The Sen Vang organic farm in Dong Chua hamlet of Residential Zone 9 in Thong Nhat ward, Hoa Binh city, boasts a large area of about 60ha. Applying an ecotourism model, it offers a wide range of interesting activities to visitors.
Tea made from dried "cuc chi” (Chrysanthemum indicum L) flowers is good for health.
The attractiveness of Sen Vang comes from a methodological planned space that still preserves natural beauty, simplicity, and pristineness. The farm is suitable for all visitors, from the elderly who wish to seek tranquility to young people who love to take photos and children eager to play and try new experiences. It is always full of sunlight and floral scent. This season is the time flowers of various kinds there are showing off their brilliant beauty, giving tourists an ideal destination for taking beautiful pictures. At Sen Vang, visitors can also take a rest at simple and naturally harmonious huts after touring the farm.
Spending their time at this organic farm, visitors can also try catching fish and crabs or harvesting wild bamboo shoots. Sen Vang is also home to strawberry and passion fruit gardens where they can enjoy fresh and cool drinks when the fruits are in season. Another interesting thing here is simple but delicious dishes made from locally farmed ingredients like spring fish, hill chicken, and shrimp from the Da River. In addition, hydroponically grown vegetables of the farm are also an ingredient of many fresh and healthy dishes for visitors.
Children try feeding animals at the farm.
The majority of people in Residential Zone 9 are from the Dao ethnic group. Preciously, locals mainly earned their living by doing farm work. The development of an organic farm here has helped change their livelihoods from only agriculture to tourism to raise their income.
Dinh Thi Bich Lien, owner of the Sen Vang organic farm, said her family started investing in this farm, covering more than 10ha at first, in 2019. After four years of strong efforts, the farm has generated initial stable revenue. Now, the Sen Vang agriculture and technology limited liability company has expanded the farm to over 60ha applying organic farming. Coming to this place, visitors can take beautiful pictures, caring plants and animals like sheep, goats, rabbits and chickens by themselves, or joining locals in harvesting medicinal herbs. Besides, it also supplies organic vegetables for the market.
Recently, the industrial promotion centre of Hoa Binh province has provided over 300 million VND (nearly 12,400 USD) in financial support for the farm to equip itself with machinery for producing herbal shampoo and drying organic fruits. Some main processed products of the farm include chrysanthemum tea, rose tea, dried perilla, distilled rose water, and citronella oil.
The farm is providing stable jobs for 10 locals with monthly income of 6 - 9 million VND.
Lien said she hopes that not only workers at her farm but all local residents will also change their agricultural production mindset and cultivate organic crops to form a production zone and improve product value.
In the coming time, the Sen Vang farm will continue expanding its scale and combine the preservation of the Dao ethnic culture with the development of experience tourism to help create jobs for more people and contribute to local socio-economic development, she added.
In the first 9 months of 2024, Hoa Binh province continues to implement the expanded tourism development cooperation program plan of 8 Northwest provinces with Ho Chi Minh City; deploying digital transformation content in tourism and developing a smart tourism province. Hoa Binh province received about 3.6 million views, an increase of 7.9% over the same period. In which, international visitors are about 380 visitors, domestic visitors are estimated at 3 million 220 visitors.
Spanning thousands of hectares and winding gracefully along mountain slopes, hillsides, and riverbanks, the terraced rice fields of Lac Son District present a stunning and captivating beauty. This region, renowned for its remarkable terraced landscapes, is also the centre of Hoa Binh Culture known for numerous archaeological sites.
The life of Mong people in Hang Kia and Pa Co communes of Mai Chau district has improved much thanks to tourism development.
The man-made Hoa Binh Lake, with a water surface area of approximately 9,000 hectares and a capacity of 9.45 billion cubic meters, stretches over 200 kilometers from Hoa Binh to Son La provinces. With the goal of developing into a national tourism area, the Hoa Binh Lake tourism area is expected to not only become the largest tourism centre in the province but also one of the 12 key tourist destinations in the northern midland and mountainous region of Vietnam.
Da Bia hamlet, now Duc Phong, in Tien Phong commune, Da Bac district, was once almost isolated from the outside as the only way to the hamlet was to get a boat ride across the Hoa Binh reservoir. However, as its tourism potential has been unleashed, the hamlet has established itself as one of the most attractive destinations on the tourism map. It has even received the ASEAN Community-Based Tourism Awards in 2019.
In the first 9 months of 2024, Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh province welcomed over 684 thousand visitors to visit and relax. In which, over 516 thousand domestic visitors and more than 168 thousand international visitors. Total revenue from tourism is estimated at over 821 billion VND.