Green tourism in heritage craft villages of Quang Nam

Unexpected things in the best tourist village

Tra Que Vegetable Village was honored as the Best Tourist Village in 2024 by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism). The village on the Co Co River has long been known as a green destination that attracts visitors.

Western visitors coming here are fascinated by the rustic and strange experiences, feeling and enjoying the fresh countryside flavor that cannot be found anywhere else, all senses are awakened to feel and enjoy.

Quang Nam has determined to choose Hoi An as a pilot city in the direction of placing cultural industry as one of the highlights for sustainable development.

Tony, 54 years old, a tourist from the US, was constantly amazed while experiencing Tra Que with the group. He walked slowly, breathing in the fresh air, listening to the tour guide introduce the 400-year-old ancient village with its specialty of hand-cultivated herbs. The aroma is a unique specialty of Tra Que vegetable village, the gentle scent emanating from the tiny stems of herbs.

Groups of tourists stroll along the small roads, flanked by green vegetable patches. They stay longer in the garden to experience, eagerly and excitedly digging the soil to plant vegetables with the farmers in the village. The vegetables here are famous for their distinctive aroma, grown by the local people's manual farming method, completely without the use of pesticides. Visitors walk and inhale the gentle aroma of the tiny herbs planted in long, straight rows, the farmers diligently tending each row of vegetables, not forgetting to give visitors a gentle smile.

The group of guests were excited to be guided to experience carrying water and planting vegetables. It was strange and exciting when they put the two baskets full of water that had just been drawn from the well dug in the middle of the field on their shoulders. Following the instructions, Tony walked slowly, leaning his shoulders to water the vegetable ditches on both sides. The act of turning around to water the vegetables made the whole group laugh and cheer.

“Very interesting, I love the small village, the clean vegetable beds and the gentle and hard-working farmers here. A wonderful village, I will definitely come back here with my friends,” he shared.

A tour guide said that Western tourists especially like villages like Tra Que, because of the green space, fresh air and the excitement of the experience of being a farmer. For international tourists, their trip prioritizes experience over luxury. They are willing to spend money to grow clean vegetables like in Tra Que, to drain water, plow the fields, and plant rice...

Ordinary villages become livable villages

Villages along the Thu Bon River such as Tra Que vegetable village, Kim Bong carpentry village, Thanh Ha pottery village, Cu Lao Cham island commune… are becoming search keywords for tourists coming to Quang Nam.

According to published data, Hoi An welcomed more than 4.4 million visitors in 2024. Notably, the number of visitors buying tickets to visit craft villages increased, such as Thanh Ha pottery village, Tra Que vegetable village, Bay Mau coconut forest, and Kim carpentry village. The number of tickets sold at craft villages all exceeded the set plan and increased compared to the same period in 2023.

Tra Que Vegetable Village - the best tourist village attracts visitors with its simple, rustic things

According to Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Nam province Nguyen Thanh Hong, the world cultural heritage of Hoi An has the advantage of being a convergence of more than 50 traditional crafts, many of which are included in the list of national intangible heritages. Hoi An also has many unique folk performances such as singing Ba Trao, Ho Khoan, Sac Bua, Ho Hat Bai Choi, folk songs, Tuong art; historical - cultural and revolutionary tradition exhibition areas, specialized museums, etc.

Hoi An knows how to harmoniously combine intangible cultural values ​​in the community, craft villages, traditional arts and culture to enrich the spiritual life of the people, while creating unique tourism products in this "water-human meeting" place. In particular, connecting the ancient town heritage with the Hoi An - Cu Lao Cham World Biosphere Reserve and the cultural space of the countryside and craft villages has created unique and attractive products.

“These are the highlights of investment in creating and building indigenous cultural and tourism products with cultural qualities, both preserving and serving the needs of the people, contributing to creating momentum for tourism economic development. Hoi An is becoming the leading locality of Quang Nam province in mobilizing cultural resources and cultural creation for the process of sustainable urban development,” Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hong shared.

Quang Nam chose Hoi An as a pilot city in the direction of placing cultural industry as one of the highlights for sustainable development. In particular, the focus is on building and developing Hoi An in the direction of an ecological - cultural - tourist city by 2030. Connecting a diverse and widespread "heritage ecosystem"; preserving and developing the urban area according to the "City - Village" structure model; ensuring long-term values ​​to meet the needs of sustainable development, continuing to play the role of a center for cultural exchange, foreign affairs, an event - festival city, an attractive destination of the world...

In recent times, Quang Nam has paid attention to and focused on planning tourism development in the province, especially in Hoi An city; creating a number of mechanisms and policies to attract investors to develop entertainment services to support the tourism industry.

In Hoi An, a number of cultural-tourism products have been formed and gradually affirmed their brands, attracting many domestic and international tourists such as the live performance show "Hoi An Memories", the plays "A O Show", "Tedar", "Morning Dew", community tourism of Tan Thanh Fishing Village, Firewood Village, Thanh Ha Terracotta Park .... contributing to the development of the night economy, creating entertainment services, strongly promoting the cultural industry.

At the first International Conference on Rural Tourism of the United Nations Tourism Organization held in Quang Nam in December 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long emphasized that rural areas possess a variety of unique cultural and natural heritages with many distinct values. These are beautiful natural landscapes, traditional cultures and unique local communities. These are valuable resources that provide unique experiential values, contributing to attracting tourists.

On the contrary, tourism has contributed significantly to changing the face of many rural areas, turning many rural areas with limited development conditions into "livable countrysides". Rural tourism not only promotes socio-economic development, shifts the rural economic structure but also preserves the values ​​of landscape, ecology, environment, and beautiful traditional cultural identity.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/du-lich-xanh-o-lang-nghe-di-san-xu-quang-post1711303.tpo