Vietnam is ready to cooperate with the international community to develop rural tourism.

That was the sharing of Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long at the first International Conference on Rural Tourism held in Quang Nam province on December 10.

On December 10, in Quang Nam province, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with the United Nations Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) and the People's Committee of Quang Nam province organized the first International Conference on Rural Tourism.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long speaks at the conference.

This is UN Tourism's first global event on rural tourism.

Attending the conference were Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long, leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee and more than 300 delegates from 50 countries around the world.

At the conference, UN Tourism representatives awarded the certificate "Best Tourist Village 2024" to Tra Que Vegetable Village (Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province).

Tra Que Vegetable Village was established in the 17th century and is famous for its traditional and unique organic vegetable growing method. Currently, Tra Que Village is oriented to combine agricultural development with community tourism activities, attracting the attention of domestic and international tourists.

Tra Que Vegetable Village was honored by the United Nations Tourism Organization as "Best Tourist Village in 2024" based on 9 criteria: Cultural and natural resources; Promotion and conservation of cultural resources; Economic sustainability; Social sustainability; Environmental sustainability; Tourism development and value chain integration; Tourism governance and priorities; Infrastructure and connectivity; Health, security, and safety.

UN Tourism representative awarded the certificate "Best Tourist Village 2024" to Tra Que vegetable village.

According to Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, 70% of Vietnam's population lives in rural areas, which is a land with potential for developing agricultural and rural tourism. Therefore, in the development process, Vietnam's tourism must be based on the relationship between the village community and the country, with the nation.

"To develop sustainably, we must start by investing in indigenous culture, preserving cultural identity, thereby creating unique tourism products that are recognized by the international community," said Minister Nguyen Van Hung.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long said that tourism is an important economic sector, a "smokeless industry", contributing increasingly to the economies of countries and is a development trend of the future.

Most countries in the world are very interested in investing in developing tourism in a green, friendly and sustainable direction. Currently, there are many rich and diverse forms and models of tourism such as cultural tourism, eco-tourism, resort tourism, discovery tourism, medical tourism, etc.; in which, rural tourism is becoming more and more popular and developed.

Tra Que booth at the conference.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, developing rural tourism not only promotes economic transformation, reduces the development gap between rural and urban areas, but also promotes, honors, preserves, enriches, develops and spreads unique local values, contributing to promoting socio-economic development, bringing a better life to people.

In recent times, Vietnam's tourism has received strong investment and development, making an increasingly large contribution to socio-economic development. Accordingly, in the first 11 months of 2024, Vietnam's tourism served more than 100 million domestic visitors and welcomed 16 million international visitors, an increase of 41% over the same period in 2023 and is aiming for the target of 18 million international visitors in 2024.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long added that Vietnam is ready to continue to actively cooperate with the international community and the United Nations Tourism Organization to implement new initiatives and approaches to develop rural tourism under the motto "one village, one product"; "each person is a tourism ambassador", "each locality - one unique tourism product".

According to Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long, the Vietnamese Government always pays attention to, promulgates and implements many mechanisms and policies for rural agricultural development, and includes rural tourism in major development programs.
One of the important orientations is to "develop local specialties, craft villages, develop service economy, and rural tourism on the basis of preserving and promoting local culture".
Currently, many localities in Vietnam have exploited their strengths well, developing a diverse system of rural tourism destinations with many high-quality, unique and attractive tourism products such as Lao Cai, Son La, Lai Chau, Ha Giang, Quang Nam, Thua Thien Hue, Dong Thap, Ben Tre, Can Tho and the Central Highlands provinces...
Among them, many tourist villages have been recognized according to ASEAN criteria. In particular, Tan Hoa village (Quang Binh province), Thai Hai village (Thai Nguyen province) and Tra Que vegetable village (Quang Nam province) were honored as the Best Tourist Villages by the United Nations Tourism Organization.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/viet-nam-san-sang-hop-tac-voi-cong-dong-quoc-te-de-phat-trien-du-lich-nong-thon-192241210172149003.htm