Farmers making tourism

VietNamNet Bridge - Along the Hau River Delta, beside large-scaled tourist gardens owned by travel companies, a series of ecological gardens owned by farmers are attracting a large number of tourists. In Can Tho and Vinh Long, many “farmers” dare invest in tourism, enriching themselves from their gardens.



From amateur…



Tan Lo commune (Thot Not district, Can Tho City), about 30 kilometres away from the city centre, is well-known for raising catfish. Recently, there has been a drive among farmers to use their gardens as a tourist destination. Calling at Son Ca eco-tourism garden in Tan My village, the owner of the garden receives tourists with warm glasses of plum wine.



“The wine is made from plums in my garden. In the past, when the garden was not used to serve tourists, plums became ripe and I did not know whom to sell them,” said the owner. Plum wine is a new speciality of the owner of this 2-hectare garden.



At the age of 60, farmer Nguyen Phu Tia said, his tourist garden was opened for tourists four years ago and has become an attractive destination for tourists to Can Tho and Dong Thap. He can earn about VND 150 million a year from his garden by making tourism now instead of about VND 30 million a year by selling fruit to traders in the past, he said.



“Initially, it’s my hobby to invest in building the garden as a tourist destination, but profits are much more than making the garden. I used all the revenues from the garden to widen and improve it to attract tourists,” he said.



to professional



About 20 kilometres from the centre of Vinh Long town, tourists can get on a boat to travel to Tam Be tourist garden in Tuong Loc village, Tam Binh district. This is viewed as an interesting tour. Tourists can not only visit the fruit garden but also learn about the craft village.



Particularly, tourists have a chance to discover Tra On floating market, grope for crabs and catch snails and sleep in the fruit garden.



Farmer Nguyen Van Be, owner of the garden, designed a two day and one night tour with a package price of VND 515,000 (over US $30) a tourist. The Tam Be tourist garden, on an area of two hectares, was founded at the end of 2006 and has become an attractive destination for international tourists.



So far, he draws about 100 tourists a month and earns over VND 10 million a month. He has invested much money in guesthouses and bought bicycles for tourists to travel in the garden.

In Vinh Long, there have been so far nearly 20 tourist gardens owned by farmers. This way of making tourism has improved the farmers’ living standard considerably.



(Source: The Tourism)