On September 15, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism launched the video clip creation contest "Ho Chi Minh City - Touching cuisine, telling stories from all directions".
Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, Head of the judging panel of the contest, said that Ho Chi Minh City is a dynamic and open city, a convergence and intersection of many regions, communities and cultural colors. This convergence has created a rich, diverse and constantly creative culinary life.
The city's cuisine is increasingly affirming its firm position on the international map. Recently, Time Out magazine ranked Ho Chi Minh City in 6th place among 20 cities with the most delicious and attractive cuisine in the world in 2026, and at the same time, topped the list of cities with the best street food in the world in 2026.
Market data from the Trip. com platform also shows that the demand for local specialties in Vietnam increased by more than 700%; keywords related to restaurants, tea - coffee, buffet and seafood all recorded growth.
Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa emphasized that these figures show that cuisine is not only a part of the trip, but is becoming a reason for tourists to choose destinations, experience more, stay longer and spend more.
From that potential, the video clip creation contest "HCMC - Touching cuisine, telling stories from all directions" is organized with the desire to open a new approach in promoting city culinary tourism so that the community itself becomes the storytellers of the destination.
Through the visual language and the spread of videos on digital platforms, we expect the competition to create a rich, creative and valuable source of digital content, contributing to promoting the image of Ho Chi Minh City as dynamic, open, rich in identity and attractive in cuisine" - Mr. Hoa said.
The contest is a key activity in the culinary tourism product development plan for 2026. The contest is for Vietnamese citizens living, studying, and working in Vietnam; foreigners working, studying, and living in Vietnam; personnel working at restaurants, eateries... Each individual or group is allowed to submit a maximum of 3 works filmed in Ho Chi Minh City and meet the contest rules.
The time to receive entries, community voting and organize a series of 6 weeks of challenges takes place from September 15 to the end of November 11, 2026. The results and award ceremony are expected to be announced in December 2026, the total prize value of the contest is 354 million VND.
