From food to experience
Vietnam is considered one of the countries with the richest culinary resources in the region. Each region possesses dishes, ingredients, processing techniques and culinary customs imbued with cultural imprints. This is also an advantage for Vietnamese tourism to develop products with its own identity in the context that tourists are increasingly prioritizing authentic experiences instead of just sightseeing or relaxing.
However, according to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong - Director of the Vietnam Institute of Culture, Arts, Sports and Tourism, that advantage has not been exploited commensurately.
The biggest problem today is not the lack of culinary resources, but that we have not yet transformed those values into tourism products with depth, rich interactivity and bringing value to the community as well as tourists," Ms. Thu Phuong said.
According to Ms. Phuong, culinary tourism activities in Vietnam are still mainly limited to introducing and consuming food. Meanwhile, important values such as indigenous knowledge, cooking skills, eating habits, cultural stories or the role of local communities have not been fully exploited to become a part of tourism experiences.
Therefore, instead of approaching cuisine as a product to serve eating needs, it is necessary to consider it as a cultural ecosystem. The value of a dish is not only in the flavor but also created from local ingredients, cultural space, community memories and people who preserve traditional crafts.
Switching from the thinking of "selling dishes" to "creating co-creative experiences" is not only a requirement for product innovation, but also an important condition to promote culinary cultural values and enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism in the new context," Ms. Thu Phuong emphasized.
According to the Director, when tourists go to the market with local people, learn to cook, participate in festivals, experience craft villages or directly learn about the story behind each dish, they are no longer mere consumers but become a part of the process of creating experiences. This is also a way for the local community to be empowered, create more livelihoods and have the motivation to preserve traditional cultural values.
To benefit the community
From the reality of travel activities, the problem is how to make those cultural values truly become competitive tourism products.
According to Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam - Deputy Director of Vietfoot Travel Company, in the context of increasingly fierce competition between destinations, what makes tourists remember a land is not only delicious food, but also the stories and experiences they have throughout the journey.
Cuisine is not only a need for food but also a cultural language. Each dish carries the history, customs, people and identity of the locality. If you know how to tell that story, cuisine will become one of the most valuable assets of Vietnamese tourism," Mr. Nam shared.
According to Mr. Nam, many countries such as Japan, Italy or South Korea do not promote food in a separate way but build a whole ecosystem connecting cuisine, culture, tourism and media. This approach helps tourists not only remember the taste but also remember the lifestyle and identity of the destination.
Meanwhile, Vietnam possesses many advantages with a system of traditional craft villages, local markets, unique raw material areas and diverse cuisine spread across regions. These are all resources to develop experiential products if invested in the right direction and with community participation.
Instead of just taking guests to eat specialties, we need to create opportunities for them to go to the market with the people, learn to cook, meet artisans or explore cultural spaces associated with food. When directly participating, tourists will have deeper memories of the destination," Mr. Nam said.
According to the expert, models such as food tours, cooking classes, "from farm to dining table" experiences or exploring craft villages not only help diversify products but also create more jobs, increase income and encourage people to preserve traditional crafts.
When the community becomes storytellers, creators and directly benefits from tourism activities, cultural values will also have more motivation to be preserved and spread.
Cultural and culinary identity is always a readily available resource of each locality. The remaining issue is how to turn those values into sufficiently different experiences to keep tourists and create sustainable economic value.
Culinary culture develops national brand
At the Conference "Culinary and Tourism Development in Vietnam" organized by the Vietnam Institute of Culture, Arts, Sports and Tourism on July 13, MSc. Nguyen Thi Hoa Mai - Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism said that in the context of increasingly fierce destination competition between countries, Vietnam cannot continue to develop tourism in the old way but needs to create differentiation from its inherent values, in which cuisine is identified as a prominent advantage.
According to Ms. Hoa Mai, the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism has just submitted to the Prime Minister the Project on promoting Vietnamese culinary tourism in the period 2026 - 2035, with the goal of taking culinary culture as the nucleus in the national image promotion strategy: "We are shifting from quantity growth to quality growth. To increase the value of tourist spending, we must increase the value of experience, and cuisine is the key to keeping tourists staying longer".
We not only want to promote food but also want to promote Vietnamese culinary culture. If we only talk about food, it is not enough, the important thing is to tell the story behind each dish, from ingredients, customs, people to cultural values preserved through many generations," Ms. Hoa Mai shared.
The new project will aim to build a national brand for culinary culture instead of just stopping at individual promotional activities. One of the important goals of the project is that by 2035, Vietnam strives to be in the Top 5 most attractive cuisines in Asia.
Citing data from UN Tourism and the World Food Tourism Association, Ms. Hoa Mai said that more than 50% of international tourists choose the destination because of the culinary experience, while 81% of tourists are excited to explore local cuisine right on the first trip. It can be seen that food spending accounts for about 25 - 35% of the total budget of each trip. Ngoc Anh
