Agritourism thriving in southern province of Tra Vinh

An Loc hamlet is an alluvial ground on Hau River. Fruit trees like coconuts, mango and longan were first grown there in 1989. Farming has helped many local residents go prosperous with yearly incomes of up to billions of Vietnamese dong.

For the last two years, local farmers have also engaged in tourism activities thanks to the province’s support. Farmer Ta Trung Thanh has turned his family's purple longan garden into an eco-tourism site. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, on average, his 1-ha garden with 1,000 longan trees received about 500 visitors each month.

Thanh also cooperated with tourism businesses in the province to offer tours to other places inside and outside Tra Vinh province.

Thanh said that thanks to the tourism development policy of Tra Vinh province, his family supported about VND 200 million to invest in infrastructure to serve tourists.

Once switching to tourism, he also had to improve his communication skills, foreign languages, he said, adding that he participated in training courses on how to do tourism professionally.

Currently, Thanh is renovating the landscape in the garden, building more facilities to serve visitors’ demands, particularly for them to experience riverside farming.

Another local farmer Nguyen Le Vinh also offers ecotourism with his 4-ha longan farm.

Vinh said that fruit trees developed quite well on the alluvia soil in An Loc Hamlet, particularly after a dyke system was built.

Vinh's farm attracts many tourists thanks to its natural peaceful atmosphere. Vinh bought two boats for visitors, particularly foreign ones, to take a sightseeing tour.

Vinh said that he planned to buy a bigger boat which can carry up to 30 passengers per trip and he would also offer fishing service on the river.

In the future, he also intends to invest in a larger capacity canoe with a capacity of up to 30 people/trip, and open more river fishing services for visitors to experience.

“Agritourism is very promising in An Loc Hamlet thanks to improved infrastructure, diversified fruit farms and advantages of the riverside area,” he said.

Vinh said that he was planning to build an accommodation right on the longan farm.

Vo Thanh Xuan, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoa Tan commune, Cau Ke district said that  An Loc hamlet was the main agricultural area of ​​the commune. It was also included in the local ecotourism development plan.

The hamlet is home to 86 households, with about 147 hectares of agricultural land. Until now, ten local households have developed tourism initiatives and three households organized tourism areas, each of them could host up to 30-50 visitors at the same time.

Farmers are also regularly attending training courses provided by the tourism authority. They are instructed to operate tourism activities and offered opportunities to visit good examples in other localities.

Currently, tourism development in An Loc Hamlet has been in the commune’s long-term development plan, Xuan said, adding that in the past time, many businesses came to seek investment opportunities in tourism.

According to Vinh Binh Tourism Company in Tra Vinh province, in the past time, the company has brought hundreds of foreign tourist groups to Tra Vinh. Particularly, Cau Ke District is a popular tourist attraction thanks to an eco-tourism value chain with fruit trees as a highlight to form tours in which tourists could stay longer and spend more on local tourist products.

Director of Tra Vinh Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Duong Hoang Sum said that after a long time of "hibernation" due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the land of Tra Vinh hadbeen "awakened" with many positive signal.

In 10 months of 2022, Tra Vinh welcomed over 1 million visitors, nearly double the province's year plan. Total revenue reached nearly VND 620 billion, more than 3 times higher than the year plan and doubled compared to the same period last year.