Hanoi will evaluate the performance of agricultural and rural tourism towards green and sustainable growth via a set of criteria that aims to improve the quality and promotion of agritourism activities.

A local tourist is picking black grapes at a Dan Phuong District's farm. Photos: Ngoc Anh/ The Hanoi Times

The Hanoi Department of Tourism will be in charge of the task and applies these criteria in some villages and throughout the capital city after approval by the municipal government.

At a workshop held by the Hanoi Department of Tourism on Februrary 21, participants agreed that there is a great need for the building of criteria to assess the development of agricultural and rural tourism towards green and sustainable growth in the city, in line with the tourism development policy of the central government and Hanoi.

The department's director, Dang Huong Giang, said ecological, natural, and cultural diversity and favorable location are the advantages for Hanoi's tourism to take off.

"With 806 craft villages in Hanoi, rural tourism is considered a "gold mine" of the capital's tourism," said Giang.

She said the city has 11 eco-agriculture farms operating under the education and experiential tourism model and four involved in agricultural tourism, including Long Viet Agricultural Park (Soc Son District), Ba Vi Country Farm (Ba Vi District), Van An School Farm (Thanh Tri District), and Phuc Tho Hoa Bay Ecological Garden (Phuc Tho District).

"However, developing these tourism models still has been coping with poor services and inadequate infrastructure," Giang said.

There needs to be more connection between agricultural and rural tourist sites and travel businesses to build and refine products and attract tourists," Giang added.

Dao Duc Huan from the Central Coordinating Office of New Rural Development emphasized the need for several criteria, such as convenient traffic, a safe environment, good infrastructure, good waste management, and qualified human resources.

Doan Manh Cuong from the National Assembly Office's Department of Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children emphasized the balance between local people's and tourists' interests in developing agricultural and rural tourism.  

"Tourist destinations should keep in mind that the development of services should be proportional to the number of tourists to avoid overloading," he said.

In addition to this group of criteria, Vu Thi Thanh Nhu from the Vietnam Economics Science Association of Agricultural and Rural Development said that the seasonality of agricultural and rural tourism must be considered when building appropriate investment policies.

Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, Nguyen Anh Tuan, added that when developing green tourism, it is necessary to consider using green-clean energy resources.

Hanoi has set a target that, in the 2022-2025 period, each locality with agricultural and rural tourism potential will have at least one to three community-based tourism services and tourist attractions, with the participation of farmers, cooperatives, households, and businesses.

Specifically, the city will focus on building and piloting six agricultural and rural tourism development models towards green, responsible, and sustainable tourism in the districts of Thuong Tin, Dan Phuong, Thanh Tri, My Duc, Thach That, and Son Tay Town.

The city also aims to train and improve the vocational skills of at least 80% of employees in service establishments and tourist craft villages, as well as managers and agricultural and rural tourism businesses.

To achieve these goals, the city will evaluate the current situation of agricultural and rural tourism and support the development of community tourism destinations associated with traditional craft villages and agricultural and rural industries.