Phu Tho (VNA) – As one of the 15 largest national parks in Vietnam, Xuan Son National Park in Xuan Son commune, Tan Son district, the northern province of Phu Tho, is an attractive tourist destination.
Located about 120km from Hanoi, the park has a total area of more than 15,000 ha, 84% of which are forests. It boasts impressive springs, falls, mountains, caves, and a daily changing climate.There are 726 species of plants and 365 species of animals in the park, which has the largest number of chamois in the country.
It boasts values of landscape, geology, diverse ecosystems, rich natural resources, and unique traditional culture of the Muong and Dao ethnic groups.
Recognising those advantages, Tan Son district has focused on developing community tourism and eco-tourism that bring visitors great experiences.
Resolutions of the 5th Xuan Son Commune Party Congress in the 2020-2025 term identified the development of community tourism and eco-tourism as a contributor to promoting the province’s economic restructuring, increasing incomes, creating jobs, and reducing poverty for local residents.
To date, the commune has had 11 homestay service providers with 45 private rooms and 12 community rooms. They can provide accommodations to about 700 guests and also offer traditional products of ethnic minority groups such as wine made with yeast from plants, Tan Son stream ducks, and five-colour sticky rice.
Currently, the average per capita income in the commune reaches 24 million VND (945 USD) per year. The rate of poor households in the commune decreased to 23.8%, and near-poor households to 22.5%.
Meanwhile, Long Coc – a tea-growing area - is another emerging tourist attraction of Phu Tho province. Covering an area of 677 ha, Long Coc attracts tourists with its poetic and picturesque scenery. To add experiences to visitors, local tea producing households also take part in tourism activities. Farmers are instructed to turn their daily work into attractive tourism products.
Nguyen Xuan Toan, Chairman of Tan Son district People's Committee, said that the district has paid much attention to developing tourism models with the participation of local households.
The district proposed the provincial People’s Committee to recognise tourist destinations such as Du village community tourism site, Coi village community ecotourism site, Thac Ngoc eco-tourism area. Until now. The three destinations have had operation regulations and received visitors.
Notably, the district has taken measures to preserve typical cultural values such as housing, costumes, festivals, and folk cultural performances in communes of Long Coc, Kim Thuong, Xuan Dai, Xuan Son, and Dong Son.
The district has also promoted agricultural production programmes, developed One Commune-One Product (OCOP) products to serve tourism such as multi-spur chicken, free-range chicken, stream duck, hybridised wild boars, and honey.
The locality is paying attention to preserving traditional culinary products such as rice in bamboo tubes, colourful sticky rice, stream fish, fermented meat, corn wine, and traditional cakes.
Brocaded items such as pants, shirts, scarves, bags, blankets, pillows, cushions, handicraft weaving and production tools such as baskets, knife sheaths, baskets, and crossbows are now made as souvenirs for tourists./.
