If you want to temporarily escape the hustle and bustle of urban life to enjoy the fresh, quiet space in the countryside, looking for interesting experiences about life, farming work and indigenous culture, then farmstay is a great choice for tourists. This is considered a potential direction in developing agricultural and rural tourism, but it needs a suitable legal corridor to operate effectively and in accordance with regulations.
Farmstay, also known as "farm accommodation", "farm resort"... can be simply understood as a form of tourism associated with agricultural farms, which provide accommodation, food and beverage services, along with activities such as: Entertainment, experiencing production, processing, harvesting, shopping for agricultural products directly at the farm... Farmstay has appeared in the world since the 80s of the last century, but in the past 10 years it has only taken shape in Vietnam and has increasingly developed strongly, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, when the trend of green, sustainable tourism, close to nature has received special attention from tourists.
As an agricultural country with a long tradition of production labor, rich climate and soil conditions, suitable for cultivating a variety of crops and livestock, along with unique cultural values formed in association with the agricultural production process, Vietnam is considered a country possessing invaluable resources for developing agricultural tourism, including farmstay. This is also a tourism model with a wide market segment, meeting the experience needs of both children and adults, especially family groups, international tourists, etc.
According to experts, developing the farmstay tourism model not only helps diversify tourism products, but also helps promote local consumption, increase revenue from agricultural production, create more jobs, preserve agricultural heritage and promote local culture. In recent times, the farmstay model has flourished quite strongly in provinces and cities of our country, such as: Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Hoa Binh, Son La, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Lam Dong, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Dong Thap, An Giang... Many farmstays have become destinations attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists.
However, in reality, the development of farmstay in our country raises many problems. In the Summary Report on the task of "Assessing the current status of farmstay development in Vietnam and policy recommendations", the expert group of the Institute for Tourism Development Research (Vietnam National Administration of Tourism) said: Developing tourism associated with agriculture and rural areas is one of the major policies and orientations of our country, expressed throughout many documents of the Party and documents of the Government.
However, regarding the issue of farmstay development, Vietnam still does not have specific regulations and guidelines, while this is a specific and interdisciplinary type of business, regulated and adjusted by many different legal documents in many different sectors and fields. This makes many localities confused and have difficulties in management, both in encouraging farmstay development as well as handling violations of this type of business.
Experts say that the potential for farmstay development in many localities in Vietnam is huge, but not all of them are planned in commercial and service land areas. In many localities, land planned for commercial and service purposes does not have the potential to develop farmstays, while land with the potential to develop farmstays is not planned for commercial and service land. Adjusting and converting land use purposes to develop farmstays has a significant impact on local planning.
Recently, there has been a situation where some investors have taken advantage of farmstay business to speculate on agricultural land, illegally do real estate business, changing the nature, scale and purpose of agricultural land use. In addition, many spontaneous farmstays also pose many security and safety risks for tourists during their visits and experiences...
Therefore, to promote the development of farmstay in Vietnam to ensure efficiency and compliance with regulations, the important issue is to review, amend, supplement and perfect the legal framework on farmstay, especially focusing on planning to maximize the potential of this model, ensuring sustainable development and benefits for both the local community and tourists. The State needs to have policies to support capital, infrastructure construction, tourism technical facilities as well as disseminate management experience and knowledge to people for this new business model, such as agricultural cultivation techniques, tourism communication skills, etc.
In addition, the tourism industry needs to develop a set of criteria for agricultural and rural tourism destinations, criteria for farmstays associated with the program of building a new model rural area to guide localities in investing in building and organizing spaces for agricultural and rural tourism destinations, farmstay destinations to meet the requirements of exploiting typical values. The tourism industry also needs to coordinate with the agricultural industry to develop documents guiding the process of serving some basic tourism services at farmstay locations, and organize training programs for people serving tourism.
Experts note that if farmstay models are to be unique and different, special attention should be paid to exploiting and promoting local cultural values, such as guiding tourists to experience traditional farming methods, learn how to cook local dishes, participate in traditional ceremonies and festivals, etc. In designing and constructing farmstay facilities, it is necessary to maintain or even restore the traditional architecture of the area.
Developing farmstays in the right direction and according to regulations will create many advantages in developing tourism products with local cultural characteristics and colors, enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism.
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