HCMC encourages hotels, restaurants to serve halal food

HCMC will encourage restaurants and hotels to cook halal food for Muslims as part of meeting special and diverse needs of customers, said Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, deputy director of the municipal Department of Tourism.

Hieu was speaking at a dialogue between businesses and city authorities organized on Wednesday by the Investment and Trade Promotion Center of HCMC (ITPC) and the HCMC Department of Tourism.

Halal refers to food that followers of the Islamic faith are permitted to consume. Alcohol and pork are forbidden and only animals slaughtered per Islamic ritual can be consumed.

A representative of a tourism business in HCMC asked if the city had tourism programs and products for Muslim tourists, given the trend of increasing numbers of people following that faith visiting Vietnam. Several countries including Thailand were working on creating special programs and products to welcome this group of visitors, the rep said.

Hieu said HCMC did not have a program to welcome tourists based on separate religions. She said the tourism industry identifies target markets like Europe, America, Australia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, West Asia and India. Among such markets, Indian visitors to HCMC are among the top eight groups in 2022–2023.

Since many visitors from India (and other countries like Malaysia and Indonesia) are Muslims, the city will encourage restaurants and hotels to cook and serve halal food, she said.

“We only build programs to attract visitors from target markets, focusing on MICE products (conference tourism), resorts, community tourism or related programs," she said.

She also said that her department would support travel companies coordinate with destinations and tourism service providers to organize thematic tours at night in order to promote night tourism in the city.

The city will promote three night tourism programs: District 1 - Colors of the Night; War Zone Moon: Cu Chi Tunnels; and Nha Be: A Thousand and One Nights, she added.

The municipal tourism department estimates the number of international visitors to HCMC in the first half of the year at more than 2.6 million, up 38% year-on-year, reaching 44.6% of the 2024 plan.