A Study of Lanna Food Consumption Behavior of International Tourists in Chiang Mai

Abstract

     This quantitative research aimed to find out the behavior of traditional Lanna food consumption of international tourists, marketing factors influencing traditional Lanna food consumption, and the opinions about food tourism in Chiang Mai Province. The findings would be brought to improve and propose the traditional Lanna food tourism to restaurants and communities according to Chiang Mai’s policy of supporting Thai tourism by Lanna style. A sample group consisted of 400 international tourists who came to Chiang Mai. Research tool was a questionnaire which was divided into four parts: 1) demographic information, 2) behavior of traditional Lanna food consumption, 3) the marketing factors, and 4) the opinion of tourists toward activities related to food tourism. Moreover, the questionnaire was checked its accuracy, content validity, and consistency before collecting data.

     The finding on the behavior of tourists indicated that the proportion of people who ate traditional Lanna food were 266 people or 66.5%, which was higher than people who did not eat this food before which were 134 people or 33.5%. There were 192 people or 72.2% of people tried traditional Lanna food who viewed that it was good to try the food in original place or source of production. The most famous menu of traditional Lanna food was “Khao Soi”, it was chosen by 46% of overall people who ate traditional Lanna food. Additionally, the marketing factors found that the most influential feature of traditional Lanna food consumption that affected tourists was the quality of ingredients. Therefore, the tourists perceived that food tourism should be a great thing to make a good relationship between the tourists and local people in communities.