Enhancing the value of culinary tourism to attract tourists

Although considered a type of tourism that has only appeared and developed in the past decade, Vietnamese culinary tourism has quickly demonstrated its increasingly important role in the world tourism industry. The Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy to 2030 has also identified culinary tourism as an important product line, contributing to enhancing the competitive advantage and brand of Vietnamese tourism. The Vietnamese tourism industry has built a culinary development strategy to attract tourists.

Vietnam possesses a culinary cultural heritage formed over thousands of years, which has captivated many foreign tourists when visiting Vietnam. Dozens of famous Vietnamese dishes such as pho, bun cha, or banh mi, etc. have been honored by organizations around the world, culinary magazines, and prestigious international media channels. The cuisine of each region has its own characteristics, is diverse, harmonious, sophisticated, easy to enjoy and contains high artistry.

Vietnam possesses a culinary cultural heritage formed over thousands of years (Photo: Internet)

Vietnamese cuisine has also been officially honored on the global culinary map when it attracted a series of top chefs to come to our country to experience and thereby voluntarily build a bridge to spread the quintessence of Vietnamese values ​​beyond the border.

The World Travel Awards (WTA) in 2019 and 2020 voted Vietnam as “Asia’s leading culinary destination”. Readers of The Travel (Canada) ranked Vietnam 5th in the list of 10 countries with the most attractive cuisines in the world. In early 2023, Travel + Leisure magazine (USA) also named Vietnam as “Asia’s most attractive culinary destination”.

In the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy to 2030 approved in 2020, the Government also proposed solutions to develop tourism products, in which it identified the need to focus on exploiting the diverse and unique culinary strengths of regions to form unique and different tourism products with competitive advantages, contributing to building a prominent brand of Vietnamese tourism.

In Vietnam, major cities such as Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City represent the cuisine of the three regions of the country. In Can Tho City alone, cuisine has become a characteristic feature in the journey of discovery of many domestic and international tourists because this place converges all the unique features in the diverse and rich culinary culture of the generous, friendly and hospitable Western people.

Tourists visit the 2023 Southern Traditional Cake Festival in Can Tho (Photo: Duy Khoi)

A notable event was that in early June 2023, the prestigious global culinary guide Michelin Guide honored 103 restaurants/eateries in Vietnam, including 4 restaurants with prestigious Michelin stars, 70 restaurants/eateries selected for introduction, 29 affordable restaurants. In addition, Michelin Guide also announced a list of outstanding restaurants and chefs in Vietnam. The event is considered an important milestone in marking Vietnamese cuisine and tourism on the international map.

Culinary culture is considered an inseparable element of tourism. The unique culinary culture of a destination contributes to attracting more tourists, prolonging the length of stay, increasing the average spending of visitors, increasing tourism revenue and creating income for the locality.

In order for Vietnamese cuisine to be famous in the world, first of all, those who work in the culinary "art" must have faith in the quintessence of the nation, and at the same time need more forms of promotion. Traditional cultural festivals always attract a large number of tourists. Strengthening tourism promotion activities along with improving the quality of tourism products that are the brand of Vietnamese tourism, because this is an important measure to create the image and position of domestic and foreign tourism, in order to attract visitors.

Culinary tourism products have been implemented by localities in Vietnam for many years (Photo: Internet)

Along with that, building programs specializing in Vietnamese cuisine. Tourism products related to cuisine have been implemented for many years. Cooking tourism programs included in the tour content have brought tourists special experiences, instead of going to restaurants to enjoy food, they can prepare and enjoy their own products under the guidance of famous chefs and artisans.

The appeal of Vietnamese cuisine comes from its simplicity, simplicity, and richness thanks to the abundance of natural ingredients, the passion of the chefs when preparing, and importantly, the inheritance of tradition and creativity over the years. International tourists love Vietnamese food because of its balanced flavors and nutritional harmony, lots of green vegetables, no fat, and each dish has its own dipping sauce depending on the region. Therefore, travel agencies focus on creating products that bring the most authentic experiences to tourists, such as participating in fairs, traditional food festivals in many regions and villages, and even participating in cooking classes and culinary tours to fully explore Vietnamese delicacies.

Each type of tourist has different requirements for service quality. Therefore, culinary tourism is a tourism product that really needs to be scientifically researched, not only to bring the value of enjoying delicious, typical dishes, but also to be a message to tourists to learn about local culture and art, and at the same time, through that, it will promote the image of Vietnam, a promising destination in the hearts of global tourists./.

Yanjiang