Connecting OCOP products with tourism development is a direction that contributes to positioning destinations, increasing experiences for tourists, promoting, boosting consumption, increasing value for OCOP products, and developing the economy for localities in Phu Tho.
Foreigners learn about Long Coc Tea products at the Heritage Tea Party - Taste of the Ancestral Land held in Hanoi.
Potential market for consuming OCOP products
At the Conference "Connecting OCOP product consumption" organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade at the end of 2023, a representative of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism emphasized that the domestic and international tourist markets have great potential for consuming OCOP products. Accordingly, hundreds of millions of domestic and international visitors coming and going, circulating through provinces and cities every year is a large market for consuming agricultural products, especially OCOP products.
In reality, the advantage of the tourism industry is that consumers come to the markets that provide the products themselves. Goods do not need to be exported abroad or transported to localities; instead, customers from other places proactively come to the region to experience and shop. If local OCOP products are not only purely commercial, but also have cultural elements and indigenous knowledge, they will certainly create a great spread, stimulating both tourism and agriculture, bringing high economic development value to localities.
Phu Tho is a province with diverse natural conditions, possessing many advantages to develop agricultural and rural economy as well as develop OCOP products. After a period of active implementation, by the end of 2023, the whole province had 237 OCOP products ranked 3 stars or higher with 161 participating entities. In which, mainly products belong to the food, beverage and handicraft groups with 1 product ranked 5 stars, 54 products ranked 4 stars and 182 products ranked 3 stars. Due to the rapid increase in the number of OCOP products, it is necessary to promote trade promotion and advertising.
Above all, the province has great potential for tourism development, welcoming millions of tourists each year. A simple calculation, just the number of these tourists buying OCOP products has brought about very high consumption efficiency. Moreover, tourism is an effective channel for promoting and introducing OCOP products. Through tourism activities and tourists, these products will spread to many places.
On the other hand, OCOP products are the source and promote the unique values to attract tourists to the locality. Therefore, connecting the consumption of OCOP products with tourism, turning OCOP products into tourism products is one of the promising directions, bringing positive results.
For example, at the Hung Temple Festival and the Cultural - Tourism Week of the Ancestral Land in the year of Giap Thin 2024, the Phu Tho Trade and OCOP Products Fair 2024 is identified as one of the important contents of the event. The fair is organized with a scale of over 350 booths, including more than 100 exhibition booths displaying and introducing OCOP products, typical rural industrial products of the province. The fair has created conditions for visitors to visit Hung Temple to access, choose and purchase quality local OCOP products at reasonable prices, contributing to product consumption and stimulating consumption.
Or with this way of introduction and promotion, in the first 6 months of the year, a series of typical OCOP products of the province were present at the province's booths within the framework of the Vietnamese Tet Festival 2024, the Ban Flower Festival 2024, the 1st Ha Giang International Culture, Tourism and Cuisine Festival 2024; Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival 2024, Vietnam International Tourism Fair - VITM Ha Noi 2024, Hanoi Tourism Festival 2024... along with many forums for linking, developing regional tourism, conferences promoting tourism inside and outside the province.
In particular, at the Heritage Tea Party - Taste of the Ancestral Land event organized by the Provincial People's Committee within the framework of the 11th Asia-Pacific International Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference held in Hanoi, many OCOP products and typical products of the Ancestral Land were introduced to delegates and guests from all over the world. Many products were then included in the "gift bags" of international delegates when they returned home.
Visitors learn about OCOP products of Thanh Thuy district at the Phu Tho OCOP Products and Trade Fair 2024.
Opening the way to the tourism market
However, as mentioned above, the advantage of tourism is that consumers come to the markets that provide products to experience and buy specialties, so focusing on developing a system of booths, display points, introducing and selling typical OCOP products of localities in the area, especially near or in tourist areas, is a necessary direction.
As at Ngoc Xanh Island Tourist Area, one of the famous tourist destinations of Thanh Thuy district, regularly welcoming domestic and foreign tourists to visit and relax on weekends and holidays, the OCOP product display and introduction point has been located right at the gate of the tourist area with a team of staff on duty 24/7 to serve tourists visiting and shopping.
Up to now, OCOP products here have contributed to creating a special highlight of the tourist area. At the same time, with guaranteed quality, beautiful designs, reasonable prices, the products have created peace of mind and trust, contributing to solving the problem of finding local specialties to buy as gifts for tourists.
Ms. Vu Thanh Xuan - Head of the OCOP product display and introduction point at the Ngoc Xanh Island Tourist Area said: “Our booth sells many OCOP products of the province and district. In particular, the whole district currently has 17 products recognized as 3-star OCOP or higher, all of which are available on the shelves. Because of the convenient location, the consumption of products here is very good, especially typical products such as Bo village sauce, Thanh Son sour meat, Maika Matcha tea, Sencha green tea...”.
Up to now, there are 15 points of sale and introduction of OCOP products in the province, including: Viet Tri city 3 points, Tam Nong district 3 points, Tan Son district 2 points, other districts 1 point. These locations are located in convenient, prime locations, spacious spaces, located in the center of the city, district, town. This not only helps consumers easily access the products, but also acts as a bridge, a tourist connection point contributing to promoting and widely introducing the advantageous agricultural products of each region and locality.
In addition to the above product sales and introduction points, the Provincial Tourism Information and Promotion Center has selected locations with a large number of tourists to support the construction of display and sale points for OCOP products of that locality such as Hung Lo Communal House (Viet Tri City), Au Co Temple (Ha Hoa District), Xuan Son National Park (Tan Son District)...
At these locations, the Center has mobilized and encouraged people to bring their typical agricultural products and potential local products to sell, achieving very positive results, becoming the favorite choice of tourists such as: Thanh Son sour meat, Dat To banh chung, Cam Khe cassava vegetables, Cao Xa soy sauce, Xuan Son five-color sticky rice, Phu Ninh cassava cakes, Tan Son salted chicken, Long Coc tea, Purple Bud tea, Hoai Trung tea...
Currently, the Provincial Tourism Information and Promotion Center has been promoting the integration of visits and experiences at craft villages into tours and tourist routes when promoting and introducing to travel agencies, aiming to guide tourists to learn about the production process of the product, creating trust and promoting local consumption because the products are the evidence for the discoveries and experiences of tourists. This model is bringing about clear results for OCOP products such as: Hung Lo rice noodles, Thanh Son sour meat, Long Coc sweet soup, Dat To banh chung...
Bringing OCOP products into tourism activities is one of the solutions to create output for agricultural products, while promoting tourism development. However, stronger cooperation and connection between the tourism industry and OCOP subjects is needed, when OCOP products are not only a commodity, but also a factor creating a driving force for harmonious development between culture, tourism and agriculture.
Phuong Thuy
Source: https://baophutho.vn/kich-cau-san-pham-ocop-gan-voi-du-lich-216667.htm
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