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In June 2022, Michelin Guide was officially announced in Vietnam.
(Photo: vnmedia.vn) |
According to estimates by the World Food Tourism Association (WFTA), up to 81% of international tourists want to learn about local cuisine. They are willing to spend an average of 25 - 35% of their budget on food and beverage related expenses during their travel experience .
This statistic shows that cuisine no longer only plays a role in serving the simple dietary needs of tourists, but has gradually become one of the main purposes of travel, strongly influencing the decision to choose a destination and stimulating tourists' willingness to spend.
In recent years, Vietnamese cuisine has taken a step towards reaching international level with a series of awards. In 2023, world-famous culinary information site TasteAtlas ranked Vietnam 6th among Asian cuisines, and 20th among great cuisines in the world. TasteAtlas also offers the five most typical dishes of Vietnam, including banh mi, pho, spring rolls, braised beef, Hue beef noodle soup; and five typical (culinary) products, including iced coffee, Phu Quoc fish sauce, Vietnamese coffee, egg coffee and pork rolls.
In June 2023, the world-famous culinary guide Michelin Guide awarded stars to four Vietnamese restaurants, including three restaurants in Hanoi and one restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City.
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| Pho is famous in international media. (Source: https://tuoitre.vn/) |
The famous American travel website Travel + Leisure named Vietnam as an attractive culinary destination in Asia in 2023. Readers of the world's largest travel platform Tripadvisor voted Hanoi among the top 20 culinary destinations in the world in 2023. All titles are created by famous dishes.
The above awards further confirm that Vietnamese cuisine is a resource that helps create comparative advantages to improve national competitiveness on the world tourism map.
According to many experts, Vietnamese cuisine is a "gold mine" to develop tourism and promote national culture to international friends. But, to exploit this "gold mine", we still have a lot of work to do. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the Vietnam Culinary Culture Association, said that among cultural values, cuisine has the fastest and widest spread. Many foreigners have never been to Vietnam but have experienced Vietnamese cuisine in their homeland. Cuisine stimulates their desire to come to Vietnam. Cuisine also helps people understand Vietnam better, creating soft competition in building the country's image to the world.
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| Foreign guests enjoy bread at the Vietnam Bread Festival 2023. (Photo: Vnexpress) |
The position and role of cuisine in tourism development and promoting Vietnam's image in the world has been affirmed. However, in order for Vietnamese cuisine to "show off" all its "beauty", it is necessary to consider cuisine as other key economic sectors, from which to plan development policies with the leading role of the State and the cooperation of the business community.
Over time, the appeal of cuisine has been given more attention in the design and promotion of tourism products. The concept of "culinary tourism" has also motivated some companies to organize tours to enjoy and explore cuisine. However, these activities stop at a small scale.
To effectively exploit the potential and advantages of culinary tourism, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism aims to build attractive, quality culinary tourism products, with a focus on providing experiences. Exploring cultural identity and community activities at the destination associated with dishes and drinks; sharing with tourists about the dining space or cultural behavior while eating according to Vietnamese cultural traditions raises the journey of discovering culinary tourism to a new level./.