Vietnamese food an attractive tourism productThe culinary festival “Essence of Vietnamese food” will take place in Ho Chi Minh City from April 6-8, introducing special dishes from across the nation, as part of activities to develop food tourism. According to Vice President of the Vietnam Tourism Association (VTA) Vu The Binh, the tourism sector is developing numerous unique products to lure visitors, with food a product featuring Vietnam’s cultural identity. Many Vietnamese dishes have become popular worldwide, showing that Vietnamese food can become a distinguished tourism product, Binh said. The VICA will develop standards and norms for Vietnamese dishes, and criteria for ranking Vietnamese chefs, according to Tinh. The second Global Report on Food Tourism showed that 87 percent of surveyed organisations identify food tourism among their key factors for tourism development, while 82 percent said food tourism is a significant motivation for tourism development and local economic development.