The blooming plum blossoms have significantly increased the number of visitors to Moc Chau, generating 1.2 billion VND in revenue for local service providers. However, Moc Chau’s profit margin could further expand if orchard owners develop additional activities for visitors during the plum blossom season, instead of just having them come, take photos, and leave.
The Blossom Boom
Springtime not only revitalizes the natural world but also awakens Moc Chau’s potential for tourism. In this town in Son La province, plum blossoms bloom every year. However, no year has seen such an explosive surge in visitors as this year.
This year, the blossoms are the most beautiful, and the season of plum blossoms coinciding with the Lunar New Year has sparked a massive wave of interest from tourists. The high demand for check-in with the plum blossoms has led to a significant increase in room occupancy rates in the town. Local accommodations have reached 100% occupancy, with some places fully booked until the end of February.
Plum blossoms are in full bloom in the first days of the year. Photo: Quang Kien
According to Ms. Dinh Thi Huong, Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Moc Chau town, “From the 3rd day of Tet (January 31, 2025) until now, Moc Chau has welcomed more than 250,000 visitors to visit and take photos of the plum blossom season.The number of visitors each day is about 10,000 and doubles on weekends. It is estimated that from January to the end of February, Moc Chau is expected to welcome nearly 1 million visitors. The total social revenue of Moc Chau reached about 1,200 billion VND.”
Na Ka Valley, Mu Nau, and Pa Phach Village are the places with the largest plum growing areas in Moc Chau, attracting many tourists. Photo: Quang Kien
Moc Chau town has about 300 tourist accommodation establishments such as hotels, guesthouses, and homestays. Therefore, this number is not enough to serve the soaring number of visitors this year
Unlocking Untapped Potential
It’s clear that such flower-filled attractions are a crucial factor in attracting visitors, creating highlights for the tourism industry and supporting the local economy.
Mr. Vu Trung Hai (the owner of a garden in Moc Chau) said, “Although the number of visitors has increased, ticket prices and room rates have not increased compared to other months of the year.”
According to Mr. Hai, the entrance fee to visit the plum blossom garden is 30,000 VND per adult and free for all children. The average price of homestay rooms is from 600,000 to 800,000 VND.
“On average, our garden welcomes nearly 1,000 visitors every day. In the recent two peak weeks, revenue reached 300 – 500 million VND. It is expected that the plum blossom season will last about 10 more days.”
In addition, the gardens also collaborate with stores that rent ethnic costumes with prices ranging from 50,000 to 250,000 VND/set, providing makeup and on-site photography services for tourists.
Tourists visiting Moc Chau at this time feel like they are “lost in a fairyland” because plum blossoms cover the hills and valleys in white.
However, the number of visitors and revenue from the flower season here, as well as in some similar areas such as Da Lat, Ha Giang, Sa Pa, Mu Cang Chai, etc., are being limited because visitors only come and stop at taking photos. There are no extended products because tourism was not the initial goal of the farmers.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Moc Chau town (Son La) said that the people’s goal is to grow plums for sale. Then, people witnessed the blooming plum blossom season attracting tens of thousands of visitors, and then the idea of doing tourism arose.
After the plum blossom season, the locality plans to develop some more typical flower seasons such as mountain ebony, white rapeseed flower, etc, to open more themed flower hills. Besides that the government also aims to attract tourists through the fruit season. Moc Chau is in the strawberry season, the area will have experiential tours such as going to the garden to pick strawberries, collecting tickets, enjoying strawberries , and selling fresh fruit from the garden. In the upcoming plum season (from May – June), persimmon and orange gardens will also implement the same.
Moc Chau’s hillsides are covered in a sea of golden wild sunflowers from December to February annually. Photo: Quang Kien
The popularity of flowers in seasons throughout the year can bring stable income to orchard owners and those working in tourism in the area. The feasibility of the above plan is well-founded based on the emotional experience assessment points of tourists according to the season.
Accordingly, up to 85.7% of visitors have positive emotions about the experience of visiting forests and flowers. The level of emotional distribution also varies by season. In which, spring and autumn attract the most visitors, based on the 2024 research paper “Exploring the impact of seasonal forest landscapes on tourist emotions using machine learning” by Mr. Zhengyan Chen (of the College of Arts, School of Architecture and Landscape, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China) and colleagues.
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