Organizing lychee tourism for the first time: Luc Ngan expects to welcome 100,000 visitors

Developing lychee season tourism on Luc Ngan land (Bac Giang) has been done in previous years. Still, from that background, with systematic, diverse, and many new features this year, it has created more attractive and pervasive. The success in building and developing lychee season tours will make an essential contribution to the district, effectively exploiting the potential and increasing the value of lychee fruit.

With VND 100,000, experience the garden and freely eat lychee.

The lychee harvest season is entering the primary season. These days when coming to Luc Ngan, everyone feels overwhelmed by the space filled with the red color of ripe Litchi on the hill gardens. With the theme "Luc Ngan ripe litchi season," the locality is expected to welcome about 100,000 visitors, creating a highlight in tourism development. The primary purpose is to organize tours to experience lychee gardens and visit Cam Son Lake, Khuon Than Lake, Am Vai Pagoda, streams, and highland mountains.

In previous years, the litchi garden of Giap Son Agricultural Production - Eco-Tourism Cooperative in Chao village, Giap Son commune (Luc Ngan), was the destination of many domestic and international delegations. The cooperative is famous for its secret to caring for lychee trees to flower and bear fruit on the trunk. Because the fabric is produced according to quality standards, it is convenient for consumption at high prices.

This year, the cooperative cooperates with Phuc Lam Trading and Service Company Limited to organize a Global GAP lychee garden tour. Joining this time, visitors can visit a two hectares litchi garden and many neighboring gardeners to learn about the production process, freely pick ripe lychees to enjoy, take souvenir photos, and buy lychees as gifts.

Previously, when Litchi bloomed, this travel agency used to bring guests from Hanoi here. Visitors enjoy watching the lychee blossom season and setting up tents under the trees. In addition to visiting the garden and taking photos, visitors also experience harvesting pure honey. Fourteen litchi trees have been bought for more than VND 10 million/tree to be harvested when the lychee is ripe.

Ms. Truong Thi Bay, Director of the cooperative, said: "The cooperative has more than 2 hectares of Litchi grown under the Global GAP process with an output of about 30 tones. This occasion continues to be chosen as one of the destinations in the journey to visit and explore the season lychee.

According to the designed tour, with only VND 100,000 when buying tickets directly at the garden, visitors can participate in the lychee garden experience, freely eat lychee as much as they want, visit and experience exciting activities, and keep memories in many beautiful corners. There is also a lychee-picking experience tour at night for VND 500,000/per person. Guests can eat a "cloth buffet," have dinner with farmers, and spend the night at a homestay. A photo contest, "Litchi Ambassador," was also held with many attractive prizes…

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet, the tour organizer, said: "I was born and raised in Bac Giang and have enjoyed lychees in Mexico, Australia, China... but it is rare to find this flavor anywhere as delicious as Luc Ngan lychee abroad. They have successfully developed tours to visit vineyards, cherries, etc. Realizing the great potential in Luc Ngan, I cherish the dream of doing a tour lychee garden to introduce this specialty even further".

Combining lychee garden tourism with food and experience tours

Nearly 20 cooperatives are dealing in tourism services in the Luc Ngan district. Before the litchi season, the community surveyed and selected tourist spots, cooperatives, and gardeners with beautiful scenery, produced according to Viet GAP; Global GAP processes with a large area, wrong orchards, convenient transportation friendly, and enthusiastic host which focuses on communes with many beautiful garden houses such as Thanh Hai, Quy Son, Tan Son, Giap Son, Ho Dap, Nam Duong, Tru Huu, Phuong Son...

Luc Ngan also selected several units that have hosted and organized many events, such as Northeast Cultural Tourism Service Cooperative (Chu Town), Binh Nguyen Clean Agricultural Products Cooperative, Dong Dao Tourism Cooperative (Quy Son Commune), Thanh Hai Agricultural Production and Trade Tourism Cooperative (Thanh Hai Commune), Green Luc Ngan Cooperative (Dong Coc Commune).

At this time, the cooperatives have completed many items of facilities to welcome guests and are actively promoting and linking with gardeners and tour operators to bring visitors. Mr. Vu Nguyen Binh, Deputy Director of Binh Nguyen Clean Agricultural Cooperative, said: "Preparing for this year's tourist season, many travel agencies in Hanoi and Bac Giang City have connected and scheduled to bring guests to their home's garden.

Mrs. Phuong Thi Ly, Deputy Director of Son Hai General Tourism Cooperative, said: "We have actively built the tour schedule of guests, organized video recordings, taken photos to post on social networks, and have received many visitors’ contracts to serve domestic and foreign customers.

Accordingly, after visiting and experiencing the lychee garden in Thanh Hai commune, people will move by boat to a floating island on Cam Son Lake to eat and rest here with rustic dishes such as lake fish, hill chicken, grilled meat, and sour soup. Some travel agencies, as well as individual groups, have registered to use our service".

Similarly, Tru Huu Trade and Tourism Cooperative, since the beginning of this month, has welcomed and served dozens of delegations, including one in the South.

Helping farmers to approach the way of tourism gradually

Luc Ngan is known as a large fruit tree of the North, in which lychee has been a branded staple tree for a long time. In 2023, the district's lychee area is more than 17 thousand hectares, and the output is about 98 thousand tonnes. Many people in Luc Ngan care for lychee trees according to Viet GAP and Global GAP standards.

Mr. Truong Van Nam, Standing Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Luc Ngan district, said linking production with lychee consumption and tourism development will improve product value. This year, for the first time, the locality organized a tourism program called "Luc Ngan ripe lychee season" at the Bau Tien tourist site (Quy Son commune) with many new activities, such as organizing a contest for picking, bunching, processing and displaying products, cooking dishes and beverages from fabrics combined with showing typical products for visitors to visit and enjoy.

The district authorities have set up groups of guides and narrators who are knowledgeable about the history of the land, the people, and the fabric production process to introduce to tourists. They are propagating to cadres, civil servants, and people about the benefits of tourism in economic development and consumption of agricultural products and require implementing a civilized and friendly code of conduct.

Also, according to Mr. Truong Van Nam, the limitation of Luc Ngan tourism is that the roads connecting the tiny garden houses and large tourist cars are almost challenging to access. The lychee harvest season takes place quickly, and the sun is hot. But, to overcome the difficulties, some cooperatives have used rudimentary vehicles such as buffalo carts and ox carts decorated in a friendly way to transport guests for short distances and invested in installing a heat protection system.

According to Mr. Do Tuan Khoa, Deputy Director of Bac Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Luc Ngan has many potentials and strengths for developing community tourism associated with the experience of hill gardens, especially in the lychee season.

To support the locals on this occasion, the Department has actively informed and connected with travel agencies to bring visitors to experience tours to visit lychee gardens. This year, the Department will organize three training courses on tourism expertise and skills for members of service groups and tourism cooperatives in Luc Ngan. At the same time, they state units under the Department to strengthen coordination in building clips and images and propagating the lychee tourism season on the media and social networks.