Bringing health and culinary tourism into agricultural tourism

Associate health tourism with agricultural tourism

According to Doctor Do Tan Khoa, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Traditional Medicine Hospital, building health tourism products in agricultural and rural tourism development met the orientation of developing agricultural and rural tourism associated with the consumption of agricultural specialities and OCOP products. It is also an important part of building various types of medical tourism services and products, serving the needs of domestic and foreign tourists.

Health tourism in agricultural and rural tourism will be associated with developing local strengths in the following contents: promote indigenous traditional culture, develop specific products suitable to the local economic model and human development (in terms of management - operating capacity and professional skills).

Doctor Khoa said that health tourism products are built and developed on the basis of improving the quality, diversification and attractiveness of products to serve the health of tourists in a sustainable way, contributing to the formation of a service supply chain suitable to the conditions of each locality.

Health tourism products are closely linked to traditional medicine because of their attractiveness, diversity and convenience. First of all, there are favourable conditions such as diversity of agricultural products, localities richness in cultural traditions, people and agricultural products, together with the growing trend of medical tourism; health tourism; tourists' tendency towards nature and traditional medicine.

In particular, with the investment and development attention of management agencies and the wishes of local governments, businesses and people, the construction and development of health tourism models associated with rural development programs, medical tourism through providing products of traditional medicine and pharmacy have a strong basis for development and spread.

Also according to Doctor Do Tan Khoa, for models of health tourism, agricultural and rural tourism associated with the consumption of agricultural specialities and OCOP products to develop sustainably, there needs to be close coordination from management agencies, local authorities, experts, and people in policy planning, management, operation, and provision of tourism products.

It is necessary to orientate and promote the strengths of each locality by providing tourism products associated with the consumption of agricultural specialities, as well as human development, preservation and development of indigenous culture.

Developing agricultural tourism and local cuisine

Mr. Chu Hong Minh is the Chairman of the Vietnam Restaurant Association and current Director of "Project to develop Vietnamese culinary culture brand into a national brand (2022 - 2024)".

Mr. Minh said, the project is divided into 3 parts, which focus on building a journey to find typical Vietnamese culinary cultural values. 

Currently, the Project has selected 121 dishes from 55 provinces and cities. By the end of this year, the project will complete 1,000 dishes. Specialities selected by the Project will be placed on the Vietnamese culinary map. Through this map, customers can learn about the specialities of each region online before going on a culinary tour. 

Since 2023, the project has transferred culinary maps to localities. With a network of culinary businesses, artisans, chefs, and reputable addresses, the parties can connect to develop local tourism and cuisine.