The Role of Local Food in Maldives Tourism - Scholarly Commons ...

Food and beverage staff are also frequently portrayed in the marketing materials. Local
staff (Maldivian appearance) are pictured 36 times while foreign staff are portrayed 12
times. Local staff are mostly pictured either with or serving drinks (inlet in Figure 5.7).
While some local food and beverage staffs are pictured with non local foods such as a
tray of breakfast containing croissants (Figure 5.5), pictures of local staff with local
food rarely appeared in the promotional materials. The significance of this is that the
pictures of local food and beverage staff do not represent “localness” in relation to food.
Figure 5. 5 Local food and beverage staff with non-local food
Source: Brochure of Island Hideaway
Restaurants and bars are also a frequently featured image. Pictures of empty restaurants
and table settings appeared (26 images) more than restaurants with people or people
with food (17 images). Table settings without people were featured 13 times. The
different messages that are portrayed from these pictures have significant importance to
this research. An image of a couple or group of tourists enjoying a meal projects an
image of food as part of the tourist experience as in Figure 5.6. On the other hand, table
settings and restaurants without people seem to somehow disembody the visitor
experience. The difference between these two types of pictures is illustrated in Figure
5.7.
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