Local businesses in Nakhon Ratchasima woo visitors with their unique selling points

The Mango House offers fresh mangoes throughout the year while also serving several types of mango desserts.

The store also sells several processed products, such as ice creams, mango juices, crispy mango, dried mango, and jams.

Managing director Waraporn Mongkolpat said that the store has been open for 33 years since her father’s generation.

She said that the current total area is around 250 rai (40 hectares), which can yield around 200,000 to 300,000 mangoes per year.

Waraporn talked about the best-selling signature dish grilled mango butter with vanilla ice cream that was created by her.

She used nearly ripe mangoes to grill on the pan with butter, and sprinkle caramel sugar.

It sells around a hundred servings per day on weekends, as it is a unique and trendy menu.

Waraporn said that most visitors are seniors, family groups, foreign tourists, or people with vacation homes in Khao Yai.

She said, “Before Covid-19, we welcomed around 3,000 people per week. When we faced the Covid-19 pandemic, we almost had to close down the store as no one came to Khao Yai.”

Currently, the number of visitors is around 1,000 to 2,000 people per week.

Another unique business is the Green Me Organic Farm, which offers organic vegetables, processed products, dishes, and drinks at its cafe.

Visitors could also participate in the farm tour where they can harvest organic vegetables while the farm also offers farm-stay accommodation with six rooms available.

Apart from vegetables, there is an animal park where visitors could play with cows, goats, pigs, and rabbits.

Tour Leader Chira Sawaengdeethipadol said that the farm was established in 2015 as a remote farm by two owners from Bangkok.

Chira said, “Most visitors last year were foreign tourists from the UK and Europe, while some of them came from China and South Korea.”

After the Covid-19 situation in 2022, more Thai tourists started to visit, while the farm tried to adapt to their needs.

The three farm tours during the high season, at 8.30am, 10.30am, and 1.30pm, are usually full as they accept only 20 tourists so the farm sometimes opens the special slots in the early morning or the afternoon.

Meanwhile, it is only busy at the weekends during the low season with mostly irregular customers who pass by.

At Alcidini Winery, visitors could purchase organic grapes and several processed products such as juices, wines, dried grapes, and snacks.

It allows visitors to tour the vineyard, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and stargaze at night.

The owner Tontrakul Krijpipudht said that his business was also affected by Covid-19 as only Thai tourists came to visit.

He added that normally the tour group of foreign tourists interested in wines came to compare Thai wines with their own wines.

Apart from wine connoisseurs, several tourists from Singapore and Hong Kong came to stargaze as they could not do it in their countries. He said that visitors could see the Milky Way with the naked eye when the sky is clear.

Tontrakul said that his winery welcomed a lot of Asian tourists from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan.

He said, “A lot of Japanese tourists knew us from blogs where they spread through the word of mouth.”