Exploit existing advantages
The Northwest route with new destinations in Son La is being chosen by many tourists, especially this fall. To create more attraction, Son La is choosing to develop agricultural and rural tourism. In particular, Moc Chau with more than 2,150 hectares of tea, more than 3,000 hectares of vegetables, over 10,400 hectares of fruit trees, along with high-tech production areas... becomes an ideal place for tourists to experience agricultural tourism.
Moc Chau district has increased encouragement and support for farmers, businesses, and cooperatives to build service models to develop eco-tourism with many locations known to tourists, such as: Experience tea tourism at Vinatea Moc Chau Tea Village, heart-shaped tea hill, fingerprint tea hill, Moc Suong tea hill; experience strawberry picking at Chimi Farm, Hoa Moc Chau Farm; experience flower season, fruit picking season at Na Ka plum valley, Mu Nau plum valley; experience taking care of dairy cows at Dairy Farm...
Green tea hills in Moc Chau plateau, Son La province attract tourists to visit and experience during the holidays. Photo: VNA
In Mai Son district, the “capital” of Co Noi strawberries with hundreds of hectares of specialized strawberry growing areas planted each year, is an attractive place attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists to experience fruit picking. Comprehensive farms, vineyards, orange gardens, organic production combined with sightseeing and dining services... are being formed and developed, supporting agriculture in Mai Son to develop further.
To promote and promote tourism, in recent years, Son La has made its mark with festivals associated with flower and fruit seasons in localities, becoming events throughout the year. With more than 20,000 hectares, Son La is the largest Arabica coffee growing region in the country. In 2023, the Son La Coffee Festival was held for the first time with the theme "Arabica Son La - Taste of the Northwest Mountains and Forests" which is a large-scale event and has great significance in promoting the Son La coffee brand, while also creating a good effect to promote Son La tourism, especially the experience and discovery of coffee tours that have created a connection to support tourism development in coffee growing areas.
Many festivals during the fruit ripening season in districts in the province have been maintained recently, becoming impressive highlights on the journey of tourism to explore the land of Son La. A typical example is the Plum Picking Festival in Moc Chau district, which has been maintained since 2014, becoming an annual cultural and tourism event of the district. In the past 2 years, Muong La district has maintained the organization of the Hawthorn Flower Festival, creating an event that attracts a large number of tourists to experience tourism in the "fairyland" of Ngoc Chien. In addition, there are also the "Golden Season Festival" in the mountainous district of Bac Yen, Moc Chau Tea Festival, Orange Festival (Phu Yen); Coffee Festival (Mai Son) ... which have been helping to promote and consume Son La agricultural products and create a double effect of promoting tourism in the province.
Right in Hanoi, agricultural and rural tourism is also of interest to the city when building and planning to develop 17 craft villages associated with tourism. Agricultural tourism destinations in Hanoi have received attention and investment, initially bringing positive results. A typical example is the agricultural tourism model in Giang Bien ward, Long Bien district. Experience Giang Bien tourism tour with 3 tourism products at Giang Bien farm - clean vegetable garden. These are the tour program "A day as a farmer", "Agricultural semester", "Green living - healthy living" tour.
The suburban districts of Hanoi also have many models exploiting the strengths of agriculture and rural areas. With the advantage of natural landscape, large area, many local products and the existence of long-standing agricultural villages, creating typical agricultural products such as roses, vegetables of Me Linh, vegetables, Dong Du guava (Gia Lam district), fruit trees such as guava, grapes, apples, grapefruit, oranges in Hoai Duc district...
International visitors are excited to experience rice planting activities at Duong Lam Ancient Village. Photo: VNA
Localities across the country are also actively promoting tourism development towards green growth. In the Central region, domestic and international tourists also love tourism products experiencing agricultural activities in Hoi An (Quang Nam): Tra Que vegetable village, Thanh Ha pottery village, An My vegetable village, Cu Lao Cham fishing village, Cam Nam corn village, etc.
Prof. Dr. Pham Thi My Dung (Institute of Rural Development Sciences - Hanoi Union of Science and Technology Associations) affirmed that the rural tourism model not only brings livelihoods to farmers but also contributes to preserving and promoting traditional cultural values, ecological landscapes and environments. On the contrary, rural tourism supports the diverse and sustainable development of tourist destinations.
Create industry connections
Mr. Tran Xuan Viet, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Son La province, said: The province focuses on building specific types of tourism products associated with the potential and strengths of each locality, forming new tours. Organizing events to introduce tourism products, cultural products and especially local products to attract tourists. The goal is to strive for a total of 5.2 million tourists to Son La by 2025. Revenue from tourism services will reach 5,800 billion VND.
Developing tourism associated with agricultural strengths is specifically oriented by our province. Resolution No. 41/2022/NQ-HDND dated August 31, 2022 of the Provincial People's Council on stipulating a number of policies to support tourism development in Son La province in the period of 2022-2026 has proposed 4 groups of policies, including: Supporting tourism product development, promoting tourism, supporting human resource development and supporting community tourism development. The policy has encouraged, supported, and promoted businesses and people to participate in tourism development, promoting the strengths of each locality to form typical tourism products.
Developing tourism associated with agricultural strengths has shown sustainable effectiveness. Especially green agriculture with organic production methods, VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards is a factor attracting the attention of tourists. From there, eco-tourism products - experiences, friendly and environmentally friendly are formed, helping Son La tourism develop in the right direction of "green and sustainable".
According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Innovation Director of the Swiss Tourism for Sustainable Development (ST4SD) project: Currently, rural tourism development projects are being implemented in localities with the orientation of creating new tourism products. However, from the perspective of the project implementation unit on agriculture and rural areas, it shows that there are currently many difficulties with projects with investment support from the State budget, especially construction on agricultural land. Some localities have paid close attention and given specific instructions such as in Dong Thap, Son La... these difficulties are also being gradually resolved. However, to be successful, there needs to be more synchronous participation from the Central to the local level.
In addition, according to tourism experts, during the implementation process, many products were copied from different regions, causing competition between localities. In addition, livelihoods and the environment have not been included in community tourism development as in some tourist destinations.
Mr. Pham Hai Quynh, Director of the Asian Tourism Development Institute, said that the situation of haphazard, unprofessional tourism development without community participation is a worrying problem. To build and promote the brand of Vietnam's agricultural tourism products, cooperation between relevant sectors and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is needed. Along with that, building a supply chain of high-quality agricultural tourism products, ensuring safety. Improving the quality of accommodation so that tourists can have more experiences and interact with the lives of local people. Applying science and technology to agricultural production to increase income value and product quality.
“First of all, it is necessary to prioritize the establishment of cooperatives, including service groups. Build product lines based on unique local products, then use community strength to support homestays to complete livelihood development standards. Along with that, establish a network connecting farmers, producers and consumers to create trust in trade relations. Train farmers to know how to communicate,” Mr. Pham Hai Quynh shared.
According to the Vietnam Institute for Tourism Development Research (National Tourism Administration), in the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy, the orientation of ecotourism associated with agriculture and rural areas is one of the five main product lines. Recently, agricultural ecotourism products have contributed to promoting tourist growth with many products bearing the characteristics of agricultural culture of regions stretching from North to South.
Developing agricultural tourism is identified as a driving force to promote sustainable new rural development, while new rural areas are the foundation to support the diverse, quality and stable development of tourist destinations. Effective development of agricultural tourism will contribute to simultaneously achieving two goals: developing tourism into a key economic sector and achieving the national goal of sustainable new rural development.
Therefore, to develop agricultural and rural tourism, localities need to review planning, clearly identify strengths to develop specific and attractive tourism products of each locality. Localities need to promote regional connectivity to develop specific agricultural tourism products. Identifying key, unique, distinctive and highlight products of each locality is extremely important.
To promote the strengths of the region, there needs to be a general coordination of the region in product research and market exploitation. In addition, localities implement a number of policies to attract investment from the private sector to develop agricultural tourism in each region, especially high-quality tourism products, exploiting agricultural values and developing tourism at the same time; using local labor; community-based tourism activities; projects to produce goods and services in rural areas for tourism consumption.
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