Bustling tourism in the flower season
In recent years, the trend of flower season travel has become increasingly popular. From the mid-year Lunar New Year holiday in 2025, Moc Chau (Son La) has entered the plum blossom season. Millions of tourists from all over flock to take photos to check-in and experience the spring atmosphere in the highland town on the first day of the year.
According to statistics, Moc Chau has welcomed more than 1.3 million visitors, earning more than 1,200 billion VND in this year's plum blossom season. This is an unprecedented record for the tourism industry in this locality.
Right after the Moc Chau plum blossom season is the time when ban flower blooms in the highland villages. On March 14-15, Dien Bien and Son La City consecutively opened the Ban flower festival with many cultural and tourism activities attracting visitors.
Also on March 15, the paint flower festival took place in Nam Nghiep village (Ngoc Chien commune, Muong La); the Si Ma Cai White Crystal Festival was held in Quan Ho Than commune (Lao Cai) on a district-level scale. Visitors here can participate in mountain climbing competitions combined with sightseeing and exploring the beautiful scenery of Spring in the Northwest mountains and forests.
Not only the northern mountainous region, many other provinces and cities across the country are also bustling with promotions, becoming an attractive destination for visitors during the flower seasons. In addition to natural flowers, many gardeners in Da Lat, Lam Dong or the Western provinces have begun to open their doors to visitors, bringing more income to local people.
Potential for tourism development according to the flower season
Flower season destinations become a new trend for tourism development in Vietnam. Eco-tourism associated with local cultural and customs experiences brings many new and attractive things to tourists.
Talking to Lao Dong, Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu - General Director of Vitamin Tours - said: " there are many flower seasonal tourism routes in countries around the world, typically tour to see cherry blossoms in Korea, Japan, the US, visit lavender gardens in France... In Vietnam, we have the advantage of having many provinces and cities have beautiful flower seasons, combined with the natural scenery that breaks the soul of tourists".
Taking advantage of that, travel businesses have launched many flower viewing tours, participating in flower festivals, combined with sightseeing and scenic spots in the locality. Spring tours to Ha Giang, Lang Son, Son La... combined with flower viewing have received much attention from tourists.
In addition to long-term tours, many visitors choose photo tours taken during the day or 2 days 1 night to take photos with the flowers.
Photographer Hoang Duong shared with Lao Dong: Since the beginning of Spring, every week, I often organize photo tours to welcome visitors to Ha Giang, Moc Chau (Son La) to take photos with peach blossoms, blooming plum blossoms, enjoy local cuisine and visit some interesting destinations. Most tourists are satisfied when admiring beautiful natural scenery at cheap prices compared to flower viewing tours abroad.
Vice President of the Vietnam Tourism Association Phung Quang Thang commented that in order for tourism in the flower season to develop sustainably in Vietnam, it is necessary to overcome existing disadvantages.
According to Mr. Thang, countries with flower seasons and leaf-changing seasons becoming tourism brands and attracting many visitors all have plans to grow trees in the region. At the same time, destinations also offer many other services in addition to the experience of viewing flowers and taking photos. However, in Vietnam, flower season tourism is still seasonal.
To overcome this weakness, Mr. Thang said that localities need to have planning measures, increase flower growing areas for tourism at the same time, increase the experience of tourists by organizing festivals associated with flowers, combining cultural and culinary products to enhance the typical tourism brands of each locality.
