To achieve this result, local authorities and people have implemented many synchronous solutions; focusing on effectively exploiting advantages, welcoming new tourism trends, creating unique products, attracting domestic and foreign tourists.
Farmstay trend is booming
Lao Cai tourism aims to develop in a green and sustainable direction; agriculture is also the strength of the locality with many sub-climates suitable for growing a variety of crops, especially temperate fruit trees and medicinal herbs; developing tourism models combined with agriculture. Recently, the trend of farmstay tourism has flourished in the province.
While homestays provide basic accommodation and dining services, allowing visitors to experience the surrounding landscape, farmstays are a type of accommodation combined with farms, so they are much larger in scale. With farmstays, visitors can directly grow vegetables, fruit trees, or raise fish, livestock, and poultry; then pick vegetables, catch fish, harvest fruits, etc. and use the rustic products they make and harvest to prepare food.
Ta Van Commune, Sa Pa Town is famous as a community tourism village that attracts a large number of tourists, especially foreign tourists. Grasping the tastes and needs of tourists, many families running homestay businesses are gradually developing into farmstay models, taking advantage of available agricultural production areas to provide guests with unforgettable experiences.
Many foreign tourists coming to Ta Van are very excited to wade in the mud, plant rice, herd buffalo, cut grass... Ms. Hoang Hien, owner of Lua homestay, said that at first, her family only intended to open a basic accommodation and food service business with a community cultural space imbued with the Northwest. However, after a period of business, she realized that many tourists, especially foreigners, were excited to experience firsthand the lives of the local people.
According to Ms. Hien, from May, when the rice planting season begins, many foreign groups come here and are ready to wade through the fields to plant rice at the foot of the family's terraced fields. They are very happy and excited even though their hands and feet are covered in mud. In the evening, the whole group gathers to enjoy a warm meal with the locals. In August and September, when the terraced fields in the villages of Sa Pa gradually change from green to golden, tourists can harvest rice, thresh rice, then bathe in the stream and ride buffaloes.
"We want to have such authentic experiences, delving into the daily lives of the people where we go, not just simply coming to take pictures," said Mr. Ricard, a French tourist to Ta Van.
The Phin Ngan Red Dao community house in Bat Xat district, located in the center of Sai Duan village, is where the herbal bath model operates. For the Dao community, the herbal remedies here are truly treasures of the green forest. This is also considered a typical farmstay model because visitors not only get to relax and participate in community activities with the villagers, but also get to follow everyone to pick herbs, go to the fields to hoe the land, sow corn, sow vegetable seeds... Ms. Chao Coi May (head of the House management team) said that many guests are excited to directly join the locals in preparing and enjoying traditional meals, each season has its own dishes, with local products such as: stir-fried wild vegetables with smoked pork, boiled or stir-fried fresh bamboo shoots, sour bamboo shoots cooked in soup, fried stream fish...
With a large forest area, the trend of developing farmstays in the direction of hill forest ecology associated with community tourism activities is growing strongly in Lao Cai. Cinnamon Eco Lodge is located not far from the main road of Xuan Hoa commune, Bao Yen district, but when coming here, visitors feel completely separated from the outside. All around are cinnamon forests. Extremely excited when her family had an experience at Cinnamon Eco Lodge, Ms. Minette (a tourist from France) said that waking up in a quiet house, surrounded by the strong scent of cinnamon brought an extremely pleasant feeling. "The family had an interesting experience when watching people grow cinnamon, chopping cinnamon, peeling cinnamon and cooking attractive dishes from cinnamon," Ms. Minette shared.
The farmstay tourism model is creating dual benefits, contributing to increasing income for people and developing a sustainable environment. To promote agricultural tourism activities, Lao Cai has supported connecting tourists with agricultural and rural tourism destinations; promoting rural tourism through organizing events, introduction forums, farmtrip programs for travel agencies and the media.
Building new tourism products
The Resolution of the Standing Committee of Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee on tourism development to 2030, with a vision to 2050, with specific solutions, has helped the local tourism industry gradually recover and develop. Based on this Resolution, Lao Cai has developed many new products associated with cultural characteristics and national identity. Tourism products have been invested in and built to be increasingly rich and attractive, better meeting the needs of domestic and foreign tourists.
According to information from the Department of Tourism, the total number of visitors to Lao Cai in the first 6 months of 2024 reached over 4.1 million, equal to 48.67% of the 2024 plan and an increase of 9.36% over the same period in 2023. Total revenue from tourists reached about 13,500 billion VND. In particular, Sa Pa town is still a key tourist area of the province, welcoming nearly 2 million visitors in the first 6 months of 2024. In addition, Lao Cai tourism continues to be rated by tourists as an attractive tourist destination. Sa Pa town is in the top 5/7 most popular destinations in the world in 2024 voted by the world's leading online travel platform Tripadvisor.
In recent times, Lao Cai tourism has improved its effectiveness through domestic and international tourism development cooperation and linkage activities such as: Economic corridor cooperation program of 5 provinces and cities of Lao Cai, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh and Yunnan (China); tourism development cooperation program of 8 expanded Northwestern provinces and Ho Chi Minh City; cooperation program with the Nouvelle Aquitaine region (Republic of France).
In 2024, Lao Cai strives to welcome 8.5 million tourists, with revenue reaching over VND 27,000 billion. To achieve this goal, the province focuses on improving the quality of existing products and building new products; striving to become an attractive destination in the northern mountainous region, one of the most attractive tourist destinations in Vietnam. Lao Cai is implementing many new tourism products such as: Project to build a typical tourist destination in Nam Ria village (Hop Thanh commune, Lao Cai city); renovating and embellishing Hoang A Tuong palace (Bac Ha district)...
In the coming time, Lao Cai Department of Tourism will promote communication and promotion activities; organize the Bac Ha White Plateau Festival, the Rose and Love Festival, organize new sports tourism products such as the Triathlon (three events including: running, cycling, swimming) in Bac Ha; launch the product "Sa Pa Brocade and Flowers 2024"; recreate the Sa Pa Love Market; organize the Sa Pa Snow Festival; and the 2024 International Tourism Fair to connect domestic and international tourism markets.
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