Gastronomic tourism could cook up a storm in Vietnam

Vietnamese food variesvibrantly from region to region, due to the different customs,conditions, condiments and culture across the country.

For decades, Vietnamese food has been cited as one of the world’s most delicious cuisines by foreign press.

In 2006, MSN’s travel website selected Hanoi as the third best city inthe world for delicious dishes. Later, Vietnamese “pho” (noodle soup)and “goi cuon” (spring rolls) were listed among the globe’s top 50delicious meals by CNN.

Though gastronomic cultureis evaluated as one of the key factors to draw visitors to Vietnam, thetourism sector has not done enough to take advantage of this naturalasset, tourism specialists have argued.

Mostforeign visitors say they know about Vietnamese food through theirfriends or relatives. Only a few tourist companies, hotels andrestaurants actively come forward to organise food tours for overseasvacationers.

Very few promotional activities havebeen organised systematically, with most merely integrated into broadertourism promotion programmes, such as trade fairs.

Nguyen Van My, a travel agency manager, said it is high time to featurecuisine more in tourism development. He suggested selecting typicalfoods to introduce to visitors, along with information on their origin,history, ingredients and cooking instructions.

Director of the Vietnam Institute of Culinary Research, Dr. Han NguyenNguyen Nha, who launched a ‘Vietnamese Kitchen’ project to bring thenation’s cuisine to the world in 2009, said Vietnamese food is fresh andhealthy for tourists, as it has less fat and meat and more vegetablesthat food they are perhaps more accustomed to.

However, he acknowledged that food hygiene and safety violation issuesoccur at an alarming level, adding that if this problem can be solved,Vietnamese food will be more popular throughout the world.

He said he was very optimistic about the country’s cuisine becausenumerous Vietnamese dishes appear at luxury restaurants and hotels – notonly in Vietnam but also in foreign countries.

His project aims to standardise Vietnamese foods and restaurants, andestablish culinary development enterprises like the Thai Royal Companywhich operates 8,000 restaurants around the world.

Gastronomic tourism could cook up a storm in Vietnam

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