LAI CHÂU — Agriculture-based tourism is a new trend in Việt Nam and is playing an important role in building new-style rural areas, helping to improve income for citizens, according to a senior official.

Vương Đình Huệ, Deputy Prime Minister, made the statement at a workshop on associating new-style rural area building to agri-tourism development held in Lai Châu on Thursday.

With 38 per cent of Vietnamese labourers engaged in agriculture 60 per cent of the population living in rural areas, agriculture-based tourism helps farmers fight poverty and diversify their income, he said, adding that agriculture-based tourism and services accounted for 40 per cent of the total income of people in rural areas.

The Deputy PM asked localities to assess their strengths in tourism while investing in infrastructure and promoting regional connectivity to utilise such advantages.

While agreeing localities should make use of their natural and human resources to attract visitors, he said it was necessary to pay attention to community benefits and cultural and environmental protection.

He emphasised the need to combine new-style rural building with agri-tourism development via a concrete framework.

Addressing the workshop, Giàng Páo Mỳ, Secretary of Lai Châu Province’s Party Committee, said the combination of agri-tourism development with new-style rural building would create new development momentum for localities.

“People in rural areas could promote their active role and renovation in agricultural production and provide services to raise their income as well as improve their livelihood,” she said.

Nguyễn Thị Lan Hương, from HCM City Social Sciences and Humanities said due to dialectical relations between new rural development and agri-tourism development, it was necessary to build value chains for agri-tourism and connect all stakeholders.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is initiating plans to build culture tourism villages in several provinces, namely Hà Giang, Lai Châu, Thanh Hóa and Bến Tre.

A number of organisations and individuals have made use of agricultural factors to create popular tourism products.

Some outstanding tourism products include tours of Mộc Châu farms, tours of Trà Quế vegetable village, Thanh Hà Pottery village and Cù Lao Chàm fishing village in Hội An.

According to a report from Central Coordination office for New-style Rural Development, the programme on building new-style rural areas has given a face-lift to many localities in Việt Nam.

In return, agri-tourism has served as motivation for the building of new-style rural areas, contributing to economic reform, market expansion and conservation of cultural values and specialities in rural areas. — VNS