Boats move on Ngo Dong River in Hoa Lu district, Ninh Binh province. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi – Four provinces
in the southern part of the Red River Delta, namely Ninh Binh, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, and
Thai Binh, have been taking steps to tap into their natural advantages to
develop agricultural and rural tourism.
The Nhan dan (People) daily cited
tourism experts and culture researchers as saying that
the southern region of the Red River Delta boasts a large farmland area, mainly fertile alluvial
soil, relatively developed intensive farming, and favourable climate
conditions for not only agricultural development but also agricultural and
rural tourism.
Over the past years, a number of domestic
and international travellers have viewed agricultural and rural tourism as a novel
experience worth to try, especially in the post-COVID period, when a trend of
low-cost travel in rural places with pristine and beautiful landscapes has been
rising.
Grasping that chance, these
localities have specified strategies for developing agricultural and rural
tourism.
Among them, Ha Nam aims to turn this
type of tourism into one of its main tourism products by 2030.
Thai Binh has promptly approved a plan to promote agriculture
and rural areas in tandem with tourism for 2022 – 2025, with a vision to 2030, under which the province will develop 80 – 85 farming zones, each with their own features; assign
authorities to use nearly 5,000ha of mangrove forest and coastal wetland to
protect the environment, prevent natural disasters, and create livelihoods for
locals via agricultural tourism; and establish three – five agritourism
cooperatives to maximise local potential and advantages.
Students visit an agritourism model in Thai Binh province. (Photo: nhandan.vn)Meanwhile, Ninh Binh has assisted
residents to grow sunflower in Khanh Thien commune of Yen Khanh district on a
trial basis, along with Japanese lotus varieties in Ninh Hai and Ninh Thang
communes and grapes in Ninh Giang commune of Hoa Lu district. The move aims to
create unique agritourism products to attract more visitors, thus helping raise
the added value of farmland and people’s income.
For its part, Nam Dinh targets that
by 2025, agritourism destinations will be standardised, at least two
agritourism sites and 50% of the establishments providing rural tourism
services recognised, 70% of the owners of agritourism sites given training in
tourism management, and 80% of agritourism workers trained in tourism skills. The
province also plans to pilot some agritourism models connected with
agricultural value chains, the “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) programme, and
digital transformation.
Ngo
Manh Ngoc, Deputy Director of the Ha Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development, said localities in the region should step up training in agricultural
tourism for local residents, build pilot agritourism models to encourage people
to preserve rural landscapes and the wet rice culture’s identity, and create
typical agritourism products.
Recommending centres be set up to
introduce unique agritourism products to travellers, Dinh Vinh Thuy, Director
of the Thai Binh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, pointed out
the necessity to increase communications to popularise images of local agriculture,
rural areas, and farm produce, which will help to not only fuel agritourism,
improve people’s life quality, but also accelerate the new-style countryside
building in the south of the Red River Delta./.
