Promoting Vietnam's medicinal tourism in the "new normal"

A herbal-farm-stay in Binh Dinh province with combined with herbal foot bath service for staying guests (Photo: Vu Duc Hoa)

With the strength of being a country rich in nature and magnificent landscapes plus a treasure trove of traditional healthcare medicinal herbs for thousands of years, what can Vietnam do to combine those two competitive strengths to be sustainable development combined with effective conservation?

At the workshop to comment on the draft "Project on developing types of services and production of traditional medicinal products for tourists in the period of 2020-2030" participated by the Department of Traditional Medicine Management (Ministry of Health) and Tourism Department (VNAT), the delegates agreed that promoting the specific strengths of Vietnamese traditional medicine, associated with healthcare tourism is considered an inevitable trend in the future to increase international competitiveness. Nonetheless, in order to initiate projects to develop medicinal herbs associated with community-based tourism at high practical values, which not only meet the wellness needs of tourists but also promote products and improve the livelihoods of local people, requires sustainable and rhythmic cross-sectoral cooperation.

The potential of the tourism industry 

Since 2014, the American magazine Elite Daily has ranked Vietnam as one of the 10 cheapest travel countries in the world with a spending budget of less than 20 USD/day. Only 5 years later, Vietnam has entered the Top 10 most attractive destinations in the world in 2019 and is also one of the 10 countries with the fastest tourism growth in the world. The most remarkable thing is that, within the last 3-4 years, Vietnam has not been absent in any international award "race" for resort tourism. Even, the quality and quantity of awards next year are always higher than the previous year. According to the results of the most searched destination survey for the second half of 2020 conducted by the online travel booking platform Agoda, Vietnam ranks 4th in the Top 10 dream destinations of 2021, along with Taiwan, Thailand, and Japan.

However, how can Vietnam's tourism industry maintain its performance, continue to rank up, and attract international tourists when facing numerous difficulties caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic?

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong - Deputy Director of the General Department of Tourism, tourism is a general economic sector, the competitiveness of tourism depends on the competitiveness of related sectors. In 14 groups of indicators ranking the competitiveness of the tourism industry, there are many indicators associated with other industries such as transportation, health care, education and training, environment, etc. Therefore, it is not only limit     ed to supporting tourism businesses, other ministries and sectors must also improve the competitiveness index within their management and "shake hands" with the tourism industry to improve the position of Vietnam's tourism in the ranking of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The potential of traditional medicine industry

Vietnam has favorable natural conditions, biodiversity, and rich treasures of herbal knowledge used by different ethnic communities. Indeed, Vietnam is rated by the World Health Organization as one of the top five countries in the world possessing an abundant and high-value source of medicinal herbs, combined with a long-standing traditional medicine capital with many valuable remedies. 

According to statistics from the Institute of Medicinal Materials, up to now, Vietnam has recorded over 5,000 species of plants and fungi, 408 species of animals, and 75 kinds of minerals with medicinal uses. Among the announced species, there are many species classified as rare in the world such as Yellow Panax notoginseng, Lilium pumilum, Red pine, Ngoc Linh ginseng (or Vietnamese ginseng).

Most of the medicinal herbs have flowers, instead of just planting flowers to attract tourists, the herbal flowers blooming on the vast green gardens are even more attractive to many tourists, especially foreign ones. In addition to selling entrance tickets or organizing accommodation services, farm owners also have a large source of income from harvesting plant parts for medicinal purposes and selling raw or processed products immediately to visitors.

The wonderful matching pieces are leaving open

The development of medicinal herbs is often the work of the health sector and agriculture. This leads to a waste of a very large market: the green tourism market. In the context of growing sustainable tourism today, it is necessary to build areas for growing and developing medicinal herbs and gardens associated with tourism activities, such as herbal tourism, ecotourism, experiential tourism, horticultural tourism, etc. When seen and experienced, tourists tend to buy products, adding value to both medicinal herbs and tourism. According to Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Van On, this is also the best way to promote to develop the market.

For example, in Ma Tra village, Sa Pa commune, Sa Pa district, the Mong ethnic people proudly state that artichoke leaves changed their lives and contribute to the development of indigenous tourism products from artichokes. If before, each year the whole family here only relied on one rice crop with an income of about 6-7 million VND for a very poor life, now the artichoke garden brings each family revenue of up to 30 million VND each year. Also thanks to the expansion of the artichoke growing area on a large scale, every day, his artichoke garden may be full of tourists, including foreigners to visit, take pictures, making the village lively... The indigenous locals then change their life thanks to a herbal, have money to buy TVs, motorbikes, etc., and save.

Chay Lap farmstay

Sustainable marketing strategy

Herbal tourism can be practiced at agri- and ecotourism farms, educational farms, open-air museums, and educational centers. The medicinal farmstay is a farmstay model specializing in the cultivation of medicinal plants such as ginseng, tritium, and cloves... instead of other common plants. Tourists who resort or visit farmstays will experience the planting, caring, or even using of medicinal plants in the farm itself. As a result, medicinal farmstays can reap many benefits by taking advantage of the development of medicinal herbs associated with community tourism such as: Selling medicinal products from the farm; Combining culinary from medicinal herbs; Combination of traditional medicine therapy as physical therapy, acupressure, acupuncture, foot bath, body bath, sauna, etc; Combination of yoga and meditation exercises; Training in basic methods of herbal medicine; Let guests experience a day of living like a real farmer; Combining the tour and taking photos of the medicinal garden as a unique check-in point.

Furthermore, regarding herbal tourism (including both medicinal and wellness), developing countries have a clear competitive advantage. For many developing countries, including least developed countries, tourism is already a strong foreign exchange earner and often the most important services export. Indeed, the preparation of an attractive herbal offer also allows for activation of the local community by creating additional jobs in the field of tourism, development of agri- and ecotourism farms, local processing plants, and drying plants. This allows to fully use the local natural and cultural potential.

Notwithstanding, to convince people to believe in the economic value of medicinal farmstay is a rather difficult journey. Deputy Director of TrapacoSapa Le Quan once said that ethnic minority people are inherently illiterate and dependent-minded. Therefore, to build trust, the company must provide free seeds, hand-in-hand with farming techniques, lend money to buy fertilizers, install irrigation systems, set up rooms,... and other stuff to help them optimize the customer experience.

In summary, the combination of a medicinal farm with horticultural or wellness services, and the purchase of products to bring back will diversify services, bring rich experience values, for businesses and tourists. The industry also provides potential opportunities to preserve the country's precious medicinal plant biodiversity, as well as develop a myriad of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and offer new local jobs, therefore creating a great combination of economic, environmental, and social value.