Not only known for industrial parks and clusters, Binh Duong is also referred to with the system of orchards of the already famous Lai Thieu orchards, pomelo and orange fruit gardens in the lands of Tan Uyen, Bac Tan Uyen and rivers of green islets. Favorable conditions are available for Binh Duong to exploit and develop ecotourism to attract more and more visitors to the province.
Attractive ecotourism in orchards
Falling in love with the attractive invitation of mangosteen chicken salad and durian grilled chicken - the famous culinary specialties of the land of Binh Duong, we get to Cau Ngang at Hung Dinh ward of Thuan An city. There are many garden eateries that serve visiting people like Hong Van, 99 and so on. Coming to these orchards, guests can take a tour around the orchard to pick fruits and try them right away before paying for any gift by your choices. According to the owners of the local orchards here, it is often crowded at weekends, including many visitors from Ho Chi Minh city and surrounding areas. They go to the orchards to relax and to return to nature after a stressful working week. In particular, during the fruitful season (around April and May of the lunar calendar each year), the number of tourists coming to the orchard is very large.
A corner of Anh Sau Miet Vuon Restaurant at Phu An commune, Ben Cat town
After visiting the orchards, guests can choose a dish to enjoy in the dish in the huts amidst the green spaces of the orchards. In this season, the mangosteen is giving its ripe fruits that can be served in the famous mangosteen chicken salad that captures visitors. Nguyen Van Dioi, owner of the Orchard 99 in Hung Tho street, said that mangosteen will be ready in about a month to come in the full ripe season. Particularly, the orchard of Di is about 3,000m2 of fruits such as mangosteen, durian, strawberry, and jackfruit. In addition, he has also planted some grapefruit, jackfruit, and mango in the garden to serve visiting people.
In the area of Phu An commune in Ben Cat town, Anh Sau Miet Vuon restaurant owned by Trinh Van Thong is also an interesting ecological tourist attraction for many people in recent years. The orchard has been planted and cared for by Thong's family for many years and now it has given many batches of sweet fruits to serve tourists such as mangosteen, durian, orange juice, grapefruit, and guava. Thong said it is the landscape of the countryside garden plus the friendly service style, family-style rustic foods, and the quiet green space that attracts visitors to his place where guests can order rustic dishes at affordable prices to enjoy after visiting the orchard and enjoying the sweet fruits at the garden.
Referring to ecotourism in Binh Duong, it is perhaps indispensable for orange gardens in Hieu Liem commune of Bac Tan Uyen district or the sweet pomelo gardens in Bach Dang commune of Tan Uyen town. By the invitation of pomelo fame, we had the opportunity to visit Duong Van Minh's pomelo garden in Bach Dang commune. The pomelo garden has been grown in the direction of VietGAP, so pomelos are of high quality and safe for consumers. Minh said, during the process of growing pomelos, he has researched and produced some addition products from grapefruit such as pomelo oil, pomelo wine and pomelo peel jam. Pomelo gardens of Minh and many other local households in recent years have welcomed many retail customers and visitors. The sweet grapefruit of Bach Dang land and the products processed from grapefruit have not only satisfied visitors but also offered a meaningful tourist gifts to everyone on their visits.
Attention paid to development
Nguyen Duc Minh, Director of Binh Duong provincial Tourism Promotion Center, said that ecotourism is one of the types of tourism that Binh Duong tourism industry is interested in developing to serve tourists. Over the past time, ecotourism combined with resorts in Binh Duong has been developed and achieved some initial results, but it is still monotonous as the competitiveness is not high. According to the gardeners serving tourism, the form of garden ecotourism that they are implementing is pure without methodical investments nor combination with others, so the exploitation is still difficult. According to some tourists who have come to Binh Duong, to develop ecotourism and attract tourists, business units, ecotourism zones and sites need to have more forms of entertainment and association to offer more diversity in the process of serving visitors.
To develop tourism including ecotourism, most recently in October 2020, Binh Duong provincial People's Committee has issued a plan to implement Vietnam's tourism development strategy to 2030 in the province. In particular, the development of ecotourism in gardens and riverside tourism are aimed at improving the quality of tourism products, developing unique and advantageous tourism products, and diversifying products that the plan has suggested.
In today's development era, people tend to get to the nature. Therefore, ecotourism combined with relaxation will be very attractive to tourists. From the inherent potentials, Binh Duong is eligible to develop ecotourism and waterways if local cooperation is in place for the promotion of tourism industry and investments into service and tourism in the province.
Reported by Hong Thuan – Translated by Vi Bao
