Thanan Apivantanaporn
School of Management, Shinawatra University
John Walsh
School of Management, Shinawatra University
Although organisations and institutions in Thailand are taking steps to incorporate authentic ‘Thainess’ into the hotel sector and tourism industry as a means of adding value to products and creating the experience economy, to date little attention has been paid to the food and beverage (F&B) element. Despite the importance of F&B in determining customer satisfaction overall and, also, in promoting Thailand as a destination, it is surprising that no sustained effort has been made to define authenticity with respect to Thai food (bearing in mind also regional variations) or to incorporate certificates of quality to establishments providing such authentic dishes. Currently, hotels have been making some sporadic attempts to incorporate Thai F&B elements specifically into their overall product offering, but rarely in a thoughtful, systematic way.
This paper draws on qualitative research and personal observation undertaken in a wide range of Thai hotels with a view to identifying emergent value-adding clusters in the domestic hospitality sector. The paper describes and categorizes the uses of Thai F&B currently and identifies shortcomings in industry vision. This leads to recommendations for both hotel and resort managers and also to those responsible for national level tourism development efforts. The paper also recognizes the problematic nature of the concepts of ‘authenticity’ and of ‘Thainess’ in this context and attempts to reconcile differing conceptions.
(Presented in the 2012 Asian Food Heritage Forum: Harmonizing Culture , Technology and Industry, 20-21 August 2012, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Chinese Dietary Culture Institute, Zhejiang Gongshang University, and Ministry of Culture, Thailand)