HCM City(VNA) – Agricultural tourism is one of the new tourism products of Ho Chi MinhCity with high potential of development, but providers of this kind of tourismare facing difficulties in expanding their service.   

According to the cityDepartment of Tourism, demand for farm tours rises 20-30 percent each year.Some most popular areas for tourists include the 88-hectare Ho Chi Minh City Hi-TechAgriculture Park in Cu Chi district.

Tran Kim Hang, ViceDirector of the Infrastructure Exploitation under the Ho Chi Minh City Hi-TechAgriculture Park, said that the park has offered a number of farm tours since2014. The number of tourists to the park has risen sharply to reach over 12,000in 2016 from only 7,000 in the first year. The figure is expected to hit 15,000in 2017.

However, Hang saidthat the park has yet to give adequate investment to the product, with a lackof many services for tourists.

Nguyen Duy Son, Vice Chairmanof the Management Board of the park, pointed to a lack of human resources fortourism in the park.

Son stressed that inorder to survive and develop, it is necessary to invest more in personnelquality targeting specific groups of tourists.

Truong Minh Hau, ViceDirector of Tourism Promotion Agency under the city Department of Tourism heldthat firms should decide which kind of customers they wish to attract and designtheir tourism services accordingly.

According to Hau,while investment in tourism infrastructure is necessary, only facilities tomeet basic demand of tourists are needed to avoid stretching resources. What ismore important is to train their tour guides, establish connections with localcommunity and strengthen communications to promote their tourism products,especially through social media.

Local firms alsoproposed that the Government should design policies to support infrastructuresystem in rural areas to serve agriculture tourism, while building a set ofcriteria for standards of this kind of product.

Bui Ta Hoang Vu,Director of the city Department of Tourism said that tourism is a specialeconomic sector that requires strong connection among sectors and regions.

In the future, thedepartment will continue working with other departments and sectors to improvethe city’s tourism products with agriculture tourism one of priorities.-VNA