A Hotel Restaurant as a Food Tourism Destination
Tolstikhina, Arina (2019)
Tolstikhina, Arina
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2019
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201902092161
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201902092161
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of the studies is to research hotel restaurants, which can be considered food tourism destinations and create some recommendations for further development.
The main research question of the Thesis is: how to make a hotel restaurant a food tourism destination? The final answer for this question is formed in a list of recommendations for hotel restaurants.
In order to make the research process more structured, and narrow down the main topics of study, the following sub-questions were defined: what kind of products and services are needed for food tourists in a hotel restaurant? What marketing strategies can be used to attract food tourists to a hotel restaurant?
This study was conducted in qualitative method and was carried out via interviewing restaurant and hotel employees in Finland, as well as an online research of hotel restaurant concepts around the world. Both methods were based on the sub-questions, and therefore included topics like food tourism and its main elements, studies about modern food tourists and their needs, product and concept development, branding and marketing planning.
The online research included evaluation of different restaurant concept with their ways of operating and serving customers. The main touchpoints were to find out how their concepts are built and how do they promote themselves. The information about each restaurant (Café Boulud, Bazar Mar, Diner by Heston Blumental, Huang Ting) was taken from at least three sources: official web-site, articles from online magazines and Social Media. The method chosen for the interviews was semi-structured, which means that the questions were formed in advanced based on the theoretical framework, however there was still a space for a discussion and personal opinions of the interviewees. Since the interviews were conducted during busy spring-summer season, one of the main challenges was finding the respondents and arrange a suitable time for meeting. Therefore, the dates of the interviews have big gaps between them: 4th of April in Kämp Brasserie, 19th of April in Glo Art Kitchen and 27th of June in Toscannini. The interview with SicaPelle Wining&Dining was conducted via email on 6th of June.
The result of the studies shows that even though the hotel restaurants do not particularly focus on food tourism, they would like to grow in that direction. The descriptions of their concepts can serve as good examples of current food tourism destination and source of inspiration. Moreover, in the end of the Thesis there is a list of recommendations depicted from the study, such as using healthy local products, organising small event on regular basis and more.
The main research question of the Thesis is: how to make a hotel restaurant a food tourism destination? The final answer for this question is formed in a list of recommendations for hotel restaurants.
In order to make the research process more structured, and narrow down the main topics of study, the following sub-questions were defined: what kind of products and services are needed for food tourists in a hotel restaurant? What marketing strategies can be used to attract food tourists to a hotel restaurant?
This study was conducted in qualitative method and was carried out via interviewing restaurant and hotel employees in Finland, as well as an online research of hotel restaurant concepts around the world. Both methods were based on the sub-questions, and therefore included topics like food tourism and its main elements, studies about modern food tourists and their needs, product and concept development, branding and marketing planning.
The online research included evaluation of different restaurant concept with their ways of operating and serving customers. The main touchpoints were to find out how their concepts are built and how do they promote themselves. The information about each restaurant (Café Boulud, Bazar Mar, Diner by Heston Blumental, Huang Ting) was taken from at least three sources: official web-site, articles from online magazines and Social Media. The method chosen for the interviews was semi-structured, which means that the questions were formed in advanced based on the theoretical framework, however there was still a space for a discussion and personal opinions of the interviewees. Since the interviews were conducted during busy spring-summer season, one of the main challenges was finding the respondents and arrange a suitable time for meeting. Therefore, the dates of the interviews have big gaps between them: 4th of April in Kämp Brasserie, 19th of April in Glo Art Kitchen and 27th of June in Toscannini. The interview with SicaPelle Wining&Dining was conducted via email on 6th of June.
The result of the studies shows that even though the hotel restaurants do not particularly focus on food tourism, they would like to grow in that direction. The descriptions of their concepts can serve as good examples of current food tourism destination and source of inspiration. Moreover, in the end of the Thesis there is a list of recommendations depicted from the study, such as using healthy local products, organising small event on regular basis and more.