Evaluating the Development Potential of Ornamental Flower Craft Villages in Thu Duc District in the Direction of Tourism Associated with Environmental Protection

The environment does not affect human health. In addition, awareness of pesticide shell disposal is also paid more attention... the appearance of the flower village is also improved and attracts many tourists.

Developing craft villages in the direction of eco-tourism with environmental protection will be a way to vividly introduce the people and typical products of the locality, will create conditions for service development in the district, gradually contributing to the local budget with green areas of garden houses, effectively serving the needs of local urbanization that are increasingly developing stably.

3.5.1.3 Weaknesses

Besides the advantages for developing craft villages, Thu Duc flower and ornamental craft village has and is having the following disadvantages. These are the challenges that hinder the development of the craft village.

 Form of production organization: ornamental plants are still in the form of households, small scale, based on experience, family tradition, lack of investment in science and technology, no connection between production and consumption, so the competitiveness of products is still low, income of workers and producers is not high.

 Moreover, the ornamental flower industry is developing and bringing in high income, but according to the survey results, in the future there will be very few successors and continue to do this job, the shortage of labor and experienced artisans is inevitable (reason: children of ornamental plant growers have followed their own path, and do not want to do this job...). Therefore, the craft village is gradually fading away, and this is also one of the reasons why sustainable development is needed for the craft village to survive in the long term.

 Farming households participating in production in craft villages are still small, fragmented, not concentrated, and there is no connection or cooperation between households to increase production quality.

In general, in the flower village, there are many different production models suitable for the geographical location and land fund of each household as well as economic capacity. The land fund is almost fully exploited, it can be planted in front of the house, in the area around the house, next to the river bank.

River. Shows that there must be specific planning to avoid impacts on the ecosystem and environment.

 Households are not interested in promoting and introducing products widely through services, websites... to have many customers, but mainly because they have been doing it for a long time, have connections or are introduced through acquaintances, so they have the ability to develop widely and become known to many people.

3.5.1.4 Risk

 Risks to product quality due to the impact of weather factors: Flooding due to heavy rain and high tides in low-lying areas of the district still occurs in the last months of the year and the current state of water pollution due to factories and enterprises discharging to the production conditions of farmers, especially for ornamental flower gardens located near the canal system, has not been completely resolved. However, today, with the advancement of science and technology and the learning of garden artisans, they can use the knowledge accumulated over many years and the support of tools such as light bulbs, roofs, etc. to proactively bloom the flowers of ornamental apricot trees because the early or late blooming depends mainly on the temperature. If the weather is too cold, gardeners can increase the temperature by turning on light bulbs, limiting watering, but if the temperature is high, gardeners can use roofs to block solar energy and water the plants more.

Therefore, households now have measures to overcome and avoid most of the risks caused by weather.

 Market fluctuations: due to uneven consumer demand and product quantity on the market, there are years of poor harvests when goods are scarce, and years of good harvests when prices of ornamental plants also decrease.

 Impact of urbanization: In agricultural production in general and ornamental plant production in general and ornamental plant production in particular, there are more and more difficulties due to the urbanization process, the area of agricultural land is increasingly narrowing and most of it is located in areas planned for construction, compensation is being made to specialized land for building infrastructure, industry, trade, and services.

and new residential areas. The area of ornamental flowers in the ornamental flower village by the end of 2010 was 114.29 hectares, only 7.92% of the plan, due to the impact of site clearance for the Tan Son Nhat - Binh Loi - Outer Ring Road project; some areas of land for cultivating ornamental flowers in Hiep Binh Chanh and Linh Dong wards were cleared.

 Impact on public health: Because most households produce right at home, the distance between the garden and the house is not far, the problem of improper use of plant protection equipment can cause some impacts on human health.

Adverse impact on the environment: due to the influence of pesticides, soil and water environments may be affected.

3.5.2 Assessment of the development potential of ornamental flower villages in Thu Duc district in the direction of eco-tourism associated with environmental protection

Currently, Thu Duc flower village mainly operates in the production and trading of apricot flowers, orchids and ornamental plants. There are no tourism activities, so there is no investment in infrastructure and technical infrastructure to serve tourism, but only for production. In addition, environmental issues in the craft village have not received due attention and investment in wastewater and solid waste collection and treatment systems. Therefore, in this section, the thesis will evaluate the natural conditions and resources of Thu Duc flower village to assess the potential, favorable level, and suitability for tourism development in the future. The infrastructure and technical infrastructure indicators and criteria for community participation will not be evaluated and solutions to overcome these problems will be proposed in chapter 6 to develop the eco-tourism craft village in combination with environmental protection.

Based on the proposed criteria in chapter 4, the potential assessment of natural conditions and resources of Thu Duc ornamental flower village is as follows:

3.5.2.1 Attractiveness

The most typical feature of Thu Duc ornamental flower village is the apricot blossom. “The apricot tree is very picky. To have a beautiful Tet apricot tree, it must have all four elements: “first shape – second base – third decay”.

– posture”. To have yellow apricot trees worth hundreds of millions, gardeners must spend at least 5 years planting, caring for and shaping the apricot trees.

Speaking of apricot blossoms, everyone knows about Thu Duc ornamental flower village, flower village.

No one knows when it was formed, but over the years and generations, it has created a brand of apricot blossoms in the hearts of the city's people. With that long-standing tradition, Thu Duc ornamental flower craft village is now a gathering place for famous artisans and rare, valuable apricot varieties that are not available anywhere else. This is a special feature, a precious tree, endemic to the craft village.

At Thu Duc ornamental flower village today, the total area for growing apricot trees is more than 100 hectares with different sizes, shapes, types and values, from a few million VND to hundreds of millions, including valuable trees from many years ago that are also gathered in the flower village.

Some valuable and typical apricot trees in Thu Duc ornamental flower village:

- Mai garden of Mr. Giang Kien Hoa (born 1966, Hiep Binh Phuoc ward, Thu Duc district, Ho Chi Minh City) with 2 ancient mai trees over 100 years old.

- Some rare and valuable apricot trees in Minh Thuy apricot garden of Mr. Phan Xuan Thong, Hiep Binh Phuoc ward, Thu Duc district: Water hyacinth apricot, number 8 shaped apricot (prosperity - wealth).[19]

Not only famous for its rare and valuable apricot varieties, Thu Duc ornamental flower village is also famous for its valuable ornamental plants.

In addition to being famous for its flower village, Thu Duc district also has a number of ancient cultural relics and famous pagodas, which have great potential for tourism associated with flower village ecotourism. The list of historical and cultural relics in Thu Duc area is shown in Table 5-1.[21]

Table 3-7. List of historical and cultural relics in Thu Duc district

STT

NAME OF THE SITE

ADDRESS

DECISION

Organizations and individuals who are owners or direct

continue management

National Monument

Relics

Truong Tho Communal House Art Architecture

Truong Tho Ward

No. 39/2002/QD-

BVHTT, December 30, 2002

Board of Trustees

Architectural and artistic monuments

Xuan Hiep Communal House

Linh Xuan Ward

No. 101/2004/QD-

BVHTT, December 15, 2004

Board of Trustees

City level monument

Architectural and artistic monuments

Linh Tay Temple

Ward 2, Linh Tay Ward

No. 328/2003/QD-

UB, December 31, 2003

Board of Trustees

Architectural and artistic monuments

Thien Phuoc Pagoda

37/217

Ward 8, Truong Tho Ward

No. 24/2005/QD-

UB, February 1, 2005

Board of Trustees

Architectural and artistic monuments

Tomb of the Ancestor Ta Duong Minh

Number 10 Street

10 Ward 4,

Linh Chieu ward

No. 3266/QD-

People's Committee, July 27, 2007

People's Committee of Linh Chieu Ward

Architectural and artistic monuments

Binh Tho Communal House

Road No. 2

Ward 7, Truong Tho Ward

No. 3036/QD-

People's Committee, June 20, 2009

Board of Trustees

Architectural and artistic monuments

Sung Duc Pagoda

No. 50, Street No. 3, Ward 6, Ward

Longevity

No. 3040/QD-

People's Committee, June 20, 2009

Board of Trustees

Chau Hung Pagoda historical site

37 Cay Keo Street, Ward 1,

Tam Phu

No. 3946/QD-

People's Committee, August 18, 2011

Venerable Thich Tac Lanh

Maybe you are interested!

In addition, Thu Duc district has 101 Buddhist monasteries, pagodas, hermitages, and Buddhist prayer halls with about 606 permanent and temporary monks and nuns and nearly 50,000 Buddhist followers.

Thu Duc District is also the residence of the Venerable Monks who lead the Church. Among them, there are some famous pagodas that are among the famous pagodas in Ho Chi Minh City such as:

- One Pillar Pagoda - Nam Thien Nhat Tru Pagoda (Dang Van Bi Street, Binh Tho Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City) as shown in Figure 5-11 was inaugurated on April 8, 1958 by Venerable Thich Tri Dung and a disciple named Do Thi Vinh. It is considered one of the pagodas with unique architecture in Saigon. In addition, when coming here, people can also worship the 61kg statue of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha cast in precious metal.[22]

- Van Duc Pagoda - the pagoda with the tallest main hall in Vietnam according to Figure 5-12, the main hall of Van Duc Pagoda is 43.5m high. This place is considered one of the large-scale religious architectural works in Ho Chi Minh City. In addition to its aesthetic value, the pagoda is also a model for the art of creating shapes in modern architecture.[22]

3.5.2.2 Capacity

Capacity = Average standard per individual/Area used by visitors[24]

Ecotourism in the flower and ornamental craft village with picnic standards of 60 - 90m2 / person/day to ensure that the capacity is not overloaded for the ecosystem in the area. The total area of the Thu Duc flower and ornamental craft village is more than 100ha.

So the capacity of the craft village area is 1,000,000/90 = 11,111 visitors/day

a. Connectivity

Thu Duc District is located in the Northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, about 7km from the city center. Bordering District 2, District 9, District 12 and Di An town, Binh Duong province, it is very convenient to connect tourist areas in the surrounding areas.

The places that can be linked to tourism include places in the city center, District 1 such as Ben Thanh market, Independence Palace, Ben Nha Rong,... and tourist destinations adjacent to Thu Duc district, District 9 with many potential areas for tourism development such as the national historical and cultural park, Suoi Tien cultural tourism area,

Suoi Mo tourist area, The BCR tourist area, Ao Dai museum, eco-tourism areas in District 9: Long Phuoc eco-tourism area, Thuy Lien,... Besides, District 9 is also famous for its temples, attracting tourists with spiritual needs, visiting temples such as: Buu Long pagoda, Phuoc Long pagoda, Hoi Son pagoda,... shown from Figure 5-13 to 5-17.

In addition, it can also be linked with tourist areas in Binh Duong such as Dai Nam tourist area, Thuy Chau tourist area, Lai Thieu fruit garden, etc.

With its convenient location, Thu Duc flower village has great potential for developing eco-tourism with tours linking to neighboring areas as above.

3.5.2.3Location and accessibility

With famous landmarks in Thu Duc and neighboring districts, a convenient transportation system, accessible by car, motorbike, bus and travel time of only a few hours, participating in a day tour will attract tourists who want to visit for a short time and do not have to travel far.

3.5.2.4 Mining time

Because the biggest feature of the Thu Duc flower village is the apricot blossom, a flower that only blooms during Tet every year, the peak exploitation time is only during Tet month. However, the tourist area in the flower village still has the potential to exploit other months of the year, such as tourists or those who are passionate about flowers and ornamental plants can still come here to visit, learn from the experience of the artisans in the village and can experience "a day as an artisan" learning how to prune leaves, fertilize and shape the apricot tree.

In addition, the flower and ornamental craft village also concentrates many varieties of orchids, ornamental flowers, bonsai, and construction trees that can serve tourists all year round.

3.5.2.5 Sustainability

No natural components are destroyed, if any, they are at a negligible level and are restored after a short time. Tourism activities are not affected and can take place continuously.

3.5.2.6 Safety

Ho Chi Minh City in general and Thu Duc district in particular are places that ensure social security and are not affected by natural disasters, with a pleasant temperate climate. Thu Duc district is located in the equatorial tropical monsoon region; the main characteristic is that a year is divided into two distinct seasons: the rainy season from May to November, the dry season from December to April of the following year. The average annual temperature is 27-28 0 C.

However, street vending activities still occur in this area. Therefore, the safety in the eco-tourism development area is considered quite safe.

From the above analysis and assessment of natural conditions in Thu Duc district, the results of each indicator can be calculated according to Table 5-2:

Table 3-8. Results of assessment of natural conditions for ecotourism in Thu Duc ornamental flower village

Evaluation criteria

Rating Points				Coefficient
Very high	Quite high	Medium	Least	Coefficient
Attractiveness: quite attractive		9			3
Capacity: very large	12				3
Connectivity: very good	12				3
Location and accessibility: very convenient	9				2
Mining time: medium			2		1
Durability: very durable	4				1
Safety: quite safe		3			1
Total	51

Thus, the Thu Duc flower and ornamental craft village area has very favorable natural conditions and resources for developing eco-tourism.

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