Tea Festival 2008 will be held in Bao Loc City, Central Highlands Lam Dong province from December 4 to 7, 2008. On the occasion, Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr. Pham Quang Tuong, Chairman of Bao Loc Town People’s Committee and Chief of the Organising Board.
With the determination of making each tea festival an impressive activity for Bao Loc Town, could you tell remarkable new points in the Tea Festival 2008 from the Tea Festival 2006?
Bao Loc holds advantage for growing long-day industrial crops, especially tea. The objective of the tea culture festival is to make the tea processing and trading an effective economic sector of Bao Loc in particular and Lam Dong in general. Thus, since the first tea festival in December 2006 in Da Lat City, many kinds of famous tea like Cau Dat tea were on displayed. The objective for the first and second festivals is the same but the organising method and structure of the agendas are different. This time, the organising method and structure of the agendas are more socialised. Therefore, the Tea Festival 2008 is popular and familiar in contents, activities and themes. The contents of the festival are at moderate level and attendants will feel the sociability of tea growers and traders. This programme is held by the Vietnam Tea Association in collaboration with the Lam Dong Province People’s Committee. The tea culture festival will be carried out with the purpose of tourist attraction.
Apart from introducing B’lao tea trademark, the tea festival also aims at promoting the tourism development in Lam Dong Province. Could you reassess the effectiveness of the tea festival toward the tourism development of Lam Dong Province?
Vietnam has 33 tea-growing provinces with an aggregate area of more than 125,000 hectares. Lam Dong is the tea hub with nearly 26,000 hectares of tea trees and an annualised output of 182,000 tonnes, accounting for 21 per cent of area and 27 per cent of output in the country. These figures show that tea cultivation in Lam Dong is a major economic activity and the tea tree is the key crop in the locality. At present, the tea tree is helping the province develop tourism; hence, it not only holds exporting potentiality but also helps promote tourism in this highland province. Combining ecological and resort tourist forms with the tea culture is one of the new orientations of Lam Dong Province. The ecological tea tourism form will make a debut in Lam Dong. For the time being, Lam Dong has three teahouses considered the largest in Southeast Asia.
The biannual tea festival is also an opportunity to introduce the B’lao tea trademark to visitors, consumers and tea suppliers, both domestically and internationally.
How has this event been prepared to date?
With the cooperation with Viet Pearl Media Joint Stock Company, this event will highlight many activities like tea exhibition, tea introduction, tea contest, street march, tea ceremony, tea-grower singing contests and others. Visitors will have the chance to witness the tea preparations for many famous teas and taste free local tea and country’s famous teas.
Apart from providing the public with images, materials and knowledge of tea, this festival also brings in the young and eventful atmosphere prior to the Christmas holiday. Currently, the organising board is actively cooperating with related branches to successfully organise the upcoming the event.
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