The Foodscape of Wellness-Tourism: Materializing Wellness in Food for Tourism Development in Huế City, Vietnam

After the global hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, wellness tourism has evolved to be the leading segment in the travel industry. Wellness tourism emphasizes the holistic well-being of tourists across all aspects, of which food plays a crucial role in shaping these tourism offerings. Nevertheless, the food agenda in the context of wellness tourism has traversed the mere sustenance and is intertwined with health, spiritual and cultural engagement, and sustainable development of the destination. This chapter delves into the multifaceted relationship between food and wellness tourism by adapting the foodscape framework. It takes the case of Huế City to explore how wellness elements have been perceived and materialized in food by the local stakeholders for tourism development. Employing an exploratory qualitative approach, the chapter highlights a processual understanding of wellness and identifies four key scapes, including the royal heritage, place-based reference, the culture, and religiously influenced practices. The findings elucidate the interlink between food and place in the context of wellness tourism development. Complementing previous studies that predominantly focus on the consumer side, this study contributes to the literature by foregrounding supply-side perspectives and expanding the geographical understanding to the context of Vietnam.