Agricultural tourism - potential and expectations of Nghe An

Tourists visit the tea island in Thanh An commune (Thanh Chuong). Photo: Dinh Ha

Effective models

Pioneering in developing agricultural tourism in Nghe An, we can mention the clean vegetable farm and sunflower field of TH Group in Nghia Dan. This model has become famous not only in the province but also attracts tourists from many provinces and cities in the country and foreign tourists.

Mr. Ngo Huy Han - Chief of Office of TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company said: At first, the unit planted sunflowers to contribute significantly to helping cows produce more milk and create delicious flavor. However, the unexpected effect was when it attracted a large number of tourists. Up to now, tourism services from the flower fields have also attracted tens of thousands of visitors, bringing many services, creating jobs, income and at the same time, creating opportunities to consume local agricultural products such as guava, apples, oranges of local farmers.

Thanh Chuong tea island is also an effective agricultural tourism model in recent years. Currently, Thanh An commune has more than 200 households growing tea with over 400 hectares. Previously, people here grew tea around the lake area to harvest fresh buds with an average yield of 13 tons/ha. But for the past 4 years, in addition to income from tea products, people have also had additional income from tourism activities when many tourists come to visit the tea island. Many households have invested, pooled capital to open wharves, bought boats to serve tourists visiting the tea island with an average price of 30,000 VND/person, not including food and accommodation services.

According to Mr. Trinh Van Nha - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee, currently, the Traffic Construction Corporation 4 (Cienco 4) has established the project "Cau Cau mixed-use tourism, service and resort area in the tea island area". The area surveyed by the contractor to implement the project is 382.47 hectares, of which about 94 hectares of Cau Cau lake surface. This is also the location that JICA (Japan) chose to survey and highly appreciated the tourism potential associated with the exploitation and development of products from tea trees...

In addition to the above points, Nghe An province has also seen the emergence of many effective agricultural tourism models such as Pha Ecological Orange Garden (Con Cuong), Ky Yen Orange Garden (Quy Hop), Nghia Dan Buckwheat Flower Garden...

Orange gardens in Thanh Chuong district have potential for developing agricultural tourism. Photo: Phu Huong

Potential direction

In addition to other specific tourism products, in recent years Nghe An is aiming to exploit the potential to develop agricultural tourism as a new direction. Exploiting the available agricultural resources to create new products for tourism will be a solution to help farms and gardeners increase income, diversify products, create attraction for tourism and promote the province's agricultural products.

Nghe An has many potential agricultural cultivation areas, many models that can be directed towards developing agricultural tourism such as Van Phan fish sauce processing area (Dien Chau), Quynh Di fish sauce (Hoang Mai), Vinh Thanh herbal rice field (Yen Thanh), Hai Giang traditional fish sauce craft village (Cua Lo), the model of growing medicinal plants of Solanum procumbens in Con Cuong district; Nghi An commune ornamental plant village, clean vegetable model of Dong Vinh cooperative and Vinh Xuan hamlet, Hung Dong commune (Vinh city)...

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Manh Loi - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Tourism, there are still many difficulties in developing this type of tourism. Traffic infrastructure is still inadequate. The source of trained agricultural labor is limited, not meeting the needs of high-tech agricultural development and the needs of tourists. Facilities at agricultural production models are not adequate and not standardized to serve tourism; product display areas, parking areas, reception areas, toilets do not meet the required standards, ... experience activities, explanations at tourist attractions are still limited. In addition to some spontaneous models, since the end of 2015, when the Provincial People's Committee and JICA Vietnam signed a memorandum of support on Diversifying livelihoods based on heritage tourism in agricultural and fishing villages, agricultural tourism has received much attention and mention.

Currently, with the support of JICA, the Department of Tourism has coordinated with Con Cuong district to build a pilot model of agricultural tourism at Pha orange garden, attracting many domestic and international visitors to visit, experience and buy orange products. In addition, JICA supports consulting on processing other agricultural products such as tea, tapioca starch, turmeric starch, etc., which are trusted by locals and tourists. In early 2018, the Department of Tourism developed a plan to survey and evaluate production facilities to select agricultural tourism models in the province.

“We support the construction of models and provide guidance on how to arrange tours, welcome and bring visitors to experience the models. Based on the evaluation of effectiveness, we will focus on building a program to develop agricultural tourism. At the same time, we will invite consultants and learn from the model, thereby improving the skills of localities and farming households doing tourism,” Mr. Nguyen Manh Loi shared.