Unlocking tourism potential in Dong Hy tea area
Dong Hy currently has nearly 4,000 hectares of raw tea, of which the main tea growing areas such as Van Han, Khe Mo, Minh Lap, Hoa Trung, and Song Cau town have been assigned location codes on the global GPS system, so consumers can easily trace the origin of the products. In addition, the locality has 10 traditional tea villages, and 7 tea production and processing cooperatives with 22 products achieving OCOP from 3 stars or more.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Van, Director of Thai Minh Cooperative, Van Han Commune said: We have chosen the direction of organic tea to produce high-quality tea products, ensuring domestic and international standards, diversifying designs, products and focusing on building trade brands to enhance product value.
Not only favorable for tea development, Dong Hy is also endowed by nature with many landscapes and historical relics. Ten Village with its wild beauty and cool climate is likened to a miniature Sapa of Thai Nguyen; Suoi Tien - where there is a natural stream flowing for kilometers, the top of the stream has a beautiful cave and waterfall. Along with that, tea hills stretch for tens of kilometers. Dong Hy was also an ATK area during the resistance war; cultural and historical values are being preserved, conserved and promoted. These are great potentials for the locality to exploit and develop many types of tourism, especially tea experience tourism and community eco-tourism.
Dong Hy has a large area of specialty tea materials. Midland tea varieties have created special products with very high value such as “Dinh” tea and “Tom non” tea which are 5-10 times more valuable than normal.
Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoc, Secretary of Dong Hy District Party Committee, said: In addition to expanding the tea growing area, the district has directed the application of science and technology to improve productivity and product quality, gradually converting to organic tea production; At the same time, combining with the development of eco-tourism, tea village experience tourism to introduce, promote and develop the Dong Hy tea brand, capable of competing with other tea brands and reaching out to the international market... The demand of the domestic and international markets for Thai Nguyen tea products as gifts is increasing. However, the taste for Thai Nguyen green tea is not yet popular in the world, so it is very necessary to increase the introduction and promotion of tea products and tea culture through tourism products. With a terrain of many gentle hills, a cool and fresh climate that are ideal for tea trees to grow, along with a system of caves, streams and indigenous culture, Dong Hy has been and is on the right track in developing the agricultural economy, in which tea trees are the main force that will open up the potential to develop tourism and the local tea brand.