On the occasion of the World Tourism Day on September 27th, 2014, the Scientific Union for Sustainable Tourism Development (STDe) organised the conference announcing a new tourism product: “Season Grain” Tour. This is the gift for Duong Lam ancient village people conducted by STDe and 50 students of the Architecture Department of Hanoi University of Civil Engineering. Speaking at the conference, Dr Nguyen Thu Hanh, Chairperson of STDe, said that farmers only recognise rice as one kind of food but not value it in other valuable aspects such as scenic value, artistic value, cultural value, fashion value or building materials to increase the rice value chain. The ancient village of Duong Lam can create a breakthrough in the agricultural economy by investing in tourism products from rice”. This is in response to the concern of scientists in STDe: Why cannot Vietnamese people live on rice even though Vietnam is an agriculture- based country? Why cannot Vietnam develop village tourism even though Vietnam has many well-known traditional ancient villages? According to Ms Hanh, the “Season Grain” tour builds creative new perspectives on rice to propose appropriate tourism activities which are expected to become the tourism brand for Duong Lam ancient village, such as visiting blooming rice fields, organising romantic weddings on the farm, experiencing Straw park. Plus, the “Moon Night in Duong Lam” will help visitors have a wonderful and unforgettable night in the ancient village. Model “Rice Park” with 3 main spaces: “Retro”, “Love” and “Discover”. Space ‘retro’ helps visitors return to the past with the bright yellow colour of rice paddies, with flavoured rice, heron wings, kites and flute and countryside food. Space “Love” is created with a private romantic space appropriate to datings, or taking pictures for wedding anniversary. Space “Discover” is designed for children with fun straw scarecrows and exciting straw games. Besides, the “Straw Park” with 3 areas: straw fashion show zone, straw souvenir-making zone and food zone. This is the three attractive zones with interesting activities. In particular, after an exciting day tour, visitors are relaxing in “Moon Park“. In this area, visitors will enjoy the beauty of the moonlight in Duong Lam in quiet space. These homes, built with local materials such as bamboo, wood, straw and laterite with many new forms, will create an unforgettable impression for tourists at Duong Lam Moon Night. According to Mr Pham Hung Son, Head of the Management Board of Duong Lam ancient village, this tour is very easy to put in practice because it mainly exploits the available natural resources. If this type of tourism is well-developed, it will create more jobs to improve local people’s lives. Finally, when people get real benefits from rice fields, they will realise the value and preserve “Duong Lam ancient village”. Under state management aspects, Mr Nguyen Quoc Hung, Deputy Director General of Vietnam National Department of Tourism, highly appreciated the enthusiasm of the STDe’s scientists in solving social issues related to the inefficient and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. According to Mr Hung, the tour “Season Grain” is very feasible and will bring high socio-economic efficiency for Duong Lam ancient village. Besides, the tour is also expected to become a tourism brand of Duong Lam ancient village in particular and a typical model for others ancient villages in Vietnam in general. At the end of the workshop, Dr Nguyen Thu Hanh, on behalf of STDe, awarded the project “Season Grain Tour” to a representative of Duong Lam ancient village. Ten representatives from management agencies, enterprises and research organisations have signed a memorandum to jointly develop this project into reality. Ha Vu
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 09:54:36 +0000