Started from love of tourism and Hue cuisine

"Encompassing" the love of tourism and Hue cuisine

Meeting 4 students who are working on the project Map combining tourism and cuisine of Hue City, I was quite surprised that only one of the four students is from Hue. The remaining three students are from Ha Tinh, Quang Binh , Quang Tri, but they have in common the love of tourism and cuisine of Hue.

Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, a female student from Quang Tri, said that the group's startup project originated from her own story. Students who came to Hue to study far from home were eager to explore the relics, landscapes, and cuisine of Hue but were "blind" to information. On the contrary, there was too much information on the internet, making it difficult to choose. Thuy Trang and her friends in the group chose to survey and experience. Famous places and delicious restaurants were recorded, and from the urge to experiment with making startup products at university, they chose this topic and formed the product.

The Hue City Tourism and Cuisine Map is printed on A3 hard paper, with two sides. The front side describes the content of culinary destinations, tourism and souvenirs in Hue City, the back side builds tourist routes for visitors to refer to. In addition to the printed map on paper, the product also links to create an online map on My Maps via QR code and other accompanying services.

The initial map includes 20 tourist destinations and 12 dining spots and will be expanded over time, based on experiences and surveys with the desire to help those who love to experience create their own trips, especially young people. “According to the group's research, there is currently no similar product on the market. We aim for a product with a two-dimensional design in paper and online form, creating convenience. The design is compact, easy to fold, with fresh colors suitable for young people, and the locations and tours are easy to see and refer to. The online map system makes it easy to locate and search for destinations,” shared Nguyen Hang Nga, the project team leader.

According to the representative of the student group, the question of “what to eat, where to stay” is asked by many tourists, especially young people when coming to Hue and most of them have searched online. The creative point of the Hue City Tourism and Cuisine Map is that it can summarize the locations, showing the geographical distance between the tourist attractions and dining spots, making it more convenient for the travel route and choice of tourists. In addition, the dining places are popular with young people, have good feedback, and reasonable prices.

Hang Nga shared that when implementing the project product, the group experienced many difficulties. All 4 students are majoring in tourism and travel service management, not good at design techniques. On the other hand, due to being tied up with study time, it more or less affected the survey and experience of locations and restaurants. However, with the love of tourism and Hue cuisine, the group of students wanted to create a product that would bring convenience to tourists when exploring Hue City and help introduce and promote Hue tourism closer to tourists.

Developing projects to contribute to Hue tourism

Recently, at the 5th National Student Startup Idea Competition - 2023, the project idea group of Hue City Tourism and Cuisine Map was awarded third prize with evaluations of good ideas and feasibility when the product is creative but quite simple so it is easy to produce, the cost structure of printed products is convenient, reasonable and the product is competitive. However, to contribute to Hue tourism, the student group still has to complete many stages for the project to truly play its role as the original goal. The price of the product after being released to the market will be at a reasonable level, about 30,000 VND/map.

Hang Nga said that in the near future, this product will not only stop at a printed map on paper, but will also be developed into an electronic application so that tourists can have more utilities integrated into the application. The group will seek the cooperation of the Tourism Promotion Center - Provincial Department of Tourism to publish it into a tourist map to bring to the tourist attractions and distribute to tourists. At the same time, they will call for support resources to develop this product into an application in the future.

One concern is ensuring food safety and hygiene commitments and prices for tourists. To address this issue, the student group will work hard with locations and restaurants on the project map to fulfill their commitments, aiming for the common goal of contributing to Hue tourism.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Huu Tuan, Principal of Hue University's School of Tourism, said that the school has decided to invest a sum of money to turn that idea into concrete products. In the immediate future, it will be a paper map of tours, tourist routes and cuisine for tourists, which will include detailed information about tourist and dining locations. In the later stage, it will call for major sponsors to turn the product into a digital map.

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