Coconut-based low-carbon culinary tourism on Samui Island, Thailand

Abstract

This qualitative research aims to provide culinary menu format following low-carbon foodprints consisting of purchasing, preparation and presentation (3Ps) for Samui Island, which is one of the top ten tourism destinations in Thailand among international tourists. The researchers reviewed literature concerned with culinary tourism and low-carbon situation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with supply chain stakeholders (hotel chefs, local farmers, market vendors of farmers and intermediaries. Then, the form of low carbon culinary menus is designed and was verified by chefs, who worked in restaurants and hotels on Samui Island and joined the Samui Chefs Club. The tool was sent via e-mail to professional chefs by purposive sampling and non-probability method to create low-carbon culinary menus for tourists who will come to enjoy culinary tourism on Samui Island. The research applied coding analysis assisting by licensed NVivo11 with the deductive conclusion. The findings included the integration of local coconut production into Samui's coconuts supply chain, low carbon criteria, design cookbook format and low carbon menus categorized by purchase, preparation, and presentation