Khoai Lang Thang's attention-grabbing statement

Khoai Lang Thang recently shared on his personal page his perspective on promoting the image of affordable food markets to attract both local and tourist customers.

Khoai Lang Thang has recently attracted attention with his statement about effective tourism practices. Photo: Khoai Lang Thang .

On May 17th, on the Threads platform, YouTuber Khoai Lang Thang posted his perspective on a tourism mindset that he finds very effective but often overlooked: building a model that prioritizes serving the needs of local people to create a unique and vibrant destination with its distinct identity and culture.

He argued that instead of building a tourist night market selling the same things, a casual food market would attract a large number of locals. From that effect, tourists would naturally find their way there.

"The model of concentrating street vendors along with tax incentives and rental price reductions has been successful in many countries and attracted many tourists. Developing tourism based on local people is certainly more difficult, but when successful, the tourism model will be very sustainable," he expressed.

This male travel blogger frequently explores food markets while traveling. Photo: Khoai Lang Thang.

In the comments section, many agreed that a unique tourism product is what truly attracts visitors. Furthermore, tourists still prefer to seek out local food to sample its flavors.

Furthermore, Khoai Lang Thang also discussed the model of floating markets for tourism. According to him, as road transport develops, floating markets are gradually disappearing because fewer boats come to buy, sell, and anchor, losing their connectivity and commercial value.

However, floating markets remain attractive if they are surrounded by planned ports and loading/unloading areas with good connections to national highways, or if there are regional wholesale markets and local/tourist markets on the shore. When connections and transportation between land and water are convenient, and trading is facilitated with the mainland, more boats will gather there due to the inevitable demand.

Around the world, the model of affordable food markets has become popular and has brought significant benefits to tourism. Examples include Hawker Centre in Singapore, night markets in Taiwan (China), Thepprasit Night Market, and Kwan Riam Floating Market (Thailand).

In fact, in 2023, Thailand regulated street vending by issuing licenses, allocating fixed selling locations, and limiting the types of vendors. The main goal was to both preserve the unique street food culture and ensure urban aesthetics, traffic safety, and food hygiene, according to the Bangkok Post.

Food stalls inside Huayuan Night Market (Taiwan) - famous for its "coffin" bread. Photo: @livingnomads.

Previously, in an interview with Tri Thức - Znews , Dr. Andrew Stiff, senior lecturer in Creative Application Design (RMIT University Vietnam), shared his view that it is time to systematically plan street food, because this model is a "soft lever" that helps increase customer growth and brings economic benefits in many forms.

This model also directly contributes to urban identity, offering experiences that many tourists cannot find in their own countries. Instead of eliminating it, street food and hawkers need better management to ensure both safety and livelihoods for small traders.

Khoai Lang Thang, whose real name is Dinh Vo Hoai Phuong (34 years old, from Ben Tre province), worked as a design engineer before switching to producing travel and food vlogs in 2017.

In 2025, he received the Content Creator of the Year award for the second time. Currently, Khoai Lang Thang has over 3 million subscribers on YouTube, 2.8 million followers on TikTok, and over 3.5 million followers on Facebook.

Source: https://znews.vn/phat-ngon-gay-chu-y-cua-khoai-lang-thang-post1652371.html