Though gastronomic culture is evaluated as one of the key factors to draw visitors to Vietnam, the tourism sector has not done enough to take advantage of this natural asset, tourism specialists have argued.
Most foreign visitors say they know about Vietnamese food through their friends or relatives. Only a few tourist companies, hotels and restaurants actively come forward to organise food tours for overseas vacationers.
Very few promotional activities have been organised systematically, with most merely integrated into broader tourism promotion programmes, such as trade fairs.
