The lychee harvest season arrives in July, and various travel agencies in and outside the northern province of Bac Giang have already planned tours for visitors to pick lychees at farms in the region.
The province is famed for its various fruits, especially the lychees in Luc Ngan District, which are popular both at home and abroad.
Since the middle of March, when Viet Nam opened its doors to international tourists, domestic guests have returned to Bac Giang. Hundreds of visitors come to the region every day and even more at weekends.
A local farmer introduces his lychee garden to visitors. VNA/VNS Photo Dong Thuy
Lychee life
Le Van Tien, director of Dong Bac Culture Tourism Co-operative in Chu Town, Luc Ngan District, said that in mid-April, the Hoa Binh Travel Agency in Cam Pha City, Quang Ninh Province, contacted him to bring visitors for the upcoming lychee harvest season.
“To serve customers better, we hired 10 more people, and added 50 more tables in the dining hall,” Tien said.
The co-operative can now serve 200 people a meal with Asian and European menus.
Many visitors like to visit spiritual places such as Cam Son Lake, AM Vai Pagoda in Nam Duong Commune, Khanh Van Pagoda in Chu Town, and Ha Temple in Hong Giang Commune.
The An Phu Trade and Tourism Cooperative in Tan Son Commune has exploited these routes well.
Luscious lychees lure visitors to Bac Giang. VNA/VNS Photo Dong Thuy
Khuc Thi Nga, deputy director of the cooperative, said the enterprise was applying various package combo tours for 2 days and 1 night at a reasonable price of VND300,000-600,000 (US$13-26).
The tour includes lunch, camping, fishing, kayaking, making local cakes, a playground for children and picking lychees in the gardens with local guides.
“For the upcoming lychee season, we have four tours of 2 days each to destinations like Cam Son Lake, Bac Hoa Village of the Nung ethnic minority in Tan Son Commune, Day Stream, Cam Stream and Nga Stream in Sa Ly Commune," Nga said.
There are 19 agencies and cooperatives offering tourism services in Luc Ngan District.
Since March, thousands of people have visited the area. Many travel agencies like Hoang Long Trade & Tourism Ltd., Erahouse Education Experience Company, and Vietsky Tourism have come to the site to arrange tours for the upcoming lychee season.
Local authorities in Luc Ngan have planned a tourism programme titled "Luc Ngan Summer Colour and Scent" from May to July.
The authorities will continue to promote eco-tourism, fruit trees and ethnic minority culture in the locality.
Nguyen Thi Nam, head of Luc Ngan District’s Culture and Tourism Department, said the authorities had facilitated travel companies to put on tours to the area.
She said that the local agencies had chose fruit farms and destinations with scenic landscapes and good facilities to receive guests to visit, shop, and set up connections to sell lychees and other agricultural produce.
An aerial view of Khuon Than Lake. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Dat
Tourism cooperatives such as in Tan Moc, Thanh Hai, Quy Son, Tan Son, Giap Son, Ho Dap, and Nam Duong provide great networks.
Nam said various training classes had been organised for local tourism staff and workers in the farms, hotels and guest houses, especially those in localities with beautiful landscapes.
Nam said the district hoped to receive some 70,000 visitors during the lychee harvest season.
Community-based tourism
Local authorities in Bac Giang have recently shown much care toward developing community-based tourism to enhance people’s living standards.
In the two districts of Luc Ngan and Luc Nam, there are large areas under fruit trees like lychees, grapes, oranges, watermelons, pineapples, longans and custard apples.
Besides these fruits, the province also has other delicacies such as free-range chickens in Yen The District, rice wine from Van Village in Viet Yen District, steamed sticky rice and ant eggs from Son Dong District.
The province has 11 tourist sites in total, which have been recognised as provincial landmarks: Bo Da Pagoda in Viet Yen, a golf course in Yen Dung, Hoang Hoa Tham Historical Relic Site and Community-based tourism site in Ven Village in Yen The, and Mo Stream Ecological Site in Luc Nam.
Van Market Communal House hosted various meetings of Party leaders in the revolution against the French in March 1945. VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam
Duong Hong Co, deputy director of the Bac Giang Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, said more than 10 tourism cooperatives and three community-based tourism sites had been established in the districts of Son Dong, Luc Ngan and Yen The.
During harvesting seasons for lychees, oranges and grapefruits, local cooperatives and farms in Thanh Hai, Tan Son and Quy Son communes have co-ordinated with travel agencies to welcome visitors.
Ly Thi Hoi, director of the Than Truong Cooperative in Yen The, said the cooperative had invested over VND40 billion to build seven communal houses on stilts and three functional areas, as well as to improve the gardens and tea processing workshop.
“Now we can receive up to 1,500 visitors each day and serve lunch for them,” she said. “We can welcome 500 guests to stay overnight with us.”
Hoi said 20 household members had joined in serving at a community-based tourism site in Ven Village.
Co said tourism activities had brought more income to cooperatives and their members.
“Yet the tourism activities have not expanded well yet,” he said. “They need more support from authorities, concerned agencies and local people.”
Co realised that cooperatives and local residents are still not connected with one another to form a smooth workflow in offering services.
“I think successful models should share experiences with other sites so that cooperatives can learn from one another,” he said. “Local cooperatives can learn from success lessons from other provinces.”
Local authorities have issued policies on developing tourism in 2021-2025. A master plan for developing local tourism for 2022-2030 has also been approved. The plan supports 35 community-based tourism sites in the province at a total cost of VND150 billion.
The province expects to receive 1 million visitors this year.
Fog covers Yen Tu Spiritual and Ecological Tourism Site in Son Dong District. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Dat
Le Huong