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Finding ways to turn Hanoi street food into an attractive tourism product

Recently, Hanoi street food has been highly appreciated by international media, many dishes have been listed as delicious dishes in the world. However, to attract tourists, the tourism industry needs to build street food into a part of Hanoi's image to domestic and international friends.

Bộ Văn hóa, Thể thao và Du lịchBộ Văn hóa, Thể thao và Du lịch16/10/2025

Many international awards honor Vietnamese cuisine

In September 2025, Time Out Magazine (UK) honored Hanoi as one of the 10 cities with the best street food in Asia. In fact, this is not the first time Hanoi street food has been internationally honored. Previously, in 2024, the online travel guide specializing in traditional cuisine around the world, Taste Atlas (Croatia), announced a list of the 100 best street foods in Asia, with many representatives from Vietnam.

Accordingly, banh mi is the highest ranked Vietnamese dish. In addition, a series of Vietnamese dishes such as broken rice, spring rolls or banh xeo were also honored by Taste Atlas as the best street foods in Asia. In August 2025, 3 intangible heritages related to Hanoi cuisine were recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, including: Thanh Tri rice paper making, knowledge of processing and enjoying La Vong fish cakes, and knowledge of cooking Bat Trang dishes.

This result not only brings pride to the people of the capital but also once again affirms the global appeal of Hanoi cuisine, an inseparable feature in the picture of Vietnamese tourism.

Tìm hướng đưa ẩm thực đường phố Hà Nội trở thành sản phẩm du lịch hấp dẫn - Ảnh 1.

International tourists enjoy Pho Hanoi.

In fact, Hanoi cuisine not only attracts budget tourists but also attracts international politicians. Typical examples include the image of former US President Barack Obama eating Hanoi bun cha in 2016; former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife enjoying beef pho in Hanoi in 2018. In 2023, netizens were again abuzz with the image of Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenkoe and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh enjoying Vietnamese bread and coffee in Hanoi.

Sharing the reasons why the capital's street food is attractive to tourists, culinary artist Pham Thi Anh Tuyet said that Hanoi's dishes are attractive because of the balance of healthy nutrients but the sophistication in the selection of ingredients and the sophistication in the processing to preserve the characteristic flavors of traditional cuisine... "This makes Hanoians feel proud of a capital with a diverse and rich culinary culture with its own identity, so it has been positioned on the world culinary map" - Ms. Tuyet affirmed.

Assessing the value of cuisine in tourism development, Director of the National Tourism Administration Nguyen Trung Khanh said that Vietnamese cuisine in general, and Hanoi cuisine in particular, is gradually gaining a foothold on the world's "culinary map" because it not only satisfies the palate but also has cultural beauty, which is a great potential to attract tourists, especially international visitors. "From the beginning of 2025 to now, Hanoi tourism has welcomed more than 26 million visitors, an increase of nearly 24% over the same period last year, including 5.54 million international visitors, with total revenue reaching VND98,360 billion. Part of this success comes from the appeal of street food. It is a "cultural specialty" that cannot be found in any luxury restaurant" - Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh gave an example.

Step by step building a Food tour

According to tourism experts, to make street food a tourism product, the tourism industry must have a food management strategy, through the development of a set of criteria, thereby building a unique culinary tour.

Director of the Asian Tourism Development Institute (ATI) Pham Hai Quynh said that to create opportunities for travel agencies to build culinary tours, Hanoi should plan a “culinary culture zone” in the Old Quarter, thereby forming culinary areas with modern infrastructure and strictly managing food hygiene and safety. At the same time, businesses will have more opportunities to be trained and granted certificates on hygiene and tourism service skills.

“But to do this, the capital's tourism industry must develop a "Hanoi culinary criteria set" on food safety and hygiene, the origin of ingredients, and establish "permitted areas" for sidewalk business by the hour to avoid traffic conflicts," Mr. Pham Hai Quynh suggested.

Tìm hướng đưa ẩm thực đường phố Hà Nội trở thành sản phẩm du lịch hấp dẫn - Ảnh 2.

Introducing Hanoi cuisine at the Hanoi Food Festival.

Agreeing with this opinion, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Hong Long, Head of the Faculty of Tourism Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), proposed that Hanoi should have a master plan for the culinary business in a way that encourages both luxury restaurants and street food to develop together. Hanoi is on the rise, the population will continue to increase, and the culinary business will have more room to develop further. Therefore, it is necessary to anticipate the needs and trends to have appropriate planning, and at the same time, the planning must always be adjusted according to actual development to be successful.

From the perspective of a tourism business, General Director of Flamingo Redtours Nguyen Cong Hoan said that culinary tourism is a service industry with high cultural and artistic values. However, to do this, Hanoi needs to have policies to support brand building and develop internationally recognized restaurants, thereby raising the level of Hanoi cuisine in particular and Vietnam in general.

In recent years, Hanoi has been honored many times by major media agencies and famous tourism forums in the world, which is the basis for tourism businesses to coordinate with restaurants to build culinary tours. However, in addition to the efforts of businesses, it requires functional agencies to promote communication, marketing... in a systematic way. Thereby, making Food tour a unique product with strong connections, attracting a large number of tourists to the capital.

Regarding the development of street food as a typical tour of Hanoi, Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang said that in order to exploit the culinary advantages to attract tourists, in the orientation of developing Hanoi tourism to 2030, Hanoi City has determined to expand the system of restaurants to meet the needs of the people and tourists. In addition, the capital's tourism industry will develop street food products and services in the direction of focusing on unique types such as night food streets, culinary craft villages... In addition, with the goal of becoming the "Kitchen of the World", Hanoi tourism also promotes the promotion of culinary tourism in the capital, through the construction of a Food Tour map so that tourists can explore and experience Hanoi cuisine themselves.

In addition, Hanoi has also organized activities to exploit and promote culinary cultural values ​​to a large number of domestic and foreign tourists. "Hanoi will also cooperate with traditional craft villages and culinary artisans to build promotion programs, promote and introduce Hanoi cuisine on major media channels in Vietnam and the world" - Ms. Dang Huong Giang shared.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/tim-huong-dua-am-thuc-duong-pho-ha-noi-tro-thanh-san-pham-du-lich-hap-dan-20251016140014673.htm


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