Foreign visitors experience salt coffee in Hue

Enhance experience, increase promotional opportunities

In winter 2024, Da Nang launched a large-scale communication and promotion campaign on local culinary values ​​and related services in a new form. When arriving in Da Nang, visitors will receive a culinary passport at the airport, port... to register to join the journey to explore quality culinary locations in the area. These addresses have been surveyed and carefully selected by the local tourism industry based on criteria such as food quality, attentive service, reasonable prices... creating a list of passport "members". From there, visitors can experience delicious food, and restaurants and eateries in Da Nang have more opportunities to promote.

The unique point is that participating restaurants will stamp the tourists' passports. The accumulated stamps can be exchanged for attractive gifts such as free 5-star hotel stays or a luxury party. After the first peak campaign, tens of thousands of culinary passports were issued, and the Da Nang tourism industry received many positive responses, thanks and commitments to return from a large number of tourists.

The diversity of ingredients is one of the unique features of Hue cuisine.

Not only Da Nang, this is also an activity that the tourism industry of Ho Chi Minh City aims to stimulate tourism. Especially in the context of Vietnam exempting visas for citizens of many European countries, the launch of culinary passports contributes to increasing the experience and spending of tourists.

In Hue, the Ancient Capital's tourism industry launched the "Hue City Passport" in December 2023. From October 1 to November 11, 2025, the Department of Tourism coordinated with Grab and tourism and service businesses to launch the program "Experience Hue - Culinary Capital" on the Hue City Passport application, and at the same time brought an interesting playground with the contest "Creating Hue Culinary Passport videos" to spread the love of Hue's delicious dishes to friends near and far. According to Mr. Vo Hoang Lien Minh, Chief of Office of the Department of Tourism, the launching program is considered a passport with a culinary theme (theme by year), stimulating tourists' need to explore and experience cuisine.

Opening new journey for Hue tourism

For a long time, passports have been understood as legal documents for entry and exit. When applied to tourism, passports become tickets to stimulate demand and enhance the experience for tourists at each destination.

Hue cuisine is a unique strength. In fact, Hue has more potential, strengths, and resources that if the idea of ​​culinary passports is applied to each type and strength, it can attract visitors to stay longer when completing challenges to receive gifts. This is also a solution to help extend the length of stay and increase visitors' spending - a problem that Hue tourism has long been concerned about.

Experience highland cuisine

According to a survey by the Department of Tourism, in recent years, including 2024, the length of stay of tourists is still low, averaging only 1.77 days. In 2024, the average spending per tourist in Hue will reach about 2.1 million VND/person, significantly lower than many other localities in the country. Therefore, it is necessary to propose solutions to stimulate demand for tourists.

Director of the Department of Tourism Tran Thi Hoai Tram said that the tourism industry has been perfecting a set of typical local tourism products and implementing programs to attract visitors. Many solutions have been proposed, including stimulating tourism through programs.

According to the Chief of the Department of Tourism Vo Hoang Lien Minh, each year the tourism industry will launch a tourist passport associated with each theme, such as heritage in 2023, cuisine this year and many other themes associated with the strengths and types of Hue tourism such as spirituality, relaxation, etc. to encourage tourists to stay in Hue for a longer experience. In 2026, the tourism industry will also include destination descriptions in the Hue tourist passport application.

Obviously, the idea of ​​a small passport in tourism, but can become a "ticket" to open a new journey for tourism in Hue and Vietnam. From a broader perspective, the formation of ideas from culinary passports or travel passports can open a new and more responsible journey for the tourism industry. This also requires the construction of a system of criteria and standards that each destination, each restaurant, eatery, and tourism worker must strive to contribute to the "list" of safe, friendly and quality destinations.

The culinary passport is not only a promotional product, but also a motivation for tourists to stay longer at the destination, contributing to creating a rich and sustainable tourism journey.

Huynh Phuc

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/du-lich/ho-chieu-am-thuc-va-du-lich-hue-158618.html