The potential for ecotourism development

Phong Dien district, about 16km from the center of Can Tho city, has an ideal green space because the whole district now has more than 8,500ha of garden, growing a variety of delicious fruits such as Ha Chau Burmese grape, Lo Ren star apple, durian Ri6, sweet orange, mangosteen, etc. From the advantage of natural conditions, Phong Dien people have smartly grasped the trend of tourism development, making ecotourism a typical form of the locality in the early stage.

Currently, Phong Dien district has a total of 63 tourist attractions, of which 29 are garden sites, accounting for 46%. Mr. Vo Thanh Giup, Director of the Center for Trade - Tourism Promotion and Monuments Management of Phong Dien district, says: “About 70-80% of people traveling to Phong Dien choose fruit gardens and ecotourism sites. Most of them are visitors from the two target markets namely Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The most crowded time is from the end of April to the end of summer, and the fruit orchards are in the harvest season”.

Ecotourism in the district of Phong Dien is very unique thanks to the locality having many perennial gardens with delicious varieties of fruits. The tourist gardens in the district are mainly in the communes of My Khanh, Nhon Ai, Nhon Nghia. Mr. Pham Van Phuoc, also known as uncle Tam Doi, famous for his rambutan orchard in Rach Ke, My Nhon hamlet, My Khanh commune, says: “During the fruit season, visitors come a lot, especially on weekends. Most of them come back because they like the green garden space”. The rambutan garden of uncle Tam Doi, which is over 10 years, is about 10,000 square meters wide. It still retains its pristine look, thus attracting many tourists. Rambutan is the main fruit tree in Rach Ke garden, but in order to better serve tourists, in recent years, uncle Tam Doi has also planted many other fruits such as durian, guava, orange, star apple. Moreover, he also cooperates with other garden owners to diversify types of fruits so that visitors can visit the orchards in Rach Ke all year round.

My Khanh is one of the communes with the most garden and eco-tourism sites of Phong Dien district, with many famous places nationwide, such as My Khanh Tourist Village, Ong De Tourist Village, 9 Hong Garden (famous for its star apple), Muoi Cuong garden (famous for its cocoa) and so on.  What interesting about the ecotourism in the district of Phong Dien is the program “which fruit garden, that product”, which means each typical fruit in each garden, the owners will transform into unique delicacies. For example, Lung Vot Cau Ecotourism Area is famous for mangosteen and durian; therefore its famous products are mangosteen salad and fried durian. Another example is Muoi Cuong garden with many delicious products made from cocoa such as cocoa wine, chocolate, etc. Ba Hiep garden mainly focuses on the guava trees, so there are guava salad, crispy fried guava, etc.

Ecotourism is associated with cuisine because visitors always want to enjoy the typical flavors of the locality, which are made by indigenous people. Therefore, Phong Dien also marks the talents of many artisans processing delicious dishes such as the Hammock shaped fine rice vermicelli of Ut Dzach garden, the glutinous rice cake stuffed with musk-duck meat in 9 Hong orchard, or the glutinous rice dumpling of Ms. Truong Thi Hoa Lai in Tuan Tuong orchard.

Development orientation

The orchards in the district of Phong Dien are very unique and the garden owners also try to diversify their tourism models to attract more visitors. However, the ecotourism in Phong Dien district has not yet fully developed its potential. Most of the tourist destinations here are spontaneous, small-scale, and scattered, so products and services here are easy to be duplicated. Currently, Phong Dien is planning and orienting ecotourism development. Specifically, The locality focuses on implementing the division of agricultural belt development areas associated with ecotourism like the complex of ecotourism - resorts - picnics and the combination of vegetable farming - ornamental flower village. The district of Phong Dien continues to promote effective implementation of Resolution No. 03 and Resolution No. 07 of the Party Committee of Can Tho city on promoting tourism development of Phong Dien and building the district into an ecological urban area. Accordingly, Phong Dien will focus on developing tourism in a professional and modern direction as well as exploiting the potentials and strengths of the locality efficiently and sustainably in terms of gardens, rivers, ecotourism, spiritual tourism associated with the exploitation and promotion of historical and cultural relics. Moreover, the local authorities will develop mechanisms and policies to encourage and support organizations and individuals to develop tourism on a large scale.

Local authorities are mobilizing people to develop orchards in association with tourism development as well as encouraging all economic sectors, especially households to invest, expand, and establish new tourist attractions, homestay, restaurants, etc. Currently, there are 8 local investors who are interested in tourism projects. Before that, Can Tho city also had a tourism project calling for investment called the Phong Dien eco-tourism area with a total area of 40 hectares. The project aims to exploit the advantages of Phong Dien to build a complex of entertainment and ecotourism with resorts, homestay, restaurants, an entertainment area typical of the river-garden land, and a cultural area. Besides, 3 other tourism projects are being implemented in the communes of Nhon Ai, Nhon Nghia, Truong Long. According to Mr. Vo Thanh Giup, these are all large-scale investment projects, with large areas and diverse types of services, especially towards ecotourism, community-based tourism, and luxurious riverside resort. However, these projects are also facing many difficulties due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, other destinations such as My Khanh Tourist Village, Ong De Tourist Village are continuing to expand and invest in new products and services.

The Project “Building and Developing specific tourism products of Can Tho city in the period of 2018-2020, a vision towards 2030” identifies Phong Dien as one of three localities to establish ecotourism, and garden tourism, thus becoming a highlight of Can Tho. In particular, Phong Dien is strong in eco-tourism associated with rivers. Accordingly, the tourism products in Phong Dien mainly focus on discovering the river-garden civilization and canals in Phong Dien such as Chuoi canal, Cau Nhiem canal, Cai Tac canal, etc.