Abstract:
Food tourism offers a unique way of marketing the culture of a people
globally. To this end, many destinations are looking for ways of promoting their food offerings for the appreciation of international tourists. This study sought
to contextualise international tourists' experiences with Ghanaian cuisine for
the purpose of food tourism development in Ghana. A grounded theory
approach to qualitative research was used for the study. Forty international
tourists were interviewed between the months of August and December 2015. Data was analysed by employing open coding, focused coding, axial coding and
selective coding. This study found among other things that tourists' motivation
for consun1ing Ghanaian cuisine was out of cultural curiosity, there was a
reasonable sense of knowledge deficit of Ghanaian cuisine among the tourists
interviewed and international tourists' experiences when it comes to service
related attributes were mixed. Additionally, it was found that the overriding
image of Ghanaian cuisine was spicy and oily. Finally, a proposed grounded
theory of transformative consumption experience of local food could explain
international tourists' experiences with Ghanaian local cuisine. It is
recommended that Ghana should vigorously promote its indigenous dishes
using all modem means of marketing such as social media and consumer blogs.
Food safety and sanitation should be encouraged and promoted especially
among street food vendors and chop bar operators. There should also be
sensitization on the use of pepper and oil in Ghanaian cuisine to make them
more appealing to international tourists who visit Ghana.
