Hanoi (VNA) - In recent years, many provinces and citiesthroughout the country have bolstered the development of rural tourism in a bidto promote their natural landscapes, people, traditional crafts and products tovisitors. Rural tourism is considered as the key to facilitating economicdevelopment and fostering the building of new-style rural areas.

Localsand authorities join hands to develop tourism

In 2016,agricultural tourism in Dong Thap began to thrive, making the Mekong Deltaprovince an ideal destination for domestic and foreign tourists.

Currently, SaDec city, and Thap Muoi and Cao Lanh districts in Dong Thap province have takenadvantage of their natural conditions, such as rivers, rice fields, lotusfields, and mango gardens, to build new tourism products.

Tu Mach's mangogarden in Cao Lanh district welcomes hundreds of visitors every day, generatingsignificant income for his family.

Director of theDong Thap provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Huynh Thi HoaiThu said that agritourism helps farmers earn an income 1.5 times higher thanfarming alone. This is also the optimal solution to utilise local labourers,improve income, increase the value of agricultural products, and raise locals’awareness of environmental protection and preservation of traditional culture.

To date, a totalof 63 agricultural and community-based tourism sites have been established inDong Thap, including 8 homestays, 2 farmstays, and 53 tourist attractions. Thelocality plans to launch an additional 40 sites in the coming time.

In the 2016-2021period, community-based tourist sites in Dong Thap served more than 4 millionvisitors, with a total revenue of more than 486 billion VND.

In central ThanhHoa province, the tourism sector has also been active in integrating naturallandscapes, OCOP products, and indigenous culture in tourism development.

According toDeputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and TourismVuong Thi Hai Yen, the province is working on a project on developingagricultural tourism.

In 2022, touristsites and attractions in Thanh Hoa province welcomed over 11 million visitorsand earned more than 20 trillion VND in revenue, 3.2 times and 4 times higherthan the figures of 2021, respectively.

The province haslaunched new agricultural tourism products such as tours to grow cleanvegetables in Yen Le commune, Nhu Xuan district, in addition to tours to YenTrung tourism village in Yen Dinh district, and tours to Linh Ky Moc ecologicalfarm in Thanh Hoa city.

Moremomentum for agricultural and rural tourism

Agriculturaltourism can ensure a profit that is 1.5 times higher than common farmingmethods. Therefore, many localities have actively developed rural tourismproduct services.

Figures from theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that as many as 65 OCOPproducts in the group of community-based tourism services have been certifiedwithin the one-commune-one-product (OCOP) programme. Which, many regions,including the northern mountainous region and the Mekong River Delta, havebrought into play their advantages of natural conditions, agriculturalproduction, culture, and traditional craft villages, to build rural touristattractions.

Rural tourismnot only helps to promote the potential and advantages of agriculture, craftvillages, culture and ecological environment of localities but also contributesto improving the living quality of the local people while restructuring therural economy towards industrialisation and modernisation.

Under theprogramme on developing rural tourism and building new-style rural areas in the2021-2025 period, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has askedlocalities to identify the development of rural tourism as one key task.

The programmesets targets that by 2025, about 50% of the rural tourism establishments inVietnam will be certified to meet tourist service standards.

Also, at least50% of the rural tourist spots are recognised to be digitised and connectedwith digital technology.

To realise theprogramme, the ministry requested localities to accelerate communicationevents, raise awareness of tourism businesses and individuals about sustainablerural tourism development, and launch new tours and rural tourist sites whichcan promote local cultural values while protecting the environment.

It is hoped thatwith full participation from the socio-political organisations, localauthorities and people, rural tourism will further develop, making an importantcontribution to the socio-economic development of rural areas./.