HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism sector needs to make sweeping changes in developing high-tech agritourism, which is expected to earn the city millions of USD, heard a conference held in the southern hub on October 5.

Nguyen Minh Tri, from the municipal Department of Tourism, said HCM City, endowed with various natural resources and diverse culture, holds huge potentials for agritourism development. Eco-tourism, garden tourism, waterway tourism, orchid gardens and local staples will be attractive to tourists, he said.

Tran Thi Kim Hang from the management board of the city’s high-tech agriculture zone told participants that the zone welcomed about 12,000 visitors in 2016, up 5,000 from 2014.

However, the lack of professional human resources, accommodation facilities, entertainment areas and vehicles to transport tourists is a major barrier hindering the development of agritourism, she said, adding that orientations should be well mapped out in the time to come.

The tourism sector should pay due attention to training skills for tourism workers and connecting travel agents with high-tech agriculture zones in provinces and cities, Hang suggested.

In recent years, agritourism has brought tens of millions, even billions of USD, to regional countries like Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China thanks to their practical policies.

Thailand has encouraged farm model since 1997, the RoK has implemented a policy to increase farmers’ incomes through agritourism development since 1984 while rural hostels have been built across Japan since 1995.-VNA