Cuisine in Coconut tourism

Tourists visit and enjoy local dishes at the Coconut Food Festival 2023.

Food tourism trends

Cuisine plays a very important role in tourism activities, especially community tourism. When traveling, in addition to the need to experience entertainment and sightseeing, the first thing that tourists care about is what to eat and where to stay? Many tourist destinations and localities are also noticed by tourists because they have delicious food and if you want to eat delicious food, you must definitely go to the right place to enjoy it. For that reason, culinary tourism has been and is one of the very developed tourism trends in today's society. Especially popular with the segment of family tourists, traveling in small groups.

Delicious food is formed from the flavor of a locality and that locality can also become famous thanks to delicious food. Through cuisine, it contributes to promoting the image of the locality, introducing the local culture to everyone.

Currently, social media channels with content about promoting images, tourism, culture, and local cuisine receive special attention from the community. It can be seen that cuisine is both the subject and the means to promote tourism in the fastest and most effective way. The tourism industry in particular and the province's economy in general will benefit indirectly and directly through cuisine when the most searched keywords will be: what to eat in Ben Tre ? Delicious Ben Tre dishes, delicious Ben Tre food, Ben Tre cuisine...

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung: In tourism development, cuisine is one of the solutions to retain tourists for longer periods. In particular, the culinary value of coconut is a prominent feature of the province. We are currently making efforts to promote it after the world record event, with 222 dishes from coconut so that delicious dishes are introduced to tourists to enjoy, experience, or participate in processing so that the culinary value of the Coconut land is focused on exploiting at the province's tourist and accommodation spots. To create one of the special tourism products, a unique highlight of the province when determining ecological tourism, cuisine brings practical value associated with local agricultural products.

This has really been of special interest to many tourist attractions in the province. In food and drink, we always focus on exploiting, creating and serving tourists dishes with the flavor of the Coconut Land. Recently, at the first Coconut Land Culinary Festival in 2023, organized by the Ben Tre Coconut Land Culinary Association, we have made efforts to bring many delicious dishes to serve tourists during the long holiday. As one of the units participating in the festival, An Nam Restaurant (Ben Tre City) has arranged a booth of traditional Southern cakes. In particular, desserts and cakes made from coconut ingredients have received the attention of many diners. Mr. Nguyen Hoang Tan - An Nam Restaurant staff said: "The restaurant wants to bring diners rustic dishes associated with the homeland, especially dishes using ingredients from coconut such as: coconut salad, coconut tofu, water coconut, spring rolls with coconut tofu, coconut rice with coconut fried shrimp... are always the "key" products of the restaurant. In the coming time, we will focus on taking care of dishes made with coconut ingredients in both form and quality to serve customers well".

“Storytelling” for Coconut Country Cuisine

In addition to the delicious food processing techniques, the typical flavors of the homeland, safe and hygienic ingredients, an important factor that creates the attraction of diners to the dish is the "story" of the dish that tourists receive. Although coconut cuisine has been exploited a lot in Ben Tre tourism, it is also necessary to recognize that in some destinations, the exploitation of tourism products from cuisine is still in a "rudimentary" form, forgetting to introduce the origin, local customs and practices in the dish, the sophistication shown in the combination of ingredients of the local people. This is what creates the "story" for each dish that tourists will not find anywhere else. For example, fried shrimp can be made anywhere, but why is Ben Tre's fried shrimp with coconut so special? Or why is the coconut root salad known as the "whole coconut tree" dish? When it comes to cuisine, tourists are not only interested in the taste of the dishes but also pay attention to the differences in space, eating, drinking, seasoning, etc., creating a culinary culture that only Ben Tre has.

Following the success of the world record event, with 222 dishes made from coconut, Ben Tre tourism industry continues to have orientations to exploit the value of local culinary culture. Focus on propaganda and organizing activities to promote and introduce delicious dishes, bringing delicious dishes, especially delicious dishes made from coconut to tourists.

Article and photos: Thanh Dong

Source link: https://baodongkhoi.vn/van-hoa/du-lich/am-thuc-trong-du-lich-xu-dua-a114161.html