Introduction Working title The role of food tourism In sustaining regional Identity: A case study of Kraal, India, Background The theme of this project is to look at the role of food tourism in Kraal, India and in particular with reference to regional Identity. There are two main questions that will need to be answered in order to understand this. Firstly is food important in sustaining the regional identity of Kraal and if so in what way.
The secondary question is whether tourism affects or is affected by food within the region of Kraal, India. Rationale
Food tourism is a growing sector of tourism however it remains on the “ outer fringes of academic research” (Everett, 2008, p. 151). It Is through the “ inter-relationship between food, place and Identity that food tourism social and cultural Impact can truly be explored” (Everett, 2008, p.
151-152). There have been studies of food within tourism but these have mainly been linked with marketing and economics. Everett (2008), In her case study of Cornwall, clearly identified that much more research was needed both nationally and Internationally to look at the role of food tourism In sustaining regional identity.
India is ranked in the top 40 countries worldwide in terms of tourism numbers.
During 2010 there were 5. 78 million foreign tourist arrivals (FAT) in India, resulting In $14. 19 billion of foreign exchange earnings (FEE), Alongside this there were 740. 21 million domestic tourist visits within the country (India Tourism Statistics 2012, Government of India, Ministry of Tourism). Therefore the tourism market in India is considerable but in the Indian Tourism Statistics 2010 there is no mention of food tourism.
Therefore It raises the question of how Important food tourism Is and does DOD have any impact of tourism. India is a very large country covering nearly 1. 2 million square miles which is divided Into 28 states and 7 unions, with a total population of 1. 2 billion people In 2009. Each state wealth India has Its own regional identity, consisting of Its own language, customs and diet. Indian food is often thought of as curries, nana breads and rice but this is not the whole picture of the types of food available in India.
Within India there Is a wide variety of culinary food specialties which vary considerably from one region In India to another. For example In northern India the daily diet consists of breads and Dahl whilst in southern India the daily diet includes rice, pampas and curries. Indian cuisine has been influenced by over 5, 000 years of continuous ‘ OFF they have introduced and developed their own food sources and dishes. Kraal is one such region within India. It is located on the southern tip of the country on the Malabar Coast and in 2011 covered an area of 1 5, 005 square miles with a population of 33.
Million people. There is evidence of settlement in Kraal since around 5, BBC and since 3, BBC Kraal has been known for its spice exports. In more recent times the region was dominated by firstly the Portuguese then the Dutch and finally the English who all brought with them their own food traditions. One of the most important staple foods of Kraal is rice of which there are over 600 varieties. Rice features heavily in the Kraal diet.
But what makes Kraal unique? This will be one of the areas that will be looked at during the project.
In particular what religions and cultures are found in the region and what impact do they have on the identity of Kraal. Also does the history and the various people who have invaded ND settled within the region contribute to the present day Kraal? So is food tourism in Kraal important? Kraal is one of Indian’s top tourist destinations for both local and international tourists. In 2006 Kraal attracted nearly 8. 5 million tourists and the tourism industry as a whole contributed greatly to the states economy with an input of 13. 31%.
Therefore it must be assumed that as these tourists will need to eat whilst visiting the region food must play and important part of the overall tourism industry. As mentioned above rice is one of the most important table foods in Kraal and is included within the diet but what other foods are common within the region and is this food different to that found in other regions and areas of India? In respect to tourism how is food used within the tourism sector and how is it advertised to tourists, both nationally and internationally. Finally how does food contribute to business within the region? 2.
Literature Review One of the main pieces of work identified for this dissertation is Sally Everett and Car Atchison work on The Role of Food Tourism in Sustaining Regional Identity: A Case Study of Cornwall, South West England published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism in 2008.
In it they look at the role of food tourism within Cornwall and in particular the way restaurants use locally produced food to raise awareness of regional identity. Their research was based on interviewing 12 restaurateurs in four popular tourist locations and then cross-referencing the results of these interviews with published market research.
Their findings found that food, and in particular the Cornish pasty, is linked with regional identity. This is a particularly important piece of ark as it is almost a blue-print of the type of research that I intend to carry out for my own dissertation. Everett and Atchison clearly mention that there has been a limited amount of research completed on the role of food tourism in sustaining regional identity and my dissertation will be trying to add to the limited current research by looking at food tourism in sustaining the identity of Kraal.
One to a region within England however some of the work cited throughout the piece and also in the references offer leads to works that may be more relevant.
One of these works was that written by Jeannine Bossier in 1998 titled Local Development and Heritage: Traditional Food and Cuisine as Tourist Attractions in Rural Areas published in the Sociological Rural. The piece focuses on the processes of transformation and redefinition of local identity and in particular how food and gastronomy is used as an element of tourist development.
The main geographical area under discussion is the rural area, and mainly those rural areas in France, which gives a geographical comparison to the work by Everett and Atchison. This is particularly useful as a majority of Kraal is rural and as such this work can be used s a comparison. The main question Bossier seeks to answer is whether there is any demand for French rural areas in terms of tourism and gastronomy and if there is how is local identity enhanced, validated and identified by them.
The findings of Besieger’s work conclude that “ highly cultural, culinary heritage is right at the heart of France’s rural tourist market” (p. 10) via a range of products including farm fresh products being sold in tourist markets, Farmstead inns who offer home cooked local meals to tourists, Family Inn’s offering meals made of local products, local food events ND traditional restaurants serving traditional rural meals again using local products. Whilst it is a very interesting piece there are limitations in its use when it comes to a study of Kraal in India and as such can only be used in conjunction with other works.
Nevertheless it highlights some interesting practices in France that may appear in India as well. Rebecca Sims, in her work Food, place and authenticity: Local Food and the Sustainable Tourism Experience, published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism in 2009, also uses two different regions of England to explore the question of food tourism and sustainability.
In this case it is the Lake District and Oxymora. In both she again uses qualitative interviews with food producers and this time tourists as well she looks at how food can help to symbolism a certain place and its culture.
She notes how both areas in her study have specific food items associated with them much like the Cornish pasty mentioned in the article by Everett and Atchison and Sims also argues that “ local food and drink products can improve the economic and environmental sustainability of both tourism and the rural host community through encouraging sustainable agricultural practices, supporting local businesses and alluding a brand that can benefit the region by attracting more visitors and investment” (p. 22). The article itself is very informative on both the issues surrounding food tourism, food tourism in both regions and how this form of tourism is and can be used to the benefit of the region. As such it is a useful article in terms of my dissertation as it can be used in conjunction with the Everett and Atchison article in providing different ideas and avenues to research.
Another work highlighted by Everett and Atchison is that by Erik Cohen and Nor Evil titled Food in Tourism: Attraction and Impediment, which was published in the faculties and impediments for the tourist who visit unfamiliar destinations and the problems that can occur in relation to local cuisine. They look at these problems in two ways – firstly in the tourist destinations and the problems and issues that can occur both for the tourists and for the locals and secondly by questioning the role of restaurants in the tourists home countries who offer ethnic food.
Like Everett and Atchison they acknowledge that there has been limited study of the role of food within tourism and the aim of their piece is to look at how local food can be both a lush and a minus in regards to tourism and then how restaurants in tourist destinations can overcome these negative points. The article is very interesting in that it looks at how food can be both a negative and positive part of tourism and with regards to my dissertation it uses examples from other countries throughout.
The section on Ethnic Restaurants at Home and Local Eating Places Abroad was particularly interesting to my study as the view of Indian cuisine is definitely based on what is served in Ethnic Restaurants in tourists home countries rather than the genuine food provided in the country of origin. After reading these I then wanted to look at work of specific destinations or examples of where tourist can experience food.
The first of these, again mentioned by Everett and Atchison, was the article written by Jackass Skived titled Tourism and Gastronomy: Gastronomy’s Influence on How Tourists Experience a Destination, published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research in 2006. In this article the emphasis is on the tourist and in particular the gastronomy tourism market segment rather than the specific destination or area and looks at how gastronomy can contribute to a tourists experience within a destination.
Whilst the study took place in Hong Kong the study could be trialed in many other tourist destinations. In the research for the article, Skived used quantitative data similar to that of Everett and Atchison but instead of interviewing restaurateurs, tourists were interviewed about their dining experiences during their stay in Hong Kong. Rather than the limited 12 interviews conducted by Everett and Atchison, Skived interviewed 1, 200 people over a period of 2-months and a variety of information was gained from them including that nearly 21% of them were visiting Hong Kong Just to experience the food.
The way Skived detailed and presented the findings was extremely interesting and highlighted some good ways of presenting the data of my findings. Although a direct comparison cannot be drawn with Kraal in India the article was particularly useful in the ways of using the data collected in any study and how to or not to present them in my own dissertation. Another article which will be particularly helpful to me and links in with the above articles is that by Gathering Kirkland and Alison Morrison titled Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Tourism: The Houseboats of Kraal, published in Tourism and
Hospitality Research in 2002. In the article Kirkland and Morrison discuss the ways that self-employed and small scale enterprises such as the Houseboats of Kraal assist in the economic and social benefits of tourism within tourist destinations. Like Everett and Atchison, and in a similar way to my planned dissertation, Kirkland and Morrison interviewed people within the tourism industry, namely tour operators, Houseboats assist the tourism sector within Kraal. One part of their article discusses various other works about the tourism sector in Kraal which will provide mom useful links for my own work.
The main part of the article though discusses how the Houseboats have developed over the past twenty years and how they contribute to tourism within Kraal. The article is extremely useful but would need to be used in conjunction with other works on the Keratin Tourism Industry. However the useful links to other works will provide some interesting articles to read and will also be useful when planning where to visit and whom to talk to during the research part of my own dissertation. Lastly, whilst a little less useful than the articles mentioned above there is another article by Sally Everett titled Beyond the Visual Gaze?
The Pursuit of an embodied experience through food tourism published in Tourist Studies in 2009. In it she looks at another region of the United Kingdom and how food tourism there works by initiatives, and then how food can be perceived visually.
Whilst there is little in this article that can be linked with food tourism and sustaining regional identity in Kraal it is another piece of work that uses a case study to try to answer specific questions and also looks at food tourism in a specific region, namely Scotland. 3.
Methodology Based on the above literature review it is obvious that there are many possible research opportunities within food tourism. This dissertation will be a case study of Kraal, India. “ Recent work has acknowledged the case study to be an effective research strategy providing a link between theory and practice” (Haggler and Richards, 2002, p. 228) along with being able to “ identify relevant issues and the various driving forces that are important for the development of tourism or gastronomy in a particular area (Haggler and Richards, 2000, p.
228).
This will be an exploratory study of an area of a larger country and as such will be small in scale. However the findings can be generalized into a theoretical framework and then can be applied to other situations, locations and regions, both within India and other areas of the world. It can also be used to expose additional avenues that could require further investigation. Kraal provides a suitable case study area for examining regional identity and its links with food.
It is a region with a strong heritage and a regional identity that is significantly different from the rest of the Indian sub continent.
Kraal attracts 8. 5 million tourists each year and these tourists contribute almost 14% of the regions total economy. Kraal is the first state in India to have 100% literacy and due to this it has one of the lowest unemployment levels in India at only 9.
4%. Many people are employed within the service sector across the 500 or so hotel, the many restaurants and the houseboats within the region. Israelites are also immensely proud of their state and heritage and this shows in the lengths the Kraal government go to how and why they wanted to increase the tourism market in Kraal.
By using unique products like backwater tourism and Arrived they are hoping that Kraal will emerge as the innovation of the tourism industry within India with the overall aim of attaining international recognition. One of the ways they will be aiming for this is by promoting the uniqueness of the region.
One example of this uniqueness is in the Keratin houseboats. Currently there are about 1, 000 houseboats in the Keratin backwaters ranging from basic houseboats to luxury one which resemble floating mint-palaces. Another example is the traditional medicine system in Kraal called Arrived.
The Government of Kraal is aiming to promoted Arrived treatments and holidays among the tourists for the rejuvenation of their health. With accommodation facilities ranging from luxury hotels to home stays including vernacular architectural style, culture, tradition, various art forms and the local food traditions are being widely used within the region to create memorable tourism experiences to tourists.
With tourism ventures ranging from small to medium enterprises, the Keratin government is certainly aiming to provide the widest tourism opportunities with the verbal aim of increasing the number of tourists visiting the region.
Food will play a pivotal part within this increasing tourism industry. The most effective way of finding information about food tourism in sustaining regional identity will be done in a flexible quantitative methodological approach. Questioning of a selected number of restaurants, both independently, within hotels and houseboats, will provide a vast amount of first hand data. This data will need to be compared with and cross-validated by secondary quantitative surveys which have already been completed.
Together this can capture a rich diversity and depth of data relating to the identity, heritage, personal experience and the role of food within Kraal. Nevertheless, it has been “ argued that case studies tend to reflect the bias of the researcher, who is the primary instrument of data collection and analysis” (Button, 2005, p. 39) so it will be important that during the analysis that the secondary data is used to validate the findings of the interviews. Alongside this the case study is often criticized for being “ extremely long” (Button, 2005, p. 0) therefore t will be important to ensure that the correct interviewees are selected that can give the clearest information possible. But due to the time limitations of the case study it will be exploratory in nature whilst trying to answer the questions set in the most thorough way possible.
The dissertation will be broken down into the following chapters: Chapter 1 – An introduction to the dissertation including the background, rationale, research aims, objective, questions to be answered and the hypotheses. Chapter 2 – This will be a discussion on the current debates on food tourism and sustainability.
This will include a further discussion of the literature found in the above literature review and will be looking at the current ideas around food tourism and sustainability in line with the aims of the dissertation. Region will be discussed, most particularly how the region identifies itself. There will also be an overview of the current tourism sector within the region and how they use sustainability within tourism. Chapter 3 – This chapter will discuss the research design and methodology used.
There will also be details of the 12 restaurants chosen to be interviewed along with he list of the questions that will be asked.
There will also be details of the secondary data which will be used in the findings to validate the data from the interviews. Chapter 4 – This will be where the findings of the research will be given. There will be statistical graphs and detailed analysis of the data collected.
Any patterns noted will be highlighted and discussed. Chapter 5 – This will be the closing chapter detailing the successes and failures of the case study along with highlighting further areas of research for the future. A detailed bibliography will also be included. 4. Timetable Please see the Gaunt chart.
