The Role of Local Food in Maldives Tourism - Scholarly Commons ...
The Role of Local Food in Maldives Tourism - Scholarly Commons ...
The Role of Local Food in Maldives Tourism - Scholarly Commons ...
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This festival was meant to be the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> an annual festival where food would play<br />
a key role <strong>in</strong> addition to cultural arts and crafts.<br />
Figure 5. 26 Buffet d<strong>in</strong>ner<br />
Source: www.ranveli-maldives.com<br />
To evaluate the operators’ op<strong>in</strong>ion on the importance <strong>of</strong> us<strong>in</strong>g local food <strong>in</strong> the<br />
promotion <strong>of</strong> their bus<strong>in</strong>esses, a seven-po<strong>in</strong>t likert scale was used (1 is unimportant, 7<br />
very important). <strong>The</strong>ir responses (Table 5.5) <strong>in</strong>dicate that the respondents were divided<br />
<strong>in</strong> their responses. This is an <strong>in</strong>dication <strong>of</strong> the perception among operators that current<br />
promotions are do<strong>in</strong>g well even without <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g local food <strong>in</strong> market<strong>in</strong>g activities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> expert survey also supports this argument. One commentator had stated that even<br />
without the component <strong>of</strong> local food be<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> promot<strong>in</strong>g tourism, <strong>Maldives</strong><br />
tourism has been very successful. <strong>The</strong>refore, it would be a challenge to develop <strong>in</strong>terest<br />
among those who engage <strong>in</strong> tourism promotions to l<strong>in</strong>k local food to tourism market<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
This f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g reflects the observations by (Okumus. et al., 2007) that although “food is<br />
grow<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> importance, not all dest<strong>in</strong>ations capitalize on the potential opportunities it<br />
provides”.<br />
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