Agricultural and rural tourism in Ninh Binh is still fragmented

In recent years, many tourists have chosen agricultural and rural tourism as a novel experience. In particular, after the COVID-19 pandemic, people's travel trends have clearly changed in the direction of prioritizing areas with wild, beautiful landscapes close to nature and plants.

According to statistics from the World Tourism Organization, each year the proportion of tourists participating in rural tourism forms increases by 10–30%, about 4% higher than traditional forms of tourism. Grasping this potential customer market will be the direction to help Ninh Binh tourism both create novel and different products and preserve and promote the unique traditional cultural values of the locality. This is exactly an advantage for Ninh Binh to continue to invest in and strongly develop this type of tourism.

It is undeniable that in recent years, agricultural and rural tourism has brought many benefits. This type of tourism not only helps farmers have stable jobs with incomes many times higher than agricultural activities, but importantly, it also helps the natural landscape be protected and preserved and become fresh and beautiful. However, this field in Ninh Binh in particular and many other localities in general are still facing many difficulties and challenges.

Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, Director of Ninh Binh Tourism Promotion Information Center, said: "Ninh Binh's agricultural and rural tourism is still fragmented and small-scale due to many factors, including the land consolidation policy. Enterprises investing in the field of agricultural and rural tourism wish to have an area large enough to build experience models, but they are still encountering many difficulties. Regarding the people who want to start a business, they also face difficulties from capital to human resources. Therefore, Ninh Binh is now gradually overcoming these limitations."

According to Mr. Cao Kim Kien, owner of Hang Trau rural tourism facility (Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh), "The agricultural-rural tourism experience model has only recently been implemented, so there are still many difficulties, especially for pioneering businesses and individuals. Nowadays, more and more domestic and foreign tourists come to Ninh Binh, but the foreign customer group faces cultural and language barriers and risks of danger when they participate in the experience. Therefore, businesses and units must invest in safety equipment so that tourists feel secure and welcome experiences and services the most comfortably."

“In addition, currently, people do not have the mindset of doing sustainable tourism. Accordingly, it is necessary to train the team professionally and methodically to change thinking and services, thereby helping tourists have a better feeling about the local people and culture," proposed Mr. Kien.

Mr. Nguyen Cao Tan, Deputy Director of the Ninh Binh Department of Tourism, shared that in the coming time, in order for Ninh Binh to develop agricultural and rural tourism, it is necessary to develop linkages between agricultural tourism products according to theme and tour route to attract tourists to stay longer.

Besides, there needs to be more exquisite and attractive products, especially OCOP products, to be able to "export on the spot" and increase the value of the goods that farmers make. Thereby, creating mutual support between tourism products and agricultural products.

“Ninh Binh wishes to create linkages and coordination between scientists, businesses, and farmers to build and develop a sustainable, extensive, and comprehensive agricultural and rural tourism ecosystem. This will contribute to helping people produce agricultural products and preserve cultural values while inheriting the economic values brought by agricultural tourism," said Mr. Nguyen Cao Tan, Deputy Director of the Ninh Binh Department of Tourism.

Endowed with many beautiful landscapes such as Van Long wetland nature reserve, Cuc Phuong national park, and the world culture and nature heritage of Trang An, Ninh Binh has become increasingly attractive to international tourists.

To promote inherent tourism potential and address the above shortcomings, Ninh Binh has been implementing measures to improve the quality of tourism services, reduce prices of products, step up tourism promotion, and protect landscapes and the environment in a bid to create unique tourism products for the locality.

In particular, it has paid attention to improving the quality of manpower, launching new tourism products associated with local unique cultures, and enhancing the linkage of tourism products in an attempt to help the tourism sector develop sustainably and effectively.