Visitors watch people making baskets at Hai Van Farm.
Point model development
CBT in the province has formed and developed quite a lot, has been contributing to creating jobs, improving the community's living standards, promoting the image of the locality and people of Ben Tre. In order for CBT activities in the province to develop in the right direction, synchronously and professionally, and at the same time ensure benefits and increase income for communities participating in tourism activities, recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has approved a list of pilot models under the "One Commune One Product" Program in the 2021-2025 period (phase 2). On that basis, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development advises the Provincial People's Committee to develop a plan to implement the pilot model of the "One Commune One Product" program in the period of 2021 - 2025 with the model "Development of rural tourism in the direction of green tourism associated with improving the role of community organization and management in Tan My commune, Ba Tri district", piloted at the ecological tourism site of Hai Van Farm - Vam Ho Bird Sanctuary.
The value brought from rural tourism development is to contribute to preserving and promoting cultural values, traditional history, customs and habits of indigenous people, and protecting the ecological environment. Building a tourism-friendly environment associated with rural tourism development and building new countryside. At the same time, apply, exploit, maximize and effectively take advantage of the advantages from indigenous natural resources, culture, customs and habits of local people to form tourism products for tourists. The pilot model also aims to build a product value chain associated with the orientation of improving the quality and sustainability of OCOP products, especially developing local raw material areas, small and medium-scale processing, and improving the management capacity of colleges.
The main content of the model includes propaganda, awareness raising, thinking about rural tourism development in the direction of green tourism, associated with improving the role of community organization and management. Training, training and fostering human resources for developing CBT, regularly organizing training courses, fostering and updating tourism professional knowledge for the workforce and colleges, developing infrastructure, technical facilities for tourism such as: investment in social infrastructure in terms of traffic, electricity, water, telecommunications, website development, digital tourism map, eco-friendly environment, green landscape development, etc. Some important items that will be invested when building the model include: infrastructure (college accommodation, event house, college culinary experience house), showroom, demonstration, introduction and commercialization of OCOP College products, space to store culture, economy, college history, landscape, human resource training, digital technology application. Items using funds from central and local capital sources and reciprocal enterprise capital.
Gather the community to participate
Hai Van Farm - Vam Ho Bird Sanctuary is the only tourist destination in the province to be recognized as meeting 4-star OCOP tourism product standards in 2022, selected as a model deployment point. Currently, tourism products associated with colleges at the farm are diverse such as: experiential education programs, seminars, conferences, camping, campfires, accommodation, coconut farm experiences, Ba Lai River enjoyment, Vam Ho bird sanctuary discovery, local cuisine.
Director of ecotourism site Hai Van Farm - Vam Ho Bird Sanctuary Doan Thi My Nhu said: Tourism products of the site are built on the motto of developing community ecotourism associated with experiential tourism and agricultural culture of Coconut. On that basis, over the past time, the farm has formed typical tourism products with the characteristics of the community culture, developed a network of multi-disciplinary local workers with many agricultural cooperatives, folk artisans, and cuisine from the Coconut region, and built inter-district and inter-provincial tours to meet the needs of tourists.
At the point, a common space has been formed for local farmers, artisans, and artisans to perform traditional crafts (knitting, making cakes, tying coconut leaves, making folk cakes...), connecting, interacting with tourists, and selling their own products. Currently, the farm connects 5 cultural and artistic clubs to exchange and connect with visitors such as: Van Tien Poetry Club, Ba Tri Poetry Club, Don Ca Tai Tu Club, Truc Giang Calligraphy Club, connecting 4 agricultural cooperatives to introduce OCOP products to visitors.
With tourism products that are comprehensively built from collective play, exploring natural experiences (forests, rivers, farming), doing traditional crafts, local cultural activities (speaking Van Tien poetry, reading poetry, calligraphy...), food, along with a team of guides, local workers have given visitors a fairly complete experience of the local culture. Through connecting with tourism, local products have the opportunity to go further when businesses participate in tourism activities outside the province.
Being selected by ministries, central and local authorities to build a model of CBT sites is a development opportunity not only for tourist sites but also an important source of investment to create motivation to promote the development of CBT products as well as OCOP products of the province. Well implement the planning and development orientation of CBT in the province to adapt to the new normal. Enhance the interaction, experience, learn about the culture, customs, habits and activities of the people of Coconut. building and developing a model of CBT associated with the direct participation of the people, contributing to socio-economic development, creating jobs, improving the material and spiritual life of local people.
Articles, photos: Copper bar
