A group of foreign tourists taking part in “becoming Vietnamese farmers” in Ninh Binh Province.
For more than a year, the rural experience tourism site Buffalo Cave in Nam Hoa Lu Ward, Ninh Binh Province has drawn large international audiences eager to experience life on a Vietnamese farm.
The site was formerly the livestock farm of Nguyen The Nhi’s family. He said only after linking with tourism did the business begin to bring in meaningful income.
Nhi said that rural tourism in Ninh Binh has grown in recent years. Many foreign visitors come to the region, stay in local homestays and explore. At the beginning of 2024 his family decided to partner with young tourism operators to provide experiential farm activities to foreign customers.
Vu Thi Huyen, operations manager of the Buffalo Cave experience site, said that foreign guests used to come primarily for sightseeing, resulting in short stays and low revenue. Huyen, who has travelled widely in Vietnam and abroad, saw that foreign visitors prefer locally authentic cultural experience. Therefore creating a “Vietnamese farmer” experience for them in Ninh Binh is a new sustainable way for locals to develop their economy from their everyday life.
From chicken, duck and buffalo livestock farms, Huyen’s team and Nhi renovated the site for cleanliness and tidy presentation. When visitors arrive, those who choose the full experience pay VND 1 million (approximately USD 40) to wear a brown farmer’s shirt, ride a buffalo, wade through mud to catch fish and plant rice, among others.
Stefeno Grossi, 62, from Italy, visited Vietnam for the first time with his family. At the Ninh Binh farm experience he said: “This is our first time in Vietnam, as well as our first time doing real farm-work here. I feel very excited, relaxed and extremely happy. In Milan we never have chances to join activities like this. This is truly a priceless experience.”
Huyen added that at peak tourism season some 180 visitors per day, mostly foreigners, come to the farm. Those who only visit pay VND 75,000 (approximately USD 3) and receive complimentary drinks.
Those paying VND 1 million join all activities including feeding buffaloes, riding them into the field, preparing land for rice planting, wading in mud to catch fish, grilling fish to eat, feeding ducks and chickens, and fishing. At each activity the hosts explain the significance of the work of Vietnamese farmers.
“When visitors ride the buffalo, we explain how the buffalo is a symbol for Vietnamese farmers, ‘the head of the farm’, and how it is linked with hero Dinh Bo Linh of Ninh Binh. When visitors plant rice, we explain the growth process of wet-rice in Vietnam from sowing seeds, germination, young seedlings, transplanting, to grain formation,” Huyen said.
Foreign visitors delighted in feeding ducklings, a scene very common in Vietnam yet remarkably new to them. By linking agricultural production with rural tourism, many households in Ninh Binh have found a new sustainable path, higher income and promising growth.
In October tourist arrivals to Ninh Binh reached an estimated 624,660. Domestic tourists numbered 502,027 arrivals, foreign tourists 122,633. Revenue was estimated at more than VND 789 billion (approximately USD 31.5 million).
By the end of October this year the province had hosted over 16.6 million visitors, including 14.91 million domestic and 1.69 million foreign tourists (of which rural tourism contributed a large share). Total revenue was estimated at over VND 21,000 billion (approximately USD 840 million).
