Hai Phong Foodtour maintains its appeal over the years
If during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the line of people lining up to buy baked cakes on Cau Dat Street has become an indispensable "specialty", then the last days of the year are cold, it is not difficult to see a long line of people lining up to buy banh can - a winter specialty of Hai Phong on this street. The many crab cakes and spicy fish noodle shops in Lach Tray are also busy from early morning to late night; the Hang Kenh street spicy bread stalls are operating at full capacity, packing thousands of them for customers to give as gifts... All of which show that the appeal of Hai Phong foodtour has not decreased.
According to Mr. Tran Van Ngoc - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong City, in recent years, Hai Phong foodtour has shined on the Vietnam tourism map. Unlike the elegance and sophistication of Hanoi cuisine or the sophistication and gentleness of Hue cuisine, Hai Phong cuisine has a free and individual flavor, a characteristic formed through the process of interacting and transferring many cultures. Dishes such as spicy bread, crab noodles, spring rolls, Vietnamese sticky rice, pate, chamomile tea or coconut milk coffee... have become unforgettable culinary "icons" for locals and tourists.
Promoting that unique value, in recent years, Hai Phong city has coordinated with units and businesses to develop foodtour tourism - making cuisine an attractive tourism product. The Hai Phong culinary map is issued, introducing a series of delicious dishes with famous restaurant addresses, helping visitors easily experience the typical flavors of the cuisine of the port city. Foodtour has quickly become a unique tourism product, thereby contributing to promoting the image of Hai Phong to domestic and foreign friends.
To promote the foodtour brand, since 2022, the city has designed new souvenir gifts and tour guidebooks in many languages to diversify Hai Phong tourism promotion publications. The publications "Hai Phong Cooking Round" and "Hai Phong Cooking Round" are distributed free of charge to tourists. This is one of the forms of promoting the city's tourism image, helping tourists conveniently look up and choose a location on their travel itinerary.
Hai Phong also launched a promotion campaign #Hellohaiphong on the Tiktok platform; through young people with influence on social networks (KOL's) to promote Hai Phong Foodtour; open a Review Foodtour section on the website: dulichhaiphong.gov.vn... The city also installed a check-in model in Tam Bac Lake; coordinate with Vietnam Railway Corporation to launch activities to promote the image of Hai Phong tourism on Hanoi - Hai Phong train cars to create a highlight to attract tourists associated with Hai Phong Citytour products.
Thanks to that, from 2022 - the post-COVID-19 recovery period, Hai Phong culinary tourism - Foodtour combined with Hanoi - Hai Phong railway exploitation has truly exploded and formed a new tourism trend, becoming a popular search keyword on social networks; at the same time contributing to creating jobs and improving livelihoods for people in the difficult early stages after the pandemic.
Step by step improving service quality
After merging with Hai Duong, the Hai Phong culinary map will not only retain its characteristics but also become richer thanks to the presence of new specialties of the land such as crab rolls, crab feather, bun ca pan co... In 2025, the Department will organize a series of events to promote the city's cuisine such as the Hai Phong delicious Cuisine Festival within the framework of the 2025 Red Phuong Flower Festival. The leaders of the city's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism emphasized that this is an opportunity to introduce and promote the typical culinary values of the port city, while honoring the traditional culinary culture associated with the image of the friendly and hospitable people of Hai Phong. The festival is also an activity to concretize the policy of developing tourism products "Foodtour Hai Phong", contributing to enriching the experience of tourists when coming to the city. The event also combined practical activities to introduce railway tourism products, especially the Hoa Phuong Do Ship delegation, to attract tourists and promote Hai Phong tourism industry.
Or as recently as the Culture, Tourism and Trade Promotion Week 2025, one of the main activities of the Con Son - Kiep Bac Autumn Festival, the city also organized a culinary culture experience space with dozens of booths. Here, visitors have the opportunity to enjoy special dishes with rich local flavors prepared from fresh, unique ingredients of the port city, such as: bun cha ruoi, nem cua be, bun ca ca, banh da cay... famous dishes on the city's "food tour" map.
The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism also regularly organizes training activities to support and guide street food businesses and related units in the city to improve sales skills and serve tourists, promote the application of information technology in business activities... Ms. Nguyen Thi Huyen - Owner of the spicy bread shop - pate on Hang Kenh street said: From the attraction of food tours, the amount of goods consumed has increased many times compared to before, especially during weekends, holidays, and Tet. Not only does it bring a stable income to her family, Ms. Huyen's facility also creates jobs for about 10 local workers. In addition to product quality and brand reputation, the facility also focuses on promoting on social networking platforms according to market trends as well as service attitude, keeping the image of Hai Phong people friendly in the hearts of tourists.
The program in coordination with Vietnam Railway Corporation is still maintained annually to promote the street food tourism product "Foodtour", contributing to increasing the number of tourists to Hai Phong by rail, especially on weekends and holidays. The number of passengers traveling and arriving at Hai Phong station on peak days reached over 8,000 people/day (3 - 4 times higher than before 2022).
The opening of the "Red Green Lantern" quality train with modernly designed carriages, bearing the cultural imprint of the port city, is expected to become a typical, environmentally friendly tourism product and a breakthrough in improving the quality of passenger transport services.
As a result, in 2025, Hai Phong attracted 14.43 million tourists, an increase of 23.4% compared to 2024, including food tourists. It is expected that in 2026, Vietnam Railways Corporation will coordinate with the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong to develop a product "Ship to visit the Port". The program is expected to contribute to preserving and promoting the historical and memorable values of Hai Phong Port; becoming a unique, unique and attractive tourism product, helping to increase the experience value of the Foodtour chain and attract tourists staying in the inner city area.
