Agricultural tourism 'holds back' tourists

Back to nature

Going into the forest to cut bamboo and join the artisans in making beautiful products is an idea for tourists that Mr. Thai Dang Tien, Director of Tra Lan Cooperative, Con Cuong, is nurturing and plans to implement in the near future.

“The bamboo forest, Con Cuong is immense and green. Being guided, meticulously hand-carrying each knife stroke and each carving, and especially holding the products you made yourself, even if they are not really beautiful, will still be wonderful experiences for me.”touristsfrom other lands,” Mr. Tien shared.

Making handicrafts with artisans is an interesting experience for tourists when coming to agricultural and craft village tourism. Photo: PV

Established just 2 years ago, currently, each year Tra Lan Cooperative, Con Cuong produces about 1,000 bamboo handicraft products, with 10 sets of products with a variety of types from tea trays, market baskets, flower vases... sophisticated and beautiful, mainly consumed at tourist destinations. He is currently preparing to build an areaexperienceIn the bamboo forest, at the end of this year, will welcome students from local schools to work, visit and experience, to open up to welcome tourists in the near future.

Handicraft villages in Con Cuong - potential for developing agricultural tourism. Photo: Phu Huong

As a mountainous district, Con Cuong has a lot of potential to develop eco-tourism and agriculture, with famous orange products and many attractive traditional occupations such as brocade, bamboo and rattan weaving, production of leaf-fermented wine, purple sticky rice, rice wine, medicinal herbs, etc.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hung, Secretary of the Con Cuong District Party Committee, said: "If exploited properly, in addition to revenue from products, people will have a significant additional income from tourism exploitation. Currently, the district is focusing on calling on businesses to coordinate with the district to invest in building infrastructure; orienting, encouraging and creating conditions for people to develop eco-tourism and agricultural models; especially promoting propaganda and promotion so that tourists know about Con Cuong".

Originally a high-tech production area for agricultural and forestry production, this place has all kinds of timber trees, fruit trees and vegetables, combined with model farming of some animal species such as peacocks, sheep, ostriches, deer; along with artificial swimming pools, homestays, in recent years, Eo Gio has become a name searched a lot on social networks and is a favorite destination for many tourists.

Tourists have interesting experiences at Eo Gio Eco-tourism Area, Nam Dan District. Photo: character's fb

Not only Eo Gio, recently, in Nam Dan district there have been many models.ecotourismi, agriculture is becoming more and more known, such as Cua Ong Eco-tourism Area (Nam Nghia), Thung Pheo (Nam Anh), Que Bac Lotus Cooperative with 9 types of lotus products... From ineffective rice growing areas, brilliant lotus ponds have sprung up, attracting tourists to take photos and check in.

Taking photos with lotus flowers at Que Bac lotus cooperative, Nam Dan. Photo: character's fb

Mr. Nguyen Van Duong, Head of the District Culture Department, said: The district continues to mobilize households with conditions, especially those living in the hilly areas along the Thien Nhan and Dai Hue mountain ranges, to develop eco-tourism and agriculture.

Nam Dan has the advantage of a lot of garden land, suitable for growing fruit trees that can be further developed for processing, attracting tourists such as Nam Kim lemon, Nam Anh persimmon, especially the famous soy sauce processing village.

Mr. Nguyen Van Duong, Head of Culture Department of Nam Dan district

From one of the models considered "pioneering" is the clean vegetable farm and sunflower field of TH Group in Nghia Dan, up to now, in almost all localities in the province, there are effective agricultural tourism models.

It is not difficult to mention quite effective tourist attractions such as Pha ecological orange garden (Con Cuong), brilliant flower gardens in Nghia Dan, exploring the western region of Muong Long (Ky Son) associated with the vast peach and plum fields of the Mong ethnic people and the medicinal herb garden of TH Group...

Tourists enjoy the rose gardens in the fruit ripening season in Muong Long, Ky Son. Photo: Nghe An Newspaper

And there are many more production models that can becomeattractive destinationsuch as craft villages producing bamboo and rattan weaving, brocade in mountainous areas, craft villages processing fish sauce and seafood in Hoang Mai, Quynh Luu, Cua Lo coastal town, vast fields of lemons, flowers, clean vegetables in many localities in the province...

Identify 3 linestourism productsIn recent years, along with sea resort tourism and cultural and historical tourism associated with spirituality, Nghe An has advocated promoting the development of ecotourism products associated with agriculture. The signing of a memorandum of support for livelihood diversification based on heritage tourism in agricultural and fishing villages by the Provincial People's Committee and Jica Vietnam at the end of 2015 is considered a quite important milestone from which agricultural tourism has begun to receive attention and development.

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Loi, Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism, in early 2018, the Department of Tourism developed a plan to survey and evaluate production facilities and select agricultural tourism models in the area. Along with the efforts of the people, the tourism industry also promoted propaganda, promotion and destination linkage; trained and guided people on how to do communication and products, and improved the quality of welcoming guests of people working in tourism.

In recent years, Tea Island in Thanh Chuong has become a famous destination for agricultural tourism development. Photo: Nghe An Newspaper

Although there are still many difficulties, people are not really professional in tourism, facilities are not fully and standardized enough to meet requirements, experiential activities and explanations at tourist attractions are still limited..., but in recent years, ecotourism associated with agriculture has gradually become a new, sustainable direction in tourism.tourism developmentof the province.

Sunflower forest of TH Group - one of the first destinations of agricultural tourism in Nghe An. Photo: Nguyen Sach

Some agricultural tourism models have been proposed and developed into tours and routes such as the model of experiencing high-tech agricultural products, FVF clean vegetable farm combined with visiting flower hills in Nghia Dan district along Ho Chi Minh road; model of visiting lotus cooperative in Uncle Ho's hometown, homestay in Kim Lien, Nam Dan rose garden, Thien Nhan lemon, Nam Dan soy sauce processing village combined with exploring the Tea Island area in Thanh Chuong district; agricultural tourism tour in Con Cuong associated with Pha oranges, leaf-fermented wine village, connecting with bamboo forests and bamboo handicraft processing...

Developing ecotourism associated with agriculture is considered a potential, attractive and sustainable direction. “More than 83% of the area is mountainous and rural, the potential for developing agricultural tourism is huge. In particular, the mountainous districts along National Highway 7 and National Highway 48 are very attractive to tourists with the unique identity of ethnic minorities. Currently, we are focusing on promoting and developing tourism products for the Western region of Nghe An, associated with agricultural products and craft villages of the people” - Mr. Nguyen Manh Loi, Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Tourism said.