These days, culinary tourism has played an important position in growing tourism activities in Da Nang, giving domestic and foreign tourists interesting experiences related to food, as well as the local culture and life transmitted in the process of contact between the seller and the diners.

Visitors experience a stall selling cakes, sweets and jams. Photo: K.T

Try any new food

For the past 5 years, in addition to stalls selling cakes, sweets, jams, and dried seafood, Han market has also featured stalls selling traditional products such as banh chung, banh tet, sweet potato, cassava, tubers, banh to. Not only do the locals but also numerous domestic and foreign tourists usually visit and go shopping at these stalls to enjoy.

As shared by Ms Ngo Hoang Thuy Loan, a tour guide of VietTravel Trade and Tourism Co., Ltd, Korean tourists love eating seafood as well as street food in Da Nang, and the Han market has always been one of the top destinations. Besides the specialities of Quang Nam-Da Nang lands, many foreign tourists when coming to Da Nang have always been ready to try any new dishes on the streets.

According to a 29-year-old girl Ngo Thuy Linh who resides in Ha Noi, one of the reasons she chose Da Nang as a stopover to visit many times is because there is a wide range of street food with affordable prices, and food safety and is available everywhere. “As a person who has a sweet tooth, I love che Lien in Da Nang. The fatty taste of coconut milk plus the strong aroma of durian make me fall in love with this sweet dish”, said Linh.

With an irresistible attraction plus the love and dedicated promotion of tourists like Thuy Linh, che Lien has now been famous all over the country and is one of the street foods transported a lot to Hanoi as well as Ho Chi Minh City.

Many tourists when coming to Da Nang share that they like the feeling of sitting on the sidewalks to enjoy street food and drinks after visiting well-known tourist attractions to both experience street food and understand more about the culture and people of Da Nang.

In recent years, along with the strong development of the tourism industry, street food or culinary tourism has also prospered. The unique feature of street food is one of the highlights contributing to the attraction for tourists when coming to the city on the banks of the Han River.

In addition to specialities such as 'Quang noodles', 'pork with rice paper', 'banh xeo', 'banh mi Ba Lan', 'banh chung', 'che Lien', tourists are also into many dishes that are products of the whole process of cultural exchange between regions and countries such as China, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Turkey. All of them have contributed to increasing the number of delicacies for tourists when they want to discover and enjoy street food in Da Nang.

Creating more attractive street food tours

Located on Mai Hac De Street in Son Tra District, Son Tra Night Market is considered a dining paradise featuring dozens of households selling attractive snacks and street foods ranging from Asian to European dishes. It was an increasing number of tourists returning to the city after a long pause due to the pandemic that motivate small businesses to reopen.

Da Nang has the advantage of converging the culinary culture of 3 regions with delicious dishes and countless eating places. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize cuisine as an important tourism product to have a suitable strategy to promote the advantage of this typical tourist product of the city. Moreover, Da Nang is also home to a vibrant street food scene, along with a bustling atmosphere, clearly depicting the Vietnamese street food style that is something being interested in by visitors.

To become an attractive street food destination drawing the attention of more and more domestic and foreign tourists, the city's tourism business units believe that it is necessary to actively promote street food culture to the world through annual international street food congresses or activities and campaigns promoting national tourism, make a list of attractive and unique street delicacies to include in the promotion program, in tandem with posting on websites having many followers.

Besides, it is impossible not to design street food tours with quality, reasonable in price, time, space, and menu, to organize tours for tourists to learn how to cook simple snacks, to organize periodic and annual street food festivals to attract tourists, and at the same time to propagate and encourage restaurants to preserve and promote traditional elements in Vietnamese culinary culture.

Reporting by KHANH HOA- Translating by T.VY