Unrivalled Coffee Tourism in Vietnam’s Central Highlands

“Experiencing with coffee” tours are a form of farm tour. In Dak Lak, this form is attractive to only some leading tourism companies like Dam San Tourism - Trading Company, Banmeco, Ban Don Tourist Company (an affiliate of Dak Lak Rubber Company), Dak Lak Tourism Company. This playing ground seems to lack small businesses. Recently, some companies have actively explored and invested in new tour products: Experiencing coffee culture; exploring Central Highlands Folklore Museum with upland festivals (religion and spirituality) but they are at the initial stage and lack interest of visitors.

 

For instance, Dam San Tourism - Trade Company introduced well-displayed images and CDs about coffee tour to target customers. Looking back to 2005 when this tour was designed, Director Le Hoang Co said: Knowing that Europeans and Asians enjoyed drinking coffee, we had to find out how to create tourism products from our own available resources. From that idea, the company focused on designing a coffee tour which emphasised on providing knowledge of cultivating seedlings, planting, harvesting and producing coffee. Each tour lasted 3 days and 2 nights. Participants were brought to the Central Highlands Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology - the first coffee research institute in Vietnam - with many research materials on new coffee varieties. They were also taken to Dak Lak Museum where coffee tree development diagram created hundreds of years ago was exhibited. Then, they went to the coffee multiplying centre where there are many forms and techniques of reproducing coffees are performed. They also visited Robusta and Aramika coffee nurseries and experiment gardens owned by Victoria Coffee Company, walked along coffee farms to reach the Eanhai Lake which provided water for the company’s nearly 2,000 hectares of coffee trees, or watched wet coffee processing or coffee harvesting. They could feel the sense of living with nature and coffee growers and have more useful knowledge. At the first try in November 2005, the coffee tour attracted 20 French tourists who appreciated the tour very much as they felt coffee more delicious when they witnessed all process of coffee making and the image of Vietnamese coffee growers.

 

Established three years ago, Van Phat Travel Company also impressed customers with short-day tours. Ms Vo Thi Xuan Lan, Director of the company, said: "The company has coordinated with many units like Victoria Coffee Company, the Central Highlands Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology, and coffee farms to create destinations for visitors. Joining the coffee tour, visitors will experience the world of coffee. By exploring origins, cultivating, attending, categorising and harvesting methods or sorting, drying, roasting, grinding and blending methods, they can try making coffee on their own. The company also hosts coffee blending contests or tasting contests to different coffee types or harvesting contests, etc. Notably, participants can visit weasel farms to know how the animal digest coffee beans to produce very delicious drink. Coffee message is also very good for heath recovery. At the third Buon Me Thuot Coffee Festival 2011, Van Phat will introduce a special 4-day 4-night tour at the opening ceremony. In 2011, Van Phat plans to design countryside tours to give experience of living with farmers and farms to visitors.

 

Impressively, visitors can mark their names on coffee trees. This is also a form to advertise the Vietnamese coffee.”

 

The above tourism-making method will certainly enrich tourism products and contributes to the tourism development of Dak Lak province. However, operators need to advertise more to introduce the unrivalled tour to visitors.”