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

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The TTMP recommends creating linkages to other supporting economic sectors such as agriculture and fishing to reduce leakages of tourism revenue and community based tourism as a solution to persistent inequalities of income among local communities. However, social norms restrict participation of women in the two largest industries - tourism and fishing. Therefore, more avenues to engage women in these industries need to be explored. This study provides support to the literature which states that opportunities to integrate tourism benefits into the local economy and enhance tourism multiplier effects exists through local supply networks by linking local food and tourism. The prospective benefits from tourism related activities would encourage participation of more locals hence contribute to decreased expatriate labour. In addition, both operators and experts also support that the use of local food in tourism will promote sustainable occupations, create linkages between tourism and other economic sectors and that the backward linkages of food production would enhance and strengthen economic and social harmony. The operators and experts also agree that local food related activities provide enriching tourist experiences. Thus, this study has identified that local food as part of the tourism experience involves a number of benefits that reflect the principles of sustainable development. In consideration of these substantial benefits that local food and tourism linkages are capable of generating, it is essential that local food is promoted. Promotion of these linkages can help to build a competitive advantage in the international market (Boyne & Hall, 2003). In order to increase the demand for food and food related activities with reciprocal impacts on food production and consumption, effective marketing is essential (Pearce, 2002). Because effective marketing is a tool that can positively influence tourists’ buying behaviour towards local food (Okumus et al., 2007; Boyne et al., 2002). Recently Maldives announced the decision to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020 through offsetting carbon emissions and introducing renewable energies (BBC, 2009). The impact of this decision would be great on the tourism industry as “resorts will have to adopt sustainable policies alongside the provision of luxury if they are to stay in the game” (Omidi, 2009b). In addition, the high level of consciousness about the environment in Western countries compels tourism industry to adopt sustainable practices. Kouni, a tour operator that specialises in luxury holidays to the Maldives confirms: “Conspicuous consumerism in the current climate is not considered appropriate and people are actively looking to holiday with a socially-responsible tour 162
operator” (Omidi, 2009b). Those resorts that already strive to limit carbon emissions confirm that, the more sustainable tourist resorts are, the more loyal their clients (ibid). The use of local food in tourism could be an effective way to push these policies towards reality. 7.1 Implications for future research This research has contributed to tourism literature related to food and tourism with a particular emphasis on the role of local food in tourism marketing and economic development. Since this is the first research on this topic to be conducted in the Maldives, the findings from this research will be enlightening for stakeholders of the Maldives tourism industry as it represents an important first step towards understanding extremely important issues and areas for the future of Maldives tourism development. The results of this research provide a foundation for future research on this topic. In order to extend and build upon the work completed in this thesis, further research is required in the following areas. Further research is needed on tourists’ perception of and preferences for local food. This will provide a deeper insight to the viability of linking local food and tourism and the usefulness of local food as a marketing tool for tourism industry. Future research could be conducted with a bigger sample of operators. The issues faced in data collection could be avoided in future research by using interviews in place of e- mail surveys or by perhaps providing an incentive to participate. The capacity of local producers to cater to the tourism industry in a sustainable manner needs to be explored which requires research with local producers. In order to establish a link that is in harmony with the tourism industry, local communities and the public sector, greater understanding of government and industry perspectives are required. Instead of surveys, in depth interviews with tourism industry experts, policy makers, tourism operators and official and private promotional bodies will provide a deeper understanding of the situation, prospects and potential constraints. The perspectives of local communities on integrating local food related tourism activities into the wider community need to be explored. Such research could identify the potential of culinary activities that involve local communities to be linked to tourism and gauge locals’ willingness to participate in tourism related activities. 163
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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
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Figure 5. 14 Local ‘tea’ ceremo
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Hence, the kind of analysis needed
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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
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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
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Page 141 and 142: Figure 6. 1 Number of local and for
Page 143 and 144: local cuisine. This warning echoes
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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: apparent from tourism marketing mat
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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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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