To develop specialty orchards combined with ecological tourism

 Mai Hung Dung, Member of Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee, chaired a meeting with provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to assess the project draft of developing fruit orchards combined with ecological tourism in the south Binh Duong.

Visitors buy specialty fruits at Cau Ngang Festival.

 Tourism potential

Binh Duong has an adjacent location to many provinces in the southern key economic zone, is an area with high speed of urbanization, industrialization. These are advantages to develop weekend tourism, ecological tourism, recreation activities and shopping. In addition to the three main rivers of the south-east region, Binh Duong has the potential for waterway tourism. This is an attractive destination to businessmen, investors, who come here for business trips and meetings. These are also an important customer segment of resorts, sports tourism, MICE travel in Binh Duong. In addition, Binh Duong is considered to be the cradle of famous handicraft villages in the south-east region. All the potential, strengths of the province are favorable conditions for the formation and development of various tourist types and products, including ecological tourism, river tourism.

Many areas in the province have the potential for developing an ecological tourism combined with specialty orchards. These are wards and communes along Saigon River, like An Thanh, Hung Dinh, Binh Nham, and An Son are popular for mangosteen, durian, strawberry, jackfruit... In particular, this is a long-standing area of mangosteen growing in the southeastern region with a well-known mangosteen taste that differs from the taste of other regions. Lai Thieu mangosteen was recognized by Department of Intellectual Property as a collective trademark in August 2013 to acknowledge the specialty fruit brand of this region. Bach Dang isle (Tan Uyen) is associated with many types of grapefruit that have been famous for its distinctive flavor. In 2011, Bach Dang grapefruit was also recognized by Department of Intellectual Property. Along with Dong Nai River, Cu Lao Isle owns the potential, is an attractive destination to visitors who love the ecological tourism.

Due to the diversity of agricultural products in localities, Binh Duong is very favorable for organizing tours, routes, tourist destinations suitable for each agricultural product, creating diversification into tourism products, proceeding with tourism development tied to sustainable agriculture.

To be tied to sustainable agriculture

However, the impacts of industrialization, urbanization, climate change, and environmental pollution have made the orchards in Thuan An City degraded and stunted, somewhat diminished its attraction to tourists. Grapefruit gardens in Bach Dang have also not developed uniformly, not created special features of local ecological tourism. In order to preserve, develop, efficiently exploit the advantages of orchards, and protect the ecological environment, combine with cultural heritage, traditional craft villages, the implementation of the project of fruit orchards combined with ecological tourism development in the south Binh Duong is essential. The duration of this project is 3 years after it was approved by Provincial People's Committee (2020-2022), and is executed at communes along Saigon River of Thuan An City and Bach Dang commune, Tan Uyen Town.

The project has specific objectives, such as: Building 2 models/7 tourist attractions of ecological orchards in Thuan An and Bach Dang commune, Tan Uyen Town. These models will be destinations for tourists inside and outside the province to visit, learn about farming practices and enjoy delicious fruits and specialties of the province; to increase income of households participating in the project, creating jobs for local people, forming an ecotourism system... The combination of ecotourism and agriculture will bring interesting experience to domestic and international tourists. Besides, farmers will be able to introduce their agricultural products and increase revenue from agricultural products, contributing to the promotion of agricultural and rural economic development in a more sustainable way.

In the coming time, the agricultural sector needs to proactively cooperate with tourism industry to strengthen the linkage between state management agencies and people, scientists, travel companies, enhance communication and promotion, improve the quality of each tourist site. Meanwhile, the State also need to have new rural development policies tied to the development of tourism economy for organizations, individuals and businesses to develop agricultural tourism; provide human resource training for agricultural tourism models and encourage the participation of farmers.

 Reported by Thoai Phuong - Translated by Ngoc Huynh