Rural tourism is a trend favoued by many tourists. This is a type of community-based tourism, mainly based on the local strengths. In Long An, many localities have a tourism development orientation from the available potentials and strengths as well as the hospitality and desire to do tourism of the people.
Bringing traditional craft into tourism
The tour guide training course for middle and primary school students at Vam Nhut Tao Historic Site has been open for nearly a month with the participation of about 30 students from schools nearby.
Participating in the training, in addition to understanding the life and career of National Hero Nguyen Trung Truc and Vam Nhut Tao Historic Site, students can also learn skills of interpretation, handling situations, working in groups, how to weave mats, make print cakes, making drums, etc to guide visitors.
This is the dynamic force for Tan Tru district to develop new and unique tourism products at Vam Nhut Tao Historic Site.
Students learn how to weave mats at Vam Nhut Tao Historic Site (Tan Tru District)
Chairman of Tan Tru District People's Committee - Trinh Phuoc Trung said: “The locality is developing "My hometown Tan Tru" tour at Vam Nhut Tao Historic Site. The district invests funds and materials to bring a number of traditional crafts into the Historic Site for visitors to learn and experience, This is a tourism product combining historical tourism with learning and experiencing local culture."
The Culture, Information and Communication Center of Tan Tru district informed that, weaving mats, making print cakes, and making drums are traditional craft of the locality for hundreds years, preserved by people and highly appreciated by customers. These are the things that the people of Tan Tru always remember wherever they go.
My hometown Tan Tru tour will be guided by students
My hometown Tan Tru tour was built to exploit the local characteristics. To do that, first of all, there needs to be consensus between the government, people and enterprises. With the guidelines, policies, and funding of the locality, the consensus and support of the people in terms of human resources, willingness to learn and do tourism, enterprises can be responsible for designing, training, operating the tour to be memorable in the hearts of tourists.
Also with close cooperation between the State, farmers and enterprises, Duc Hoa district has successfully implemented the "Famtrip Duc Hoa - New vitality" tour with the participation of more than 40 travel agencies, media and experts within and outside the province. The journey will bring visitors to large scale destinations such as My Quynh Zoo, West Lakes Golf & Villas, House of Mr. Bo Tho Historic Site, etc.
In particular, during the journey, visitors can learn about the conical hat craft village of An Ninh Tay commune and decorate their own hats. This is recognized as a traditional craft of Duc Hoa district.
The conical hat is a symbol associated with Vietnamese women, so the introduction of hat making into tourism receives the support of both locals and tourists.
Hats making and decorating are included in Duc Hoa Famtrip - New vitality tour in June 2023
In order to have a complete Famtrip trip and a series of activities to promote tourism in Duc Hoa, the district and the Provincial Tourism Association, the Tourism Promotion Information Center, a number of enterprises surveyed to build programs and activities to maximize the potential and strengths of the locality.
Finding and exploiting potential
The province has 15 districts, towns and cities, divided into 3 regions: Upper, Lower and Dong Thap Muoi. Each locality has its own characteristics. The trend of searching and developing that unique characteristic is being promoted by many localities.
Head of Culture and Information Office of Tan Thanh district - Tran Luu Niem said that the district is building a tour to exploit the local strengths. One of the places chosen as a highlight is the fruit gardens in Tan Lap commune.
This is a commune with many fruit trees of the district. Since the dike system was built, the area of the fruit garden has gradually increased with many kinds of fruits such as durian, jackfruit, pomelo, etc.
Visiting fruit gardens of Tan Lap commune, Tan Thanh district, visitors can enjoy the homegrown dishes and the hospitality of the people.
After the process of surveying and mobilizing, most people in the commune agree to develop tourism. Some villagers agreed to invest their own funds to build an additional reception area for visitors, ready to guide tours of their own fruit gardens.
Coming to the fruit garden of Tan Lap commune, visitors can enjoy the homegrown rustic dishes, the kindness and hospitality of the local people; visit the orchard, pick and buy fruits. In addition, visitors can observe firsthand how farmers handle fruit orchards to flower them off-season, listen to farmers' stories about their journey towards clean agriculture.
As the owner of a 1-hectare jackfruit and pomelo garden, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh (Bang Lang hamlet, Tan Lap commune) said that he is very pleased to welcome tourists to his garden. “When the State deployed tourism development, I participated immediately. The commune has invested in expanding roads and planting trees along the route. In order to serve tourists, the garden must be beautiful, so I also try my best in taking care of the garden," said Mr. Minh.
Each locality has its own strengths and highlights, developing tourism based on that advantage will help the tourism products of the districts not overlap and contribute to complement each other, forming the perfect "puzzle pieces" to highlight the image of Long An tourism. This program has been implemented by many localities in the province./.
By Que Lam - Translated by Q. Thien