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

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Bodu Mauloodhu, a ceremony that includes prayers and feasting is a very special event held once a year in some islands. Everyone in the island where Bodu Mauloodh is held participates in the month long preparation. Each house hold contributes food and their best local dishes. People from neighbouring islands, family and friends from other islands attend this very special event. Special sweets made for the occasion are given away as gifts to the invitees and dispatched to friends and family of the island community after the ceremony. This could be a very enriching tourist experience. However, this special event has almost died out with time, as the ‘modern’ generations became more indifferent to cultural and religious events. Promotion of such festivals through tourism would help to revive and preserve culture and tradition. Eid festivals are religious festivals celebrated twice a year, one to mark the end of Ramadan, and the other to mark the occasion of Hajj. Both are public holidays. Both occasions are marked with special lunches prepared in every household that include traditional and modern specialties. People wear new clothes for the occasion. Family, friends and neighbours are invited to share the special lunches. Food parcels are sent to neighbours, relatives and friends who cannot attend to share the lunch. Maahefun is a “feasting” that goes on for days before the start of the fasting month of Ramadan. Traditionally maahefun comprised of a variety of local snacks such as dried fish, coconut, dates, honey made out of rukuraa or coconut sap (dhiyaa hakuru). In recent times maahefun has evolved to become meal experiences celebrated by different community groups. 6.4 Summary Clearly there is considerable potential for local food to be used as an added dimension in the tourism experience. There is a wide range of local produce and authentic dishes in Maldivian cuisine that can be promoted locally and internationally by linking to tourism. This research shows that the tourism industry has many good ideas that can be tapped to link local food related events to tourism, the potential of which has so far not been exploited. It is evident that the wealth of food and food related events are considerable enough to warrant local food to be prominently featured in tourism marketing. 156
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS In an increasingly competitive tourism industry where globalisation has played a major role in creating homogenization and standardization of products, services and culture (Dehesa, 2006), destinations are faced with the challenge of developing tourist experiences that provide a unique and authentic ‘sense of place’ (Milne & Ateljevic, 2001; Wahab & Cooper, 2001). At the same time there is a clear need to link the tourism industry more effectively to local economies and to sustain the natural and cultural resources that enable host communities to sustain their livelihoods and quality of life (Gossling & Hall, 2006; Holden, 2008; Scarpato & Daniele, 2002). This thesis has argued that locally produced food can play an important role in meeting these challenges. The literature related to food and tourism reveals numerous reciprocal benefits that can be obtained by linking these industries (Boyne et al., 2003; Richards, 2002; Santich, 2007). Local food embodies cultures and traditions of destinations and plays an important role in promoting and conserving cultural heritage (Fields, 2002). Local occupations are also encouraged through local food production, and backward linkages are created that stimulate other economic sectors, enhance tourism multipliers, benefit local communities and assist in equal distribution of tourism benefits (Boyne et al. 2002). Indeed, food and agriculture linkages often lie at the heart of pro-poor tourism initiatives (Goodwin, 2009). When local food production is encouraged food imports can be reduced, which also has an important impact of trade balances. Aside from these benefits, the involvement of local food experiences in tourist products provides an enriching tourist experience (Poulain, 2000, in Frochot 2003). Research has shown that tourists place a very high value on culinary experiences (Selwood, 2003), and that food is often viewed as a significant motivation for travel. At the same time food represents a substantial percentage of average total tourist expenditure (Jones & Jenkins, 2002; du Rand & Heath, 2006). Thus local food provides an excellent opportunity for destinations to both increase economic yield per visitor and to also enhance the attractiveness of the tourism product (Hjalager & Richards, 2002). Unfortunately the benefits of linking local food to tourism are often not recognized by tourism destinations and the businesses that comprise them, and effective linkages between tourism and local food are not established (Okumus. et al., 2007). This research 157
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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
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Figure 4. 8 Market share of top ten
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provided a slow burning barbecue to
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Figure 4. 13 Rukuraa and raabadhi S
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CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT ROLE OF F
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possible” (Sarantakos, 1998, p. 2
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Table 5. 3 Frequency of images in p
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(Figure 5.3). As Figure 5.4 illustr
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Figure 5. 6 Dining experience Sourc
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Figure 5. 9 Website with no informa
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The description indicates that food
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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 and 144: local cuisine. This warning echoes
Page 145 and 146: • Since tourism operators and exp
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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: Figure 6. 21 Drinks made with local
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
Page 195 and 196: 185
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Page 205 and 206: Appendix 3 - Participant Informatio
Page 207 and 208: Appendix 4 - Ethics Approval 197
Page 209: Committee. Until full approval has
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