Last 8-10 October 2024, Loei Rajabhat University in Loei Province, Thailand launched the “Good Food, Good Health” tourism program: a broad concept marrying gastronomy tourism, health and wellness, and community-based tourism into a single initiative that highlights the best authentic cuisine that the Northeastern region has to offer.
Together with partners like the Loei Provincial Government, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and partner restaurants, Loei Rajabhat University turned the spotlight on six food establishments in three Loei districts, where tourists could experience local delicacies like krathong thong (crispy pastry cups with minced pork) and grilled chicken with tare saton sauce.
Still glowing with the project’s success, Mr. Sanchai Kiatsongchai, Director of Loei Rajabhat University’s Research and Development Institute was only too happy to share what they learned from the “Good Food, Good Health” initiative – and how they’re planning to use these insights for future Loei tourism efforts.
What need or demand does the “Good Food, Good Health” (“อาหารกินดีมีสุข”) project fulfill? What was the reason for the project’s creation?
Health is a concern by tourists all over the world, especially after the Covid-19 outbreak. Tourists are aware of their well-being and tend to be attracted to well-being products and activities.
This project was selected and funded by the Government’s Flagship Projects regarding tourism development proposed by the Research and Development Institute (RDI), Loei Rajabhat University in 2024 with the purpose of developing creative tourism products from cultural assets and registering for Intellectual Property Rights.
With our background research on gastronomy tourism, thus, the development of innovative food startups focused around well-being gastronomy tourism was proposed to attract tourists looking for new experiences in new destinations with new activities regarding good food, good health.
How does the “Good Food, Good Health” (“อาหารกินดีมีสุข”) project serve tourism in Loei? How did Loei’s tourism stakeholders contribute to the project’s creation and execution?
Loei province is located in the upper Northeast of Thailand, with the Mekong River as the natural border between Thailand and Laos. Its geography holds both mountainous areas and riverbank, yielding various edible plants and herbs.
This project was aimed at developing six food startups in three districts – Dan Sai, Mueng Loei, and Chiangkhan – which are the gateways connecting the Northern part and Eastern part of Thailand into Loei Province.
The six food startups created new menus with professional chefs, based on local menus or local ingredients, resulting in new fusion recipes in accordance with the well-being concept in four dimensions:
- physical well-being
- mental or spiritual well-being
- social well-being
- intellectual well-being
The chefs and six entrepreneurs (together with the RDI team) also co-created DIY tourism activities, allowing tourists to experience the process hands-on with fun. In the process of cooking, for example, tourists will try making deep-fried natural coloring flour cups themselves and stuff it with the orange peel and macadamia nut to create “Kratong Thong Mac Sa”.
All six entrepreneurs with their new menus and activities will be added in the new tourism routes created by tour companies to be advertised among tour operators and tourists. Marketing activities were also done by joining the popular TV program, Khun Pra Chuay, and food influencers were engaged to quickly reach out to large audiences.
At the same time, a Press Release event was held to build rapport with public and private organizations, along with the local people in the province and region.
The programme covers 14 menus from six entrepreneurs across three districts. How did your organization decide what menus and foods to focus on? What were your criteria?
Firstly, the selected entrepreneurs must run food businesses that offer local dishes or local ingredients with enough space to cater tourists and the DIY activities.
Then, our RDI team discussed with the professional chefs and the entrepreneurs, sharing ideas on what and how the menus should be created for each establishment. After that, a learning workshop was conducted between chefs and the entrepreneurs.
Which of the dishes in the different menus were the most successful or most talked-about?
All 14 menus were created distinctively. Some were main course dish, some were drinks, and some were snacks. So each of the entrepreneurs had their own at least one signature dish from this project.
How does this program tie into Loei Rajabhat University’s mission in preserving and honoring arts and culture in Loei?
Loei Rajabhat University’s philosophy is that we are an academic institution that help develop local capacity. One of our missions is to help conserve and cherish local wisdom and culture in Loei.
Moreover, the wise way of conserving culture and local wisdom in a sustainable way is to create added value and turn them into economic value for the local people. Thus, creative tourism concepts were applied together with the well-being gastronomy tourism concept.
How do Loei Rajabhat University’s students participate in the project?
Students are allowed to join with the project in line with the scope of their respective academic programs.
For example, students from the Food and Nutrition program assisted professional chefs in conducting workshops with the entrepreneurs. The students from the tourism and hotel program took part in the DIY activities sessions, and participated in the tour program creation linking tourism destinations, entrepreneurs’ menus and DIY activities, and other tourism-related businesses.
How is the project being promoted on YouTube and TikTok – and how many views were you able to generate through social media?
At the downstream phase, we took six entrepreneurs to join the famous TV show, Khun Pra Chuay, with 1.6 million viewers. The TV show composed a new song that added the tourism sites and local food of Loei province into the lyrics. Later, the food influencer conducted her contents of the 14 menus to be broadcasted in Facebook, YouTube, and web blogs with more than 300,000 followers.
What role can academia play in promoting local or community-based tourism? What lessons were you able to take from this project, to apply to future academe-based projects for tourism?
Academic staff should apply their academic knowledge by co-creating with different stakeholders to design the project to start from the upstream level to the downstream level. In our case, our project has created 14 menus with six entrepreneurs, then connected with tourism by creating tour programs to be sold by any tour operators, and promoted to public by mass media, social media and online channels to massively and quickly acknowledge the publics as well as attract them to travel into Loei.
This will not only boost their revenue but tourists will also generate income to other tourism components such as accommodation, gas station, souvenir shops, and tourism sites, etc.
How does Loei Rajabhat University plan to continue this program in the near future? What outcomes do you hope to achieve?
We plan to promote tourism products, especially local food to broader target groups in foreign countries, especially along the Thai-Laos-China Economic Corridor connecting via railway. We hope that by doing so, Thailand’s Northeastern region will be discovered by tourists, attracting them to appreciate the Northeastern region with the richness of its distinctive culture and ways of life in a sustainable way.
