Abstract:
Food tourism has been a subject of discussion globally. Suggestions
have been made for local dishes to be produced and served in tourism-oriented
establishments like hotels to increase their acceptance as tourism products. The
menu of hotels in Ghana on the average has 15% local dishes. Adopting a
transformational mixed research design, purposive sampling was used to select
menu decision makers in all 1 to 3-star rated hotels in Accra, Takoradi and
Kumasi. This was to ascertain hotel menu decision-makers’ perceptions on serving
Ghanaian dishes in the hotels. The thesis also expanded the Theory of Planned
Behaviour, which was used to examine the factors that influence attitudes and
intentions in menu decision making.
Amongst other things, the study found out that even though half of the
menu decision-makers had negative attitudes towards adding more varieties of
Ghanaian dishes to their menu, their positive perception of customer patronage and
approval of management, informed a high intention to add more Ghanaian dishes
to the hotel menu. The model that was developed by extending the Theory of
Planned Behaviour had statistically relevant predictive ability. In this regard,
attitudes did not influence intentions.
The study recommends “ease of use”, “personality endorsements” and
“customer acceptance” as positioning strategies for promoting Ghanaian dishes in
hotels. It also recommends the introduction of more Ghanaian recipes in
vocational and technical institutions’ practicum courses to improve the attitude of
menu decision-makers towards local dishes.
