Culinary highlights help hotels and resorts attract guests
Putting cuisine on the spotlight
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Green Viet Co., Ltd., of the director Do Ngoc Co, was known as the leading tourism company exploiting Thai tourists market in Hue. Unfortunately, international tours have now been stopped due to the impact of the pandemic.
During the period when Co needed to find a new path instead of closing down like many other international-focused tourism companies, he eventually turned to the food business, selling Hue traditional cuisine like Bun Bo Hue and various types of “banh” such as banh beo, banh nam, banh loc, banh khoai...
According to Mr. Co, the food store was opened after the end of the first outbreak. The store was well known to many domestic as well as local customers, and the operation was smooth up until the start of the 4th outbreak. The revenue is certainly less than before as there are now only local customers, but it is still fortunate to be able to maintain the store up to this point.
Currently, various hotels and resorts are still attracting a large number of guests, utilizing their strength in culinary catering.
Pilgrimage Village has been implementing a program in which a dinner buffet is given for free upon booking a swimming session, with one extra ticket for children under 10 years old during the weekend. The combination of services, especially cuisine, has made this resort fully booked on the past weekends.
According to the representative of Pilgrimage Village Boutique Resort & Spa, through observation, the influx of guests is mainly young people with a stable income. Thus, the resort focuses on services in a luxurious space, with an exclusive swimming pool for children to play and eat, while their parents exchange talk and enjoy good food. The menu is always diverse and unique, giving diners the opportunity to experience famous Hue dishes.
Many hotels have their own solutions utilizing cuisine to attract guests.
Ready for recovery
Cuisine has always been Hue's strength. Previously, businesses and hotels that combine culinary and in-depth services such as resort-oriented tourism, and now, it turns to be the right direction in the current period.
According to experts, health care products with a reasonable diet is also a solution for businesses to survive and overcome the current hardship...
The representative of Pilgrimage Village said that, through studying the need of the local market, as the pandemic has affected greatly the people’s desire to travel, there are still a number of young guests who prefer high-class services, as well as a variety of European and Asian cuisines... because they have not had any of this kind of experience through traveling. Therefore, from the beginning of August, the resort continued to deploy food services aiming at this potential customer.
According to Mr. Do Ngoc Co, the culinary business, although still “nascent”, shows great potential. Many tourists are very passionate about Hue cuisine.
Culinary is not just about a full belly. It is now an art of creating a harmony between delicious, beautiful food with luxurious and high-class dining experience. Therefore, this will certainly be the area that businesses will focus on when the pandemic is under control and tourism returns to normal. This is also a step to help businesses build an "ecosystem" of tourism services to serve guests.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism emphasized that recently, Hue has been honored to receive many prestigious reviews and votes in the culinary field. New-opening restaurants, hotels and resorts pay more attention to and refine their culinary services, especially traditional cuisine, thus create a chain of culinary destinations, ranging from common to high-class to serve the needs of tourists. This is also a good preparation step in unexpected circumstances, creating a momentum for the tourism industry's better recovery.
The Department of Tourism has just organized a logo design contest for the slogan: "Hue - the Capital of Gastronomy". The contest aims to utilize strengths, brand name and unique values of Hue cuisine, stimulate tourism development; honoring and affirming Hue culinary brand name, contributing to the promotion of Hue culture in association with tourism; building and perfecting the brand identity of "Hue - the Capital of Gastronomy"...
Story and photo: Duc Quang