponentially since its launch, with more than 1,000 villages from over 100 countries having applied across its history. The network now spans Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, providing platforms for peer learning, capacity building, and sharing best practices across regions.

The designation carries weight beyond prestige. Recognised villages gain international visibility through promotion at UN Tourism events. They join a network of peer destinations sharing knowledge and experience. They receive support in strengthening their tourism strategies and sustainability efforts.

For travellers, the recognition serves as curation—an assurance that villages bearing this designation have been evaluated by experts and found worthy. The traveller who visits a UN Tourism Best Village arrives not with uncertainty but with confidence: this place has been chosen because it deserves attention.

Yet beneath the practical benefits lies something less measurable but more profound. The Best Tourism Villages initiative represents a shift in how the world values rural places. For centuries, villages were understood as sources—of food, of labour, of population for cities. They were departure points, not destinations. They were where one came from, not where one went.

UN Tourism’s recognition inverts this understanding. Villages become destinations precisely because they remain villages—because they preserve what cities have surrendered, because they maintain rhythms that urban life has abandoned, because they offer contact with realities that modernity has mediated into abstraction.

The five Vietnamese villages now honoured—Trà Quế, Thái Hải, Quỳnh Sơn, Lô Lô Chải, Tân Hóa—represent different regions, different ethnicities, different models of tourism development. Yet they share what the recognition seeks: authenticity preserved, communities engaged, sustainability pursued. They demonstrate that Vietnam’s rural heritage is not merely relic but resource—not past to be mourned but present to be shared.