Tanapoom Ativetin
Department of Business Administration, Srinakharinwirot University
This research aims to study a development of concept formation that links the individual with eating behavior and tourism in terms of relationships between the dimensions of food and perception of one’s self identity through several modes of consumption, especially traveling and tourism. Furthermore, it emphasizes the impacts of consumer culture affecting the tourist’s view of food consumption in a touristic context.
According to the research findings, food has been regarded as an important factor affecting an individual’s psychological processes and behaviors as it does not merely function as the crucial part for maintaining lives, but also performs prominent symbolic values that magnify clear self identity and efficiently reflect the individual’s world views, beliefs, values, attitudes, lifestyles and also social status. In addition, when food consumption is combined with tourism activities, the role of food is much more prominent, especially in terms of experience and the perception of taste derived as the result of traveling. In this case, a superior opportunity of tasting and researching the food context including the food itself, exotic ingredients, cooking processes, eating etiquettes and also food images represented are regarded as very crucial factors that generate and enhance the individuals’ own cultural capital from such traveling experiences.
Finally, the influences of consumer culture in modern urban context perform an important role in stimulating the desire for several kinds of consumption activities in order to create self satisfaction and help fulfill the senses of nostalgia and need for searching exoticness in life. This has resulted in the emergence of various special interest tourism brackets in response to the specific needs of the individuals, especially food tourism and how it will be further developed in the future.
(Presented in the International Conference – Thai Food Heritage: Local to Global, 4-6 August 2009, Tawana Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, organized by The Project of Empowering Network for International Thai Studies (ENITS), Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University with support from the Thailand Research Fund (TRF))