Wednesday 31 December 2014

Farming tours attract many visitors to Da Lat city

Da Lat, city of flowers, has offered unique entertainment farming and agri-tourism to visitors, attracting more and more tourists to the Vietnam city, the Nhan Dan (People) online newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, agri-tourists can choose a wide range of activities that include learning about flower growing techniques, picking fruits and vegetables, shopping in farm gift shops and farm stands for local produce or hand crafted-gifts.

Da Lat’s farmers have shifted from their traditional method of growing strawberries in rows in the ground to a new model of hanging strawberry gardens. The Biofresh Company is a pioneer in this model and its strawberry farm next to the Lake of Sighs has become a not-to miss destination for tourists to Da Lat.

The strawberry farm model is being multiplied in Da Lat. Vuong Dinh Phi’s strawberry garden at Thanh Mau street is one of the first gardens in Da Lat to welcome visitors and offer picking fruit service.

Phi shared that the 3,000 square metres did not meet the increasing demand of visitors, for this reason, his family planned to enlarge the garden’s area to 60,000 square metres.

In addition to strawberries, the visitors can also visit high-tech vegetable gardens such Mai Van Khan’s garden. He said that offering high-quality and clean products to consumers helps popular his brand name. Currently, the brand name ‘Mr. Khan Vegetable’ has conquered markets in Ho Chi Minh City , Ha Noi and Da Nang with output of over 1.5 tonnes per day and a turnover of 3 billion VND per year.

Called the “City of Flowers”, the flower is considered a key tourism product of the city. Located in Ward 12, around 7km from Da Lat’s centre, Thai Phien Flower Village is a display of thousands of flowers. Ho Ngoc Dinh, Farmers' Association Chairman of Ward 12, Da Lat, said that Thai Phien Flower Village has over 230 ha glasshouses planting daisy, lily and eustoma.

He noted that Thai Phien is recognised as a “traditional trade village” with 900 different flower species.

Since the start of the year, thousands of domestic and international visitors have visited the flower village to learn about farming experiences.

With the friendly production model, the gardens not only bring economic benefits to growers but also contribute to tourism development in the province.

Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said in the coming time, the province will help owners of gardens improve their businesses and expand farming tourism to neighbouring regions.

According to Vu Van Tu, Director of the Lam Dong Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Centre, more support will be provided to local farmers to help them solve current problems, including a lack of professional tourism skills, thus expanding the promising agro-tourism model.

The province is now paying more attention to investing in science and technology.

Lam Dong province currently has 39,000 hectares of high-tech agricultural fields, accounting for 15 percent of the province’s total cultivated area. The high-tech agricultural fields have helped earning between 250 million VND and 1.2 billion VND per hectare per year.

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