Tourists choose to buy agricultural products of Son La.

Attractive agricultural tourism experience

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, has become 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: Tea experience tourism at Vinatea Moc Chau Tea Village, Heart-shaped tea hill, Fingerprint tea hill, Moc Suong tea hill; strawberry picking experience at Chimi Farm, Hoa Moc Chau Farm; flower and fruit picking experience at Na Ka plum valley, Mu Nau plum valley; dairy cow care experience at Dairy Farm...

In Mai Son district, the “capital” of Co Noi strawberries with hundreds of hectares of 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, helping to support agriculture in Mai Son to develop further.

Coming to Bac Yen, in addition to hunting for clouds in Ta Xua and experiencing Dinosaur's Back, visitors can also experience the spectacular scenery of Xim Vang in the ripe rice season with more than 300 hectares of terraced fields, or visit the heritage tree complex with more than 200 ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees hundreds of years old. In addition, there are mango growing areas in Yen Chau, Song Ma longan growing areas, rice growing areas in Muong Tac fields, Phu Yen district, and cage fish farming in the Son La hydroelectric reservoir. Along with that are 5 high-tech agricultural areas, export growing areas, and geographical indications. The whole province currently has more than 200 regional endemic agricultural products, 151 OCOP products with 3-5 star standards, which are factors that create more attraction for Son La tourism.

Tourists experience plum picking in Na Ka plum valley, Moc Chau district.

Attracting tourists from agricultural festivals

In recent years, Son La has made its mark with festivals associated with flower and fruit seasons in localities, becoming events throughout the year. This is both an opportunity to promote the province's agricultural products and an opportunity to introduce the potential and strengths of Son La tourism.

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" 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 the coffee growing region.

Many festivals during the fruit ripening season in districts in the province have been maintained for many years, 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 land of sweet bananas and fragrant mangoes in Yen Chau, every June, people flock here to attend the mango festival and experience attractive cultural, artistic and sports activities.

Song Ma district has an annual longan festival associated with vibrant cultural activities and the export of Song Ma longan products. Over 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.

Experience at the vineyard in Moc Chau.

Developing green and sustainable tourism

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.

In 2021, the Provincial People's Committee decided to approve the Project "Planning for the conservation of the typical agricultural ecosystem of Moc Chau district" including tea hills and grasslands in the urban area, developing raw material areas associated with eco-tourism. Tourism promotion and advertising activities also aim at green and sustainable tourism associated with agricultural strengths. Recently, a tourism promotion conference with the theme "Orientation for the development of green and sustainable Moc Chau National Tourist Area" was held within the framework of the Ceremony to announce the decision to recognize Moc Chau National Tourist Area, focusing on discussing solutions to promote green tourism development. At the same time, a commitment was signed between tourism companies and enterprises to strengthen cooperation in tourism development in accordance with the local development orientation.

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".

Article and photos: Thanh Dao