Augmenting the Variety of Ghanaian Dishes on the Hotel Menu - An Enquiry into Attitudes and Intentions

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.