Optimising culinary culture helps boost Hanoi’s tourism
Possessing time-honoured and diverse culinary quintessence, Hanoi is advised to pay greater attention to enhancing the value of local culinary culture, turning it into a tourism product to attract more visitors.
Hanoi’s typical dishes include nem (spring rolls), pho (noodle), Vong village young rice, cha ca (grilled fish), bun oc (snail noodle), banh tom Ho Tay (West Lake shrimp cake), banh cuon Thanh Tri (Thanh Tri steamed rice rolls), xoi Phu Thuong (Phu Thuong steamed sticky rice), banh day Quan Ganh (Quan Ganh round glutinous rice cake).
Many dishes have been honoured by foreign tourism websites and included in the travel guide for visitors to Hanoi. Particularly, the famous travel site Tripadvisor named Hanoi as one of the top 25 culinary destinations in the world in 2022. In 2023, three restaurants in Hanoi were awarded with Michelin stars, and 45 others honoured at the Michelin Guide Ceremony event held in June in Hanoi.
According to the Hanoi tourism orientations until 2030, the city will diversify its culinary products, focusing on developing night food tours and culinary craft villages, along with a system of restaurants to serve visitors.
The city will build a Food Tour map for visitors, making it easier for them to explore the local cuisine themselves, while strengthening food safety control.
A series of activities will be held to promote Hanoi culinary culture values to domestic and foreign tourists, along with an annual event to popularise the Hanoi cuisine and an annual Hanoi culinary festival.
Currently, the Vietnam Culinary and Cultural Association (VCCA) is building a project to develop Vietnam’s culinary cuisine into a national trademark, with the collection of 1,000 typical dishes of Vietnam and the transformation of a culinary database into an online Vietnam food map and an online Vietnamese cuisine museum. Thanks to this project, Hanoi’s cuisine is expected to become more popular to domestic and foreign food lovers.
VCCA Chairman Nguyen Quoc Ky said that the proper development of the culinary culture will help boost tourism growth, luring more visitors to Vietnam and thus enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism in the world arena.
Experts held that in order to optimise Hanoi’s potential of culinary culture, it is crucial to make systematic investment and encourage the engagement of management agencies, travel firms as well as local residents in the work.
