Fostering green and lasting Vietnamese village tourism

Fostering green and lasting Vietnamese village tourism

Established in 2015 and rapidly growing ever since, Mekong Rustic with two main campuses in Can Tho and Tien Giang has become a favourite destination of many international tourists, like those from Europe, America, Australia, and Northeast Asian countries.

Consecutively in 2018, 2019, and 2020 the resort received this Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor for the high ratings it received from travellers for its location, cleanliness, service, and value.

More particularly, this year’s TripAdvisor certificate stands for both quality accommodations and tour activities that Mekong Rustic Can Tho has been delivering.

However, the factor that contributes to Mekong Rustic’s success lies not only in the quality of the service, but more importantly, the values to the community that the project delivers. By cooperating with locals in Phong Dien town (Can Tho province) and Tan Phong island (Tien Giang province) to develop community-based tourism, Mekong Rustic now offers homestay services in both middle-range homestays at local households or high-class bungalows in the middle of fruit orchards.

Local households share the indigenous culture and participate in activities with tourists through cultural experiences, visiting traditional handicraft villages, and organising tours to explore the countryside and floating markets.

“Tourists may come to Mekong Rustic to offer a helping hand in developing sustainable and responsible tourism, preserving the Mekong’s traditional handicraft villages and cultural values,” said Nguyen Ngoc Bich, founder and director of Mekong Rustic.

Bich reaffirmed that he aims to create “a responsible tourism community led by local people”, by cooperating with local people who have the same passion for doing community-based tourism, training, vocational training, and helping them operate tourism services in their own homeland. After that, Bich and his team targets to build a model towards agri-tourism and wellness tourism bases.

As an enthusiast and experienced in the field of community-based tourism, Bich is also an independent consultant for non-governmental organisations and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in some localities in the north and in the Mekong Delta to build and develop tourism projects.

He always finds the typical strengths of each destination to build suitable, unique products to attract domestic and international tourists.

The projects under the support of Bich are mostly located in rural areas with the main beneficiaries being farmers with no experience in tourism. The success of these projects has made an important contribution to preserving the nature of the countryside, preserving the culture of the local people and promoting the sustainable development of Vietnam’s tourism industry.