A four-day jungle trek where holidaymakers join forest rangers on anti-poaching patrols has become the only Vietnamese finalist in the 2026 International Tourism Awards, run by the British Guild of Travel Writers. The Cat Tien Ranger Patrol, created by Vietnamese adventure operator Oxalis, is up for the Best Wider World Tourism Project award against entries from Brazil and Cameroon. The winner will be announced in London on November 2.
What sets this tour apart is that it's built around a job, not a sightseeing checklist. Groups are capped at just four people, who spend four days and three nights trekking through more than 3,200 hectares of Cat Tien National Park alongside the rangers who protect it. Guests learn to read animal tracks and signs, search for and remove illegal snares, set camera traps to monitor wildlife, and bed down for a night in hammocks at a forest campsite. The price sits at nearly VND40 million — around US$1,500 per person — which reflects both the small group size and where the money goes.
That last part is the core of the project. A share of the tour revenue is channelled directly into conservation work in the park, and the operation creates guiding and visitor-service jobs for communities living around Cat Tien. That matters most in the Ta Lai area, home to Ma, S'tieng and Choro ethnic communities, where tourism income offers an alternative to livelihoods built on extracting resources from the forest.
Cat Tien itself is one of Vietnam's key biodiversity hotspots, straddling Dong Nai and Lam Dong provinces in the country's south. Its tropical forests and wetlands shelter a long list of rare and endangered species, and the park falls within the UNESCO-recognised Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve. Conventional visitors come for gibbon-spotting, cycling and crocodile lakes; this tour swaps passive wildlife-watching for a hands-on look at what protection actually involves.
The British Guild of Travel Writers has run its awards since 1978, with projects nominated by guild members after first-hand experience and finalists chosen by vote. Judging focuses on benefit to destinations — environmental protection, local communities and sustainable tourism — so the Cat Tien nomination signals that Vietnam's tourism scene is producing genuinely conservation-led experiences, not just another beach resort or city tour.
For travellers, this is a rare chance to see a national park from the ranger's side of the trail. It suits fit, outdoorsy visitors who are happy camping rough and want their money to fund something measurable. With only four places per departure and an international award possibly raising demand, booking well ahead is sensible — and anyone attending can follow the London result on November 2.
