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

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countries where ethnic food is a key motivating factor for visitation, this is not the case in the Maldives. It was highlighted by an expert that there are some similarities between cuisines of Maldives and some neighbouring countries. This was pointed out as an obstacle in differentiating Maldivian cuisine, limiting the potential to use local food in tourism promotion. Another drawback is the adaptation of local population to imported food which has caused a decrease in demand for local ingredients, which in turn leads to less production. A comment in the experts’ survey reads that local cuisine and various local products have been developed from what grows and can be harvested from the local environment. It was also stated that local food relates to the history, religion and culture of the Maldives, therefore those factors that differentiate Maldives are embodied in local food. It was advised that there is a need for the uniqueness of local food to be brought to the forefront. It was noted by an expert that there is a need to look into avenues that celebrate the historical, social and natural environment of the Maldives and one way to achieve this is through local food. The fact that there are very few activities or events related to local food was seen as an impediment to promote local food among tourists. The only food related event held on a regular basis is The Culinary Challenge. The Culinary Challenge is part of the Hotel Asia Exhibition which is being held annually since 2001 for suppliers of hospitality industry to display and promote their products and services in the Maldives. The Culinary Challenge is conducted as a competition among chefs from tourist resorts and hotels to display their skills. Although there is an element of local food display, exposure of these products to tourists are constrained because the event is not promoted to tourists as this is an event for tourism industry chefs and local food is not the focus of this event. 6.3 Overcoming constraints to linkage development A number of suggestions and recommendations were proposed by tourism operators and industry experts as to how constraints to linkage development could be overcome. Some initiatives were proposed that could be made at policy making levels to promote, develop and link local food to tourism industry: 134
• Since tourism operators and experts have expressed that there is huge interest from tourists for local food and culture, this presents the opportunity to incorporate more cultural concepts into events and experiences such as the “Maldivian nights” currently conducted at tourist establishments. Some suggestions were made to enrich these events: − Proper traditional attire to be worn by staff on “Maldivian nights”: Staff at tourism establishments usually wear uniforms. While the uniforms of some establishments have some semblance of Maldivian cultural attire, not all establishments follow this rule. Given that there are not many opportunities for tourists to experience Maldives culture and local ways of life, “Maldivian nights” projects an opportunity to exhibit the unique traditional attire of Maldives and the richness of the culture that it portrays. − Displaying tradition and culture in the presentation of dishes and cultural dances: Currently, tourist establishments practice foreign methods in decoration and presentation of food, such as vegetable, fruit and butter carvings. Food display, decoration and presentation have special ways and styles in Maldivian cuisine and culture that use local products and techniques. Malaafaiy (refer to Fig. 6.19 and the related discussion on p. 152) is an example of special food presentation. Some other examples include pomegranate seeds used to decorate desserts, coconut shells, banana leaves and coconut palm used in different ways in food presentation. − Folklore dramas or similar events to be followed by the meals: Maldives has a rich heritage of folklore that involves myths and legends some of which are related to Maldivian history. For example, the folklore tales about the first settlers in the Maldives and how Maldives embraced Islam are immensely popular and dramatic tales. At present, after dinner entertainment programmes at “Maldivian nights” involve local music or dance. Folklore dramas or stories will further enrich these events. It was put forward by tourism experts that such activities would not only provide a cultural tourism experience, but would help revive tradition and culture among the staff as well. • It was pointed out by an expert that the role of local food in tourism is not given much emphasis in TTMP, and that in order to incorporate culture and tradition in tourism, TTMP should encourage the promotion of local food. It was noted by two of the experts that TTMP calls for the development of cultural tourism where food festivals are among the activities proposed to promote culture and tradition. TTMP 135
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The Role of Local Food in Maldives
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CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT ROLE OF F
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Figure 5.26 Buffet dinner .........
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Attestation of authorship “I here
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Abstract In the fiercely competitiv
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1.1 Background to the study CHAPTER
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attractiveness and promoting sustai
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Figure 1. 1 Map of the Republic of
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW The
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and nationalities are broadened (Sh
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focus on creating “meaningful tou
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quality of their services and produ
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waiting list for future Guggenheim
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Natural and cultural attractions ar
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local culture, built heritage, and
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Although the above inherent charact
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ituals and leisure (Tannahill, 2002
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and participation in the experience
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Cultural exploration is an integral
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2002). As Jones and Jenkins (2002)
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Figure 2. 2 Isle of Arran food trai
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globalisation strong local food ide
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vegetarian pizza outlets are run by
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tradition are made sustainable in t
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tourism” (p. 115). As their examp
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Slow Food Award in 2000 which recog
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eing researched. Although the small
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On the other hand, the focus of the
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A disadvantage of case sstudies is
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1. data triangulation: uses a range
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A number of international organisat
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Content analysis has been a valuabl
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3.6.2 Surveys “A survey is a good
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Table 3. 2 Advantages vantages and
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3.7 Data validity and reliability I
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3.8 Survey characteristics Out of t
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were doing doctoral research that w
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was a British protectorate from 188
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Figure 4. 2 Population growth rate
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4.3 Economy The Republic of Maldive
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4.4 Agriculture Agriculture plays o
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population was badly affected by th
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enefits of tourism among all the at
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As tourism became established in th
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prospect repeatedly proclaimed by e
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Table 4. 1 Maldives tourist arrival
Page 93 and 94: Figure 4. 8 Market share of top ten
Page 95 and 96: provided a slow burning barbecue to
Page 97 and 98: Figure 4. 13 Rukuraa and raabadhi S
Page 99 and 100: CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT ROLE OF F
Page 101 and 102: possible” (Sarantakos, 1998, p. 2
Page 103 and 104: Table 5. 3 Frequency of images in p
Page 105 and 106: (Figure 5.3). As Figure 5.4 illustr
Page 107 and 108: Figure 5. 6 Dining experience Sourc
Page 109 and 110: Figure 5. 9 Website with no informa
Page 111 and 112: The description indicates that food
Page 113 and 114: Figure 5. 11 Screw pine Source: Mal
Page 115 and 116: Figure 5. 14 Local ‘tea’ ceremo
Page 117 and 118: Hence, the kind of analysis needed
Page 119 and 120: Figure 5. 18 Barbecue menus Source:
Page 121 and 122: Figure 5. 19 Seafood display Source
Page 123 and 124: Figure 5. 22 Unloading fish to the
Page 125 and 126: chefs in our booming tourist indust
Page 127 and 128: Figure 5. 25 Activities featured as
Page 129 and 130: Table 5. 5 Importance of using loca
Page 131 and 132: CHAPTER SIX: DEVELOPING LINKS BETWE
Page 133 and 134: Table 6. 3 Number of respondents th
Page 135 and 136: ight quality of products from these
Page 137 and 138: experts, “It is of great potentia
Page 139 and 140: have failed to utilise”. One of t
Page 141 and 142: Figure 6. 1 Number of local and for
Page 143: local cuisine. This warning echoes
Page 147 and 148: to authentic local foods. In additi
Page 149 and 150: products. This would pave the way f
Page 151 and 152: • Promote Maldives as an environm
Page 153 and 154: Figure 6. 4 Garudhiya bai meal Sour
Page 155 and 156: Figure 6. 7 Canned curries, garudhi
Page 157 and 158: Figure 6. 11 Screw pine fruit and n
Page 159 and 160: Figure 6. 14 Short eats Source: Mal
Page 161 and 162: Figure 6. 16 Smooth loofah, Thoraa
Page 163 and 164: Figure 6. 19 Malaafaiy Source: Leis
Page 165 and 166: Figure 6. 21 Drinks made with local
Page 167 and 168: CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS In an in
Page 169 and 170: list ‘local’ food items were of
Page 171 and 172: apparent from tourism marketing mat
Page 173 and 174: operator” (Omidi, 2009b). Those r
Page 175 and 176: Bibliography ADB. (2005). Country s
Page 177 and 178: Buhalis, D. (2001). The tourism phe
Page 179 and 180: Everett, S., & Aitchison, C. (2008)
Page 181 and 182: Heath, E., & Wall, G. (1992). Marke
Page 183 and 184: Lutfy, M. I. (1995). Dhivehiraajjeg
Page 185 and 186: MTCA. (2007b). Tourism Yearbook. Ma
Page 187 and 188: Ravenscroft, N., & Westering, J. V.
Page 189 and 190: Sheehan, K. (2001). E-mail survey r
Page 191 and 192: Veal, A. J. (1997). Research method
Page 193 and 194: Appendix 1 - Operators’ Questionn
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Appendix 3 - Participant Informatio
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Appendix 4 - Ethics Approval 197
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Committee. Until full approval has
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