Developing OCOP products associated with tourism

Phu Tho has a lot of potential to develop OCOP products associated with tourism, but in reality, OCOP tourism service products in the province are still limited, so the connection between OCOP products and tourism needs to be done. With more attention from the government and functional agencies, it is necessary to increase the number of OCOP tourism service products and promote the promotion and sale of OCOP products at tourist destinations.

Tea growing areas in the province have great potential to develop OCOP products and tourism services.

Not worthy of potential

Manh Lien Clean Vegetable, Root, and Fruit Cooperative (Cooperative) in Huong Non commune, Tam Nong district has a farm with a scale of more than 7,000 square meters growing clean vegetables, tubers, and fruits with a sun-cutting net system and convection fans. , Israeli sprinkler and drip irrigation with an investment of more than four billion VND, applied with automatic controller, creating excitement for visitors. To attract customers, the cooperative does not charge visitors to visit, experience or watch the production process of clean vegetables, tubers and fruits. Visitors only have to pay when buying products from the farm.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Manh - Director of Manh Lien Clean Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative shared: "Some weeks, on Saturdays and Sundays, the farm welcomes hundreds of visitors and many students. Products including guava, melon, cucumber, asparagus... of the cooperative are recognized as OCOP with three stars, rated by consumers as high quality, always clean, fresh and delicious. Therefore, when visiting here, most tourists are interested in the products and buy in large quantities, especially those from neighboring provinces. Because there are no fees, selling products from vegetables, tubers, and fruits is the main source of profit for the cooperative."

Foreign tourists experience wrapping banh chung at Hung Lo community tourism site, Hung Lo commune, Viet Tri city.

With the determination to build the first OCOP product in rural tourism in the province, Tan Son district has developed many locations associated with fun activities and experiences of Xuan Son National Park such as: Water pond, du flower road. Xuan Son calendar... At the end of 2022, the product “Xuan Son Community Tourism” of Xuan Son Community Tourism Service Cooperative Group was recognized as OCOP with three stars. This is the first OCOP product in tourism services of Phu Tho province to be recognized.

In order for the OCOP product “Xuan Son Community Tourism” to attract domestic and international tourists, members of the Cooperative Group determined that it is necessary to invest, improve the quality of accommodation facilities, and create green environmental landscapes. , clean, beautiful, organizes many interesting experiential activities. Xuan Son not only attracts tourists to visit, but many television dramas loved by audiences also choose Xuan Son as a filming location.

However, up to now, the whole province has only two OCOP products associated with tourism services: “Xuan Son community tourism” and “Hung Lo community tourism”. The current difficulty in developing tourism service OCOP products is determined to be that other OCOP agricultural products are small-scale, the subject does not have management capacity, and lacks knowledge about market economy and development. along the chain, not paying attention or focusing on introducing tourist attractions to provide for tourists, so it is not worthy of the potential.

Awaken potential and advantages

According to Mr. Vu Quoc Tuan - Director of the Rural Development Department, Phu Tho has the potential to build and link tours and tourist routes from unique farming methods. Typically, planting, cultivating, and processing products from grapefruit trees in Doan Hung district; Gia Thanh seedless persimmons on fields and hills in Phu Ninh district; tea harvesting and processing in Long Coc commune, Tan Son district; Fish farming in the Da River and Lo River lake beds... In particular, the indigenous people are always friendly, enthusiastic, and hospitable, impressing visitors. This is a great opportunity for localities to develop agricultural tourism.

The OCOP 3-star community tourism product Xuan Son, Tan Son district is invested in, attracting more and more tourists to experience.

Among the six OCOP product groups, tourism service products are considered an important group, a solution to help consume local products effectively, increase income, and contribute to building new, more sustainable rural areas. The most important thing is to attach OCOP products and typical local agricultural products to tourist destinations and use them as products and services for tourists to buy as gifts because the needs of today’s tourists do not just stop at Visiting, exploring, learning, relaxing, studying at a destination and shopping is also one of the purposes of experiencing it.

The Provincial Tourism Promotion Information Center is currently implementing tours to bring tourists, especially international tourists, to visit and experience agricultural craft villages such as: Banh chung, banh giay, rice noodle making villages. In Hung Lo commune, Da Hen tea production and processing village, Tan Duc safe vegetable craft village, Duc My traditional soy sauce village, Gia Thanh conical hat craft village, Do Xuyen wicker craft village...

In addition, the Center also deploys a school tour “Towards the roots” for students including attractive activities such as: Visiting the Hung Kings Museum, offering incense to commemorate the Hung Kings, and enjoying art shows. “Hung Vuong’s fairy tale” or watch a water puppet show... Besides, the Center also organizes for visitors to visit Doan Hung grapefruit garden, experience grapefruit harvesting, making grapefruit essential oil, grapefruit jam; Experience tea picking and tea processing from Long Coc tea hill...

In fact, our province still has many potentials and advantages to develop OCOP products, including tourism service OCOP products. To effectively exploit the potential, appropriate policies are needed. First, entities need to proactively register to develop the OCOP product brand associated with community tourism, ecotourism or discovery tourism. For tourist destinations, it is necessary to build OCOP booths at the campuses, ensuring that the structure is not disrupted and does not affect cultural, historical, and humanistic values.

Staff selling OCOP products at tourist destinations need to be trained and promote and propagate OCOP information to customers in a friendly, enthusiastic, and professional manner to attract the attention of tourists. In addition, trade promotion agencies and tourist destination management boards need to come up with reasonable policies to further improve the competitiveness of OCOP products with other products on the market.

Quan Lam