Tourists Relationship with Food and Drinks
Introduction
According to Dale (2006, p.2), tourism involves activities of people travelling to take vacationsin places that are outside their typical environments. These vacations do not exceed one consecutive year. Tourism is driven by several factors such as leisure, business, or any other purpose (Dale, 2006 p.2). The definition indicates that tourists move away from their usual homes to a destination where food, drinks, and culture are different.Food and culture are strongly linked. Food choices reflect the identity of the eater (Hurh and Kim, 1998 p.72). Human beings tend to adhere to taking familiar foods and drinks because of the sense of identity that these foods and drinks bring. Everywhere in the world, humans have their unique type of food. This food lore, its associated stories, myths, meaning, and taste are passed on from generation to generation (Gabaccia, 1998 p.8).
This paper will discuss the tourists feeding habits. Among the things that the paper will cover are the theoretical perspectives that can influence tourists eating behaviors, factors that influence tourists and their eating behaviors, and the consequences of these factors. After that, conclusions will be made based on what has been learnt from the analysis.
Theoretical perspectives
Food study is not a new concept in the scholarly world. One thing that scholars have studied on is that taste is constructed by social factors and the food tastes that people have, including the choice of food they make are influenced by social factors. One can identify different social classes by how they express their taste towards different things such as music cloths, art, house decorations, and the food they eat (Bourdieu, 1984 p.23-25). Since Bourdieu argued that what taste differentiated is the social class, it is good to look at taste from the habitus point of view.Habitus is a manner to act in particular ways (Jasper, 1999 p.128). It is a flexible matrix of appreciations, perceptions, and actions that enable people to adjust and adapt in both existing and new situations (Jasper, 1999 p.128). For this reason (Seymour, 2004) concluded that habitus do not influence people’s practices, but assists human beings in adopting some practices and not others (p.4). Seymour further says that socially constructed tastes are identified through a person’s attributes (p.4). From the arguments, it can be said that different social classes have different tastes.
Looking at one alternative method that proves that taste is socially constructed, a notion that is referred to as standardization will be discussed (Seymour, 2004 p.6). Standardization has a notion of mass culture. There is no visible distinction of taste and culture in standardization. This is because there is uniform production of goods and services that can be bought uniformly to a large number of people irrespective of their social class (Seymour, 2004 p.6). Ritzer (1983) conducted a study that indicated how McDonald Fast Foods has uniformly standardized the society through production of uniform goods (p.104).Such production of uniform goods ensured that there was no option of choice, and so all its customers were not differentiated by class (Ritzer, 1983 p.104).
Regarding tourists and their feeding habits, it can be said that the taste or choice of food they find in their destination is influenced by social factors. Food habits are influenced by social characters that illustrate how shared character within a society is formed. Social class determines feeding habits of tourists in their destinations (Sumarjan et al., 2013 p. 544). According to Fladmark (1994), each social class in tourism has its own feeding habits (p.413). However, standardization can be practiced by restaurants where the aim is to make everyone feel equal, and for the sake of maximizing profits.
Factors that can influence Tourists Eating Habits
Microscale built environments can influence the food habits of tourists (Wansink and Sobal, 2007 p.126). The microscale food environment consists of kitchenscape, tablescape, platescape, and foodscape. Microscalekitchenscape, tablescape, platescape, and foodscape are small-scale foodspaces that ensure that there is an availability of food for consumption(Bove and Sobal, 2007 p.78). These foodspaces also offer settings for perceiving food in terms of environments and how such food can be afforded in such an environment. For this reason, tourists can highly be influenced by microscale built environments in their destinations when it comes to food consumption(Bove and Sobal, 2007 p.78). Looking at kitchenscape, it can be referred to as the representative room whose primary goal is to offer cooking and dining space. Bove and Sobal (2006 p.81) says that kitchenspaces are very important rooms because they provide eating places. These food-spaces also shape the available food, the situation of the food in the room, and the circumstances and events that facilitate or offer barriers to the access of food among other factors that can influence the consumption of food. Roomscapes under which kitchenscape fall have a great influence on the consumption of food. Such factors as temperature, lighting, and sound in roomscapes influence the quantity and what people consume (Stroebele and De Castro 2004 p.828). Another thing is that the proximity of food to a person within the kitchenspace also has a great influence on the amount that a person consumes (Wansik and Sobal2006 p.128-129).
On the other hand, tablescapesis the furniture in the built environment. Tablescapesforms a representation of how tables that are used to place the served food and for eating resemble. Tablescapes can be characterized by many attributes such as size, nature and material of the table surfaces, arrangements of objects on the tables, and the number of people in the table and their relationships (Wansik and Sobal, 2006 p. 130). All these attributes contributeto the amount of foods and drinks that is consumed. When it comes to platescapes, they are vessels used for containing foods (Wansik and Sobal, 2006 p. 130-132). The way these vessels are formed, designed, and any of their other attributes can influence food intake to a great degree. The size and shape of eating bowls and drinking glasses determines the amount of food and drinks that is consumed by people. According to (Wansink and Ittersum, 2003 p.460), people tend to pour huge amount of wine on wide glasses as compared to long and thin glasses.
Finally, foodscapes describes the food’s landscape. Foodscapes is a representation of the view of a certain food object as observed in its visual appearance (Wansink and Sobal 2007 p.133). If the size of foodscape is large then the intake is also large and vice versa. The shape of any type of food also matters a lot. Circular foods are more likely to be consumed as compared to spherical food (Krider, Raghubir and Krishna, 2001 p. 415-420). This is because spherically-shaped foodsappear smaller as compared to fat-shaped foods.
Another factor that can affect tourists eating habits is their desire to enhance their experience and the hospitality offered by the host in the form of food and drinks. Food is an important tourist attraction in a variety of forms. One of purpose of food in tourism is that that it enhances a tourist’s experience (Henderson 2009 p. 317). Moreover, Cohen and Cohen (2010) said that tourism move from their homes to seek experience (p.1301). Within tourism, experience-seeking can be said to be the concept of moving away from home to seek relief from daily practices. For tourists to have their experiences enhanced there is a need for destinations to offer hospitality. One way that hospitality in the destination of tourists enhances their experience is the provision of foods and drinks (Dale, 2006 p.2).
According to Page and Connell (2006 p.201), consumption of food, drink, and being accommodated away from home environment is a big part of hospitality that supports tourists experience. On the other hand, Lashley and Morrison (2000 p. 170-175) argued that hospitality within tourism can happen in three domains namely private domain, social domain, and commercial domain. The private domain of tourism hospitality is the one that touches more on the provision of food and drinks.
Hospitality in the private domain is characterized by guests experiencing provision of foods and drinks, as well as accommodation in a domestic setting (Lashley and Morrison 2000 p. 170). In this case, the tourists’ hosts offer hosting and hospitality to the visitors. On the other hand, the social domain of tourism hospitality involves values that societies have towards visitors (Lashley and Morrison 2000 p. 172). The act of generosity is one of the values that have been in the social setting for long. A traditional practice that society has had towards stranger, in this case the tourists is being charitable. Finally, commercial domain of tourism hospitality involves guests paying the hosts for services that they receive (Lashley and Morrison 2000 p. 174-175). One particular service that tourists can pay for in the commercial domain of tourism hospitality is food and drinks. According to Osman, Johns, and Lugosi (2014 p.238), Commercial hospitality is the most common type of hospitality in tourism. These authors go ahead to say that commercial hospitality involves tourist experience where the emphasis is accommodation services and provision of foods and drinks in exchange for a fee.Despite the three domains through which hospitality to tourists may occur, the fact remains that hospitality is the relationship that is established between a host and a guest.
Still on the part of enhancing their experiences, tourists learn a lot of their host’s culture through the foods they encounter in their destinations. Food is an expression of a region, and is produced from a region’s local ingredients with soil and climate that suits the region from which it is produced. The produced food is then transformed or cooked through skills that are specific to local people. On the other hand, Janowski and Kerlogue (2007) argued that the quality and quantity of food that is offered or shared is a reflection of a common understanding. Food consolidates kinship identity. Sharing of food is a sign of trust and relationship especially when it is eaten together. Food is one of the mandatory things that tourists visiting several parts of the world require. These tourists come across different kind of food depending on the culture of the part of the world they visit.
In regards to personality traits related to food, Mark et al (2012 p.934) said that it occurs in two different forms. The two are variety seeking and food neophobia. Variety-seeking refers to the tendency of humankind to seek diverse things when making choices on goods and services. When it comes to food, human tend to choose diverse flavors. On the other hand, food neophobia is the reluctance to eat certain food in the caution that if ingested, they might be harmful or toxic. For this reason human beings tend to be selective.
Social-demographic factors that influence tourist feeding habits are grouped into such categories as age, sex, marital status, level of education, occupation, and the level of income. In tourism, social-demographicfactors have a huge effect on food consumption (Mak et al. 2012 p. 934-935). On the effects of past experience and exposure on tourists’ food consumption, Mak et al. (2012 p.935) said that repeated exposure to certain type of foods tends to increase their preference. If a tourist had visited a certain destination before, then, he is likely to remember the local cuisine due to that past exposure. Finally, Mak et al. (2012 p.936)said that motivational factors contributed to the way tourists consume foods through four factors namely cultural, interpersonal, physical, and status. Food can motivate a tourist culturally through when it is a local cuisine. Food can be an interpersonal motivator to a tourist when it is consumed together with other people because it strengthens social ties and bonds. On the aspect of food being be a physical motivator, when being consumed physically, food can be motivating to tourists through appreciating of this food. Lastly, food can be a status motivator to tourist through exploring the local cuisines of their destinations. Consuming foods that tourists have never encountered before at home enable these tourists to feel as if they have earned a new status especially when they dine with the locals (Mak et al., 2012 p.936).
Consequences of Tourists Feeding Habits
The first major consequence of tourists feeding habits is the rise of oriental cities and restaurants in major cities around the world. According to Au and Law (2002, p.821) Singapore and Hong Kong are self-proclaimed food paradises in the world with Hong Kong alone having over 9,000 restaurants that tourists are expected to book. Along with the establishment of these restaurants, jobs are also created, especially to chefs and cooks.One significant job that has emerged as a result of tourists feeding habits is that of hawkers. Hawkers are particularly many in the parts of Asia. According to Henderson (2009, p.320), these hawkers especially those in Malaysia and Singapore act as symbols of multiculturalism. These hawkers have opened centers in different parts of the two countries where they sell cuisines and fusion from different cultures. Such cuisines and fusions are from Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian, and Western among other cultures (Henderson, 2009, p.320).
The other consequence of tourists feeding habits is rural development. Boyne, Hall and William (2003, p.140-143) argue that on realizing that tourism is producing good returns on the economies, governments have decided to use it as a tool for developing rural areas. By using it as a tool for developing rural areas agrarian economies are stimulated and the existing jobs are protected while new jobs are created as well. On environmental protection, Henderson (2009, p.321) argues that tourism saves transportation of food supplies over long distances. Such transportation results toemission of carbon gas from the transporting vehicles.
The other consequence of tourists feeding habits regards launching of marketing and promotional programs among tourism authorities all over the world. These authorities are aimed at advocating for their countries to become tourist destinations. As Bessière (1998, p.22) noted rural Europe’s tourism authorities are among the most aggressive in marketing their unique local food products to tourists. Henderson (2009) says that marketing and promotions of food products that are aimed at tourists are also captured by the locals. Locals are potential buyers of the food products as well. When the tourism industry is affected by crisis, or the usual seasonal patterns, many restaurants depend on the local market to support them through these adverse times.
However, with all the discussed positive consequences of tourists feeding habits, there are also negative consequences. The first consequence is the leakage of local culturesthrough import and export of the uniqueness of local foods and drinks. Uniqueness of food and drinks can provide local people with a lot of benefits. However, the flow of tourists and import of foods can lead to leakages of uniqueness. Such leakages have dire consequences to the economy and opportunities of the local settings from where the food emerged (Belisle, 1983 p.498-501). However, Ashley (2006, p 43-45) offered a solution to this kind of problem. The author said that this problem can be addressed by governments integrating economic policies. This is because most countries are aware of the economic activities that are associated with tourists’ expenditure on food especially strengthening supply chain can have positive economic benefits even to the developing countries.
The other negative consequence of the tourists feeding habits is the poor hygiene of food. Tourists should be guaranteed of their personal safety through the foods they consume at their destinations.Larsen et al. (2007, p.1554-55) argues that though food safety measures during storage and in the preparation process very important, hygiene should not be restricted in these areas only. There should be food safety regimes even in the modes of transport.
Another negative consequence that tourist feeding habits raise is the issue of misunderstanding as a result of strict cultural and religious values. Some religions such as the Muslim require that its followers adhere to strict dietary codes, even when on tours. Chinese culture does not allow its members to eat certain type of food. For this reason, misunderstanding arises when these tourists approach their hosts for food services. The best measures to take so as to overcome this challenge is to publish tourist guides, come up with multi-lingual menus, and install foreign language signage (Henderson, 2009 p.322).
Conclusion
The paper has discussed various factors that affect tourists eating and drinking habits. Some of these factors include: microscale built environments, desire to enhance their experience; hospitality provided during service of this food; social demographic factors; cultural and religious factors; effects of exposure and past experiences; motivational factors; personality traits related to food.
As the paper discussed, the major positive consequences of the tourist feeding habits include emergence of oriental cities and restaurants across major cities of the world; job creations; rural developments; marketing and promotional programs that saves restaurants even in the periods of tourism drought because of the locals embrace domestic tourism as a result of the programs. The negative consequences include:leakages of local/hosts drinking and feeding cultures; hygiene issues; cultural and religious issues.
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