To turn Nghe An culinary culture into a tourism product

To attract tourists and impress them, in addition to improving the quality of services, a very important factor is experiencing traditional and typical regional cuisine, which will also enhance and increase the value of the trip. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the culinary culture of Nghe An to become a typical tourism product.

Enhancing the value of Nghe An cuisine

The land of Hong Mountain and Lam River has long been famous for being a harsh land, so the people here have quickly created their own character and personality. The culinary culture also has its own unique characteristics that reflect the style of the people of Nghe An.

The simple and hard-working people of the Central region are famous for their daily rustic dishes. These are the pickled vegetables, the soy sauce bowls, the very ordinary vegetables, tubers, and items, which are available everywhere, but in the Central region, typically Nghe An, they emerge as a characteristic, so that anyone who has ever been here, attached to the land and people here can feel the unique features in the cuisine of the people of Nghe An.

There are no patterns, colors, or sophistication in the preparation of dishes, but they are mainly simple, like the hard-working people here. The most famous dishes in Nghe An are the simplest ones such as Thanh Chuong pickled vegetables, Nam Dan soy sauce, eel, tamarind (veal), goat, rice paper, gai cake, wet cake... and many specialties of the mountains and forests of Western Nghe An.

Over the years, from rustic ingredients but with the typical spices of this land, delicious dishes have been created that diners will never forget after tasting them once. There are dishes that have "held back" tourists to Nghe An for the second time and many more times. Therefore, Nghe An cuisine has been affirming its position in the hearts of diners.

Eel has been recognized by the Asian Record Organization as one of 12 Vietnamese dishes that have achieved an Asian record and the Vietnam Record Book Center has recognized it as one of the Top 50 famous Vietnamese specialties. In addition, Nghe An eel dishes are available in most eateries and restaurants across the country.

In particular, in 2018, Nghe An eel was available at 5-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. Nam Dan soy sauce was also recognized by the Vietnam Record Organization as one of the Top 10 famous Vietnamese sauces and spices.

In addition, there are dishes such as Cua Lo flash squid which has been recognized by the Vietnam Record Organization as one of the Top 10 famous seafood specialties of Vietnam due to the moderate salinity of the sea water, making the seafood dishes of Nghe An sea more delicious and sweeter than other seas.

Regarding fruits, Nghe An is blessed with suitable soil and climate, so there are many delicious and sweet fruits such as Vinh orange, Tuong Duong mango, Quynh Luu pineapple, Nghia Dan guava, Que Phong passion fruit... in which Vinh orange is recognized by the Vietnam Book of Records as one of the Top 50 famous fruit specialties of Vietnam.

To create many new tourism products to promote the rapid and sustainable development of the tourism industry, the construction of unique tourism products to attract tourists, tourism combined with culinary experiences is worth the attention of industries, including the tourism industry. Although cuisine belongs to the cultural category, due to its characteristics and usefulness, it is necessary to include cuisine in tourism activities, especially Nghe An cuisine, which is very delicious and very typical. To make Nghe An cuisine a type of tourism, as well as have a clear development orientation, it is necessary to have the cooperation of agencies, departments and branches.

Food festivals should be organized.

In addition to allowing tourists to freely explore and experience Nghe An's typical culinary dishes during their tours, Nghe An needs to find solutions to turn its specialties into culinary quintessence prepared by the hands of artisans or professional chefs.

To develop culinary tourism, it is necessary to train good cooks. With the same chain of tourism services, but not focusing on the culinary sector, it will also become a minus point in the eyes of tourists. If tourism is developed without honoring cuisine, it will lack appeal. Therefore, it is necessary to create the most attractive dishes to attract visitors, promote better, and associate with the local brand to mention eel dishes or veal rolls, Nam Dan soy sauce, Thanh Chuong pickles, Anh Son gai cakes... are specialties of Nghe An.

To enhance the value of Nghe An cuisine, the tourism industry has also proactively organized food processing competitions in the system of accommodation establishments in the province, organized the Nghe An International Culinary Culture Festival, the North Central Culinary Culture Festival so that chefs have the opportunity to learn, exchange and improve their skills in food processing activities and to promote and widely introduce Nghe An cuisine to a large number of tourists from all over the world. Through the Culinary Festivals, dishes and specialties are the main factors of great value and represent the identity of that region.

In the current context, cuisine is becoming increasingly important in tourism, so the dishes at the destination, or the local cuisine and specialties are gathered and introduced in Festivals or Food Festivals are of great interest to tourists. The purpose of diners is to experience the special dishes and find new, unique, and unique dishes and enjoy the dishes in the Festival-themed spaces.

Therefore, to enhance the value and develop culinary culture into a tourism product to attract tourists to participate in the experience, industries and localities need to coordinate with the tourism industry to pay attention to researching the following contents to advise on the good organization of culinary festivals.

Firstly, the desire to experience new and unique cuisine of diners will have a positive impact on their behavior. Therefore, a good solution is to preserve and develop a unique culinary culture to attract tourists and encourage them to come back to explore.

When tourists have “fallen in love” with the cuisine of Nghe An and have once visited the Food Festival in Nghe An, they will want to come back when they feel the comfort, interest, and uniqueness of the cuisine – the “soul” of the Food Festival. Therefore, managers must focus on developing programs within the framework of the festival that connect with diners. In addition to enjoying the cuisine, it is necessary to create experiences for diners in the process of preparing the specialties.

Whether tourists return to culinary dishes or culinary festivals also depends on their internal factors, such as personal needs, health status or external factors such as money and time. Understanding this, managers will have the right and accurate measures to impact.

When tourists have the idea of ​​wanting to return to the locality because of the typical cuisine, they will have the motivation to turn it into action. To attract this number of visitors, food festivals must have a strategy to attract tourists.

Finally, to develop the culinary tourism industry, all levels and sectors must have appropriate strategies to attract and influence tourists to actively participate in culinary festivals. Tourists are increasingly interested in experiencing unique dishes, experiencing local cuisine or cooking according to regional recipes.

In the service chain, cuisine plays an important role, deciding the development of tourism. Therefore, there needs to be a solution to enhance and promote the value of culinary culture associated with sustainable tourism, serving tourism.