Leveraging existing advantages

The Northwest Vietnam route, with its new destinations in Son La, is becoming a popular choice for many tourists, especially this autumn. To further enhance its appeal, Son La is focusing on developing agricultural and rural tourism. Moc Chau, with over 2,150 hectares of tea plantations, more than 3,000 hectares of vegetables, over 10,400 hectares of fruit trees, and high-tech agricultural production areas, has become an ideal location for tourists to experience agricultural tourism.

Moc Chau District is strengthening its efforts to encourage and support farmers, businesses, and cooperatives in developing service models to promote ecotourism at many well-known tourist destinations, such as: experiential tourism in tea plantations at Vinatea Moc Chau Tea Village, the heart-shaped tea hill, the fingerprint tea hill, and Moc Suong tea hill; strawberry picking experiences at Chimi Farm and Hoa Moc Chau Farm; flower and fruit harvesting experiences in Na Ka plum valley and Mu Nau plum valley; and dairy cow care experiences at Dairy Farm...

The lush green tea hills of Moc Chau plateau, Son La province, attract tourists for sightseeing and experiences during the holidays. Photo: VNA

In Mai Son district, Co Noi, the "strawberry capital," boasts hundreds of hectares of specialized strawberry cultivation each year, attracting numerous tourists from within and outside the province to experience fruit picking. Integrated farms, vineyards, and orange orchards, producing organically and combining with sightseeing and dining services, are being established and developed, further boosting agriculture in Mai Son.

To boost tourism promotion, in recent years, Son La has made its mark with festivals associated with the flower and fruit seasons in various localities, becoming events throughout the year. With over 20,000 hectares, Son La is the largest Arabica coffee growing region in the country. In 2023, the first Son La Provincial Coffee Festival, themed "Son La Arabica - The Flavor of the Northwest Mountains," was a large-scale event with great significance in promoting the Son La coffee brand, and also created a positive effect in promoting Son La tourism, especially experiential and exploratory coffee tourism tours, which have created linkages to support tourism development in the coffee-growing region.

Numerous fruit-harvesting festivals in the districts of Son La province have been maintained and organized recently, becoming impressive highlights on the journey of exploring Son La's land. Typical examples include the Moc Chau district's Plum Harvesting Festival, held since 2014, which has become an annual cultural and tourism event. For the past two 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 the "fairytale land" of Ngoc Chien. In addition, there are the "Golden Harvest Festival" in the mountainous Bac Yen district, the Moc Chau Tea Festival, the Phu Yen Orange Festival, the Mai Son Coffee Festival, etc., which have helped promote and sell Son La's agricultural products and create a double effect in promoting the province's tourism.

In Hanoi, agricultural and rural tourism is also receiving attention from the city, with the development and planning of 17 craft villages linked to tourism. Agricultural tourism destinations in Hanoi have received attention and investment, initially yielding positive results. A prime example is the agricultural tourism model in Giang Bien ward, Long Bien district. The Giang Bien tourism experience offers three tourism products at the Giang Bien clean vegetable farm and garden area: the "A Day as a Farmer" tour, the "Agricultural Semester" tour, and the "Living Green - Living Healthy" tour.

The suburban districts of Hanoi also have many models for exploiting the strengths of agriculture and rural areas. With advantages in natural landscapes, large areas, many local products, and the continued existence of long-standing agricultural villages, they create distinctive agricultural products such as roses and vegetables from Me Linh, various vegetables and guavas from Dong Du (Gia Lam district), and fruit trees such as guava, grapes, apples, pomelo, and oranges in Hoai Duc district…

International tourists enthusiastically experience rice planting at Duong Lam Ancient Village. Photo: VNA.

Localities across the country are also actively promoting tourism development in the direction of green growth. In Central Vietnam, domestic and international tourists also really enjoy experiential tourism products involving 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.

Professor Pham Thi My Dung (Institute of Rural Development Science - Hanoi Union of Science and Technology Associations) affirmed that the rural tourism model not only provides livelihoods for farmers but also contributes to preserving and promoting traditional cultural values ​​and ecological landscapes. Conversely, rural tourism supports the diverse and sustainable development of tourist destinations.

Establish connections with other industries.

Mr. Tran Xuan Viet, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Son La province, said: "The province is focusing on developing unique tourism products associated with the potential and strengths of each locality, forming new tourist tours. We are organizing events to introduce tourism products, cultural products, and especially local specialties that are our strengths to attract tourists. The goal is to strive for a total of 5.2 million tourists visiting Son La by 2025, with revenue from tourism services reaching 5,800 billion VND."

The province has specifically oriented its tourism development towards leveraging its strong agricultural sector. Resolution No. 41/2022/NQ-HĐND dated August 31, 2022, of the Provincial People's Council on policies supporting tourism development in Son La province for the period 2022-2026 outlines four main policy groups: supporting tourism product development, tourism promotion and advertising, human resource development, and community tourism development. These policies encourage, support, and promote the participation of businesses and the people in tourism development, leveraging the strengths of each locality to create unique tourism products.

Developing tourism in conjunction with strong agricultural sectors has proven to be sustainable. In particular, green agriculture, with production methods based on organic farming and VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards, is attracting significant tourist interest. This has led to the creation of eco-tourism and experiential products that are environmentally friendly and protective, helping Son La tourism develop in line with its "green and sustainable" direction.

According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Director of Innovation for the Swiss Tourism for Sustainable Development (ST4SD) project: Currently, rural tourism development projects are being implemented in localities with the aim of creating new tourism products. However, from the perspective of the project implementing unit in agriculture and rural areas, there are significant obstacles with projects that receive investment support from the State budget, especially those built on agricultural land. Some localities, such as Dong Thap and Son La, have shown close attention and provided specific guidance, and these obstacles are gradually being resolved. However, for success, a more coordinated effort from the central government to the local level is needed.

Furthermore, according to tourism experts, the implementation process has resulted in many similar products being copied across different regions, leading to competition among localities. In addition, livelihoods and environmental considerations have not been integrated into community-based tourism development, unlike in some tourist destinations.

Mr. Pham Hai Quynh, Director of the Asian Tourism Development Institute, noted that the current situation of haphazard, unprofessional tourism development that fails to involve the community is a worrying problem. To build and promote the brand of Vietnamese agricultural tourism products, cooperation between relevant sectors and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is needed. Along with that, it is necessary to build a supply chain for high-quality, safe agricultural tourism products. Improving the quality of accommodation to provide tourists with more experiences and interactions with the lives of local people is also crucial. Applying science and technology to agricultural production aims to increase income and product quality.

“First and foremost, we need to prioritize establishing cooperatives, including service groups. We should develop product lines based on unique local products, then leverage community strength to support homestays in perfecting their livelihood development standards. Alongside this, we need to establish a network connecting farmers, producers, and consumers to build trust in trade relations. We also need to train farmers in effective communication,” Mr. Pham Hai Quynh shared.

According to the Vietnam Institute for Tourism Development Research (Vietnam National Tourism Administration), in the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy, ecotourism associated with agriculture and rural areas is one of the five main product lines. Recently, agricultural ecotourism products have contributed to boosting tourist growth with many products showcasing the unique agricultural culture of regions stretching from North to South.

Developing agricultural tourism is identified as a driving force for building sustainable new rural areas, while new rural areas serve as a foundation to support the diverse, high-quality, and stable development of tourist destinations. Effective agricultural tourism development will contribute to achieving two goals simultaneously: developing tourism into a key economic sector and achieving the national goal of building sustainable new rural areas.

Therefore, to develop agricultural and rural tourism, localities need to review their planning, clearly identify their strengths, and develop unique and attractive tourism products specific to each locality. Localities need to strengthen regional linkages to develop distinctive agricultural tourism products. Identifying key, characteristic, and unique products that highlight the strengths of each locality is extremely important.

To leverage the region's strengths, regional coordination is needed in product research and market development. In addition, localities should implement policies to attract private sector investment to develop agricultural tourism in each region, especially high-quality tourism products that simultaneously exploit agricultural value and tourism development; utilize local labor; promote community-based tourism activities; and integrate rural goods and services into tourism consumption projects.

XM/News Report