Rural tourism is not worthy of its potential.
Phu Yen has mostly red basalt soil suitable for growing industrial crops and perennial fruit trees. In addition, the cool highland climate, with an average temperature of 23°C, is suitable for developing resort tourism. This locality currently has 1 intangible cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO, 2 special national relics, 21 national relics, 89 provincial relics and 4 national intangible cultural relics.
Up to now, the whole province has 335 OCOP products reaching 3-4 stars, with more than 20 rural craft villages in operation, favorable for the development of eco-tourism.
However, according to local assessments, the current status of rural tourism in Phu Yen is that it is developing on a small scale, and infrastructure and supporting facilities are not yet synchronous.
Some establishments have put into operation vegetable growing and gardening to welcome visitors to experience the season. However, the products are still monotonous, the quality of service has not met the requirements of linking with provinces in the region to build regional tourism routes.
The connection between stakeholders such as people, travel businesses, local authorities, tourism management agencies, agriculture, and trade in rural tourism development is not really tight. Promotion and advertising work is almost non-existent…
Activating rural tourism development from policy
In recent years, Phu Yen has implemented many programs to promote tourism development. However, the tourism development program in the new rural construction and community tourism has not received due attention. Policies to support and promote tourism development in rural construction have not been issued fully and are not consistent. In particular, there is no set of criteria for rural tourism, so the actual implementation has encountered many difficulties and obstacles.
The pilot project to build rural tourism models and develop OCOP products in new rural construction in Phu Yen province in the period of 2024-2025, issued by the Provincial People's Committee at the end of November 2024, is considered a necessary step to remove obstacles, contributing to the goal of making tourism a spearhead economic sector of Phu Yen.
According to the project, 9 community tourism models and 1 agricultural tourism model will be implemented. These are community tourism models in Long Thuy village, Xi Thoai community tourism, Le Diem village cultural tourism, Son Xuan Red Garden community tourism, Tuyet Diem village salt production community tourism, Dong Sen eco-tourism combined with visiting and experiencing the traditional weaving village, Hon Yen community tourism, Phu Tan sedge mat village community tourism, basket weaving and corn vermicelli production tourism.
The agricultural tourism model supported for development is high-tech agricultural experience tourism in Son Long commune (Son Hoa district).
The three solutions implemented in the project are developing policies and management mechanisms; training to improve capacity for organizations and individuals participating in implementing the pilot model; supporting the development and promotion of tourism products and OCOP products.
These solutions will contribute to realizing the goal of resolving the situation of rural tourism development not ensuring legal regulations, promoting the development of this type of tourism associated with the digital transformation process.
