A bird's view of Trà Quế vegetable village in Hội An Town. The village was voted as one of the best tourism villages in the world at the UN Tourism event in Columbia. Photo courtesy of Hội An City's Information and Culture Centre

HỘI AN — Trà Quế vegetable village in the ancient town of Hội An has won an award as one of the Best Tourism Villages 2024 at a UN Tourism vote in Colombia, from a list of 260 other candidates from 60 countries and territories.

The village, renowned as a favourite green destination three kilometres from the UNESCO-recognised world heritage site of Hội An, is home to 202 families, with 326 farmers growing different kinds of herbs and vegetables over plots of about 18 hectares.

Herbs and vegetables from extensive gardens are used for local specialities at restaurants and resorts in Hội An and Đà Nẵng City, as well as providing farming experiences for tourists.

Tourists enjoy a farm-experience day in Trà Quế village. Travellers can explore the traditional trades of the 400-year-old village, while harvesting home-grown vegetable and herbs. Photo courtesy of Hội An City's Information and Culture Centre

Trà Quế village, an eco-agri-tourism site, has preserved its traditional crafts and lifestyle, while offering unique culture and hospitality, as well as showing off environmental-friendly farming.

The village, dating back to the 16th century, has developed 23 home-stay services and 16 restaurants, offering cooking classes, farm stays and vegetable farming experience tours.

A foreign tourist tries their hands at watering one of the vegetable plots in Trà Quế village in Hội An. Photo courtesy of Hội An City's Information and Culture Centre

The Trà Quế vegetable garden is one of the suburban destinations from Hội An, which include Thanh Hà pottery village, Cẩm Thanh nipa-palm village, the corn farm in Cẩm Nam village and watching carpentry in Cẩm Kim village.

In 2022, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognised the village in the list of the national intangible heritages.

Villagers earn about VNĐ500,000 ($22) a day from tourism and cooking services at their herb farms, while supplying 30kg of fresh organic vegetables to local markets each day.

To date, Hội An – an UNESCO-recognised world heritage site since 1999 – has received eight national heritage recognitions for many local attractions, including the annual Nguyên Tiêu (full moon day of lunar January) Festival, Thanh Châu bird's nest, Thanh Hà Pottery village, carpentry skills of Kim Bồng village, vegetable crafts in Trà Quế village and the mid-autumn Full Moon Festival (on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month), hammock weaving from the tree bark (Firmiana colorata) and the craft of making homes of bamboo and nipa-palm.

A cooking class in Trà Quế village of Hội An Town.VNS Photo Công Thành

The historic town of Hội An became a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the Crafts and Folk Art category.

Giving out the award in a special ceremony for Trà Quế village will be organised at the UN Tourism Conference in Hội An on December 7-12, according to the city’s People’s Committee. VNS