The appeal of rural tourism

Experience rural activities

Mr. Truong Giang (tour guide in Chau Doc City) draws on his experience from leading tours to make adjustments for each group. There are groups of about 10 people, with simple requests to cycle around the countryside, see fruit gardens, and randomly stop anywhere along the way. Many times, on the way, guests are interested in stopping to watch farmers harvest fruit, watch ducks running in the fields, see boats on canals, vegetable gardens, and see people making traditional farming tools... Mr. Giang's task is to present so that they can understand more about the life and customs associated with the characteristics of each locality. “I think that tourism that is more local in color, closer to daily life and regional culture, etc., will be more attractive to foreign tourists. They look for unique features that only exist in the locality, not for enjoyment tourism or popular products like artificial structures. Therefore, exploiting and connecting to do tourism in a systematic way will promote rural tourism to have the opportunity to improve in the future,” Giang shared.

In recent times, many forms of tourism have been formed, such as: community tourism, agricultural tourism, ecological tourism, tourism combined with agricultural experiences, homestays... On the one hand, it can increase income, on the other hand, it encourages farmers and traditional production households to preserve their inherent cultural beauty. At certain times, there are individuals with a lot of enthusiasm who volunteer to do it, but overall, it has not been exploited commensurate with its potential. Recently, craft villages, historical sites, temples, establishments, even households producing OCOP products... have also begun to welcome visitors, including tourists and creative groups of artists. Instead of the previous mentality of being afraid and "hiding their profession", establishments and traditional craft villages have changed their mindset, "opened up" to welcome visitors, creating more promotional channels to both sell products and spread traditional images to more people.

People in My Hoa Hung commune (Long Xuyen city) have been doing community tourism for many years. Not only foreign tourists, but also Vietnamese tourists like to experience being a farmer, living in hundred-year-old stilt houses, cooking daily meals together, cycling around the island to watch the peaceful life. Recently, farmers in Ong Ho island have developed a safe vegetable production area, combining a new form of tourism for tourists to participate in caring for and harvesting vegetables and fruits, breathing fresh air, and immersing themselves in the relaxing nature. Following this good practice, some restaurants combined with fruit gardens have expanded their investment and renovated their facilities for tourists to experience the activity of bailing out ditches to catch fish, enjoying country dishes, and "transforming" into farmers in simple traditional Vietnamese costumes and conical hats.

Visit traditional craft villages

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Duoc (collaborator of a tourism company in Ho Chi Minh City) shared: “For us, daily work is quite familiar, but for visitors from far away, everything is new and attractive. Like in many places across the country, Western visitors participating in plowing, harvesting rice, riding a tractor... can become an interesting tour. Thanks to social networks, the next group "imitates" the previous group, proactively ordering content for the journey they want. I also hope that An Giang has many similar tours, which will not stop at "riding a horse to see flowers", going to see for the sake of seeing, but visitors will have more time, have a well-designed, tight schedule to experience the locality, work together, and directly carry out some stages of production".

The current free tourism tours are considered by the people to be "very strange". Because the content that tourists like to explore surprises even the locals. The destinations and experiences not only include monumental monuments and constructions, but also moments of blending in with the lives of farmers. Having agricultural land and loving the simple beauty of their homeland, many people have taken care of their garden space and residence to become ideal places to welcome guests. Things that have been familiar for generations living in the countryside have an attractive appeal to tourists from other provinces, especially foreigners. However, the way of doing and developing this type of rural tourism is currently quite fragmented, spontaneous, the services are still modest, lacking connections... as the insiders themselves have commented. To implement it in the long term, to keep tourists staying longer, it requires green tourism and rural tourism to be focused on, creating a unique impression and building a separate "story" for each destination.

HOAI ANH

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/suc-hut-cua-du-lich-nong-thon-a417561.html