Master of Business Administration Program
in International Business
How to attract foreign tourists through Tainan food tourism
Lo Chiang
Dr. François Bouchetoux
September 2020
i
ii Abstract
In recent years, more and more people love to travel Taiwan especially Tainan.
Located in the southwest plain of Taiwan, Tainan is the earliest developed city in
Taiwan and the birthplace of the island's culture. The combination of different local food tastes has also made Tainan become "street food capital". Tainan street food is full of historical and cultural stories. Tainan street food is unique in the world, where every foreigner wants to explore. The flavor of street food in Tainan is totally different from foreign countries. Matching with historic sites and food tourism has become the important tourist resource of Tainan city tourism. This research will lead to know how to attract more foreign tourists through Tainan food tourism. The interview questions are designed base on the key words in literature review. A short questionnaire was designed to ascertain the interviewees’ answers are related to
Tainan tourism. The result shows that Tainan could be more attractive with food tourism if combine food tourism with the cultures and historic sites.
Key words: Tainan, Food tourism, Culture, Historic sites, Street food, Foreign tourists
iii Table of Contents
…………………………………………………………………………. i.
...... ii
Abstract ...... iii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………...…….1
1.1 Background and purpose……………………………………………….…...……..1
1.2 Research objective………………………………………………………….…...…2
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW...... 3
2.1 Origins of food culture in Tainan ...... 3
2.2 The importance of food in Taiwanese tourism…………………………………..7
2.3 Tainan street food to foreign tourists ...... 7
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...... 10
3.1 Overview of research methodlogy...... 10
3.2 Methodology design ...... 10
iv 3.3 Interview outline...... 11
3.4 Sample introduction ...... 12
CHAPTER 4 RESEARCHANALYSIS...... 14
4.1 The reason why foreign tourists want to visit Tainan……………………………14
4.2 Most of the foreign tourists know that Tainan is famous for the street food…….15
4.3 Some foreign tourists know nothing about historical stories of street food……...15
4.4 The new sightsee spot is attractive but there is less connection with street food...16
4.5 The public transportation is not convenient enough to foreign tourists………….17
4.6 All the foreign tourists love Tainan and will visit again after visiting Tainan...…18
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION...... 19
5.1 Theorical implication ...... 19
5.2 Limitation...... 19
5.3 Recommendation ...... 20
REFERENCE...... 22
APPENDIX...... 24
Table of Figures
v Figure 1 The interplay between network, intermediary and internationalization
Figure 2 The picture of food map from 魚夫大哥手繪
vi Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background and Purpose
Nowadays, more and more foreign tourists like to travel around Taiwan. Tainan is the oddest capital city in Taiwan which full of historical stories and delicious street food from different cultures. In Tainan, you can eat a variety of delicious street food everywhere. Matching with historical sites and food tourism has become the important tourist resource of Tainan city tourism. According to Zhang yuanxiang in
Global Views Monthly, Tainan has the largest variety and output of Taiwan street food. Tainan street food is famous throughout Taiwan. More and more tourists are willing to visit Tainan to enjoy delicious food. Tainan street food represents the essence of local cuisine. Tainan food has the great material and the price is low and the street food is unique in the world, where every foreigner wants to explore.
According to the statistics of the tourism bureau, the ranking of foreign tourists' preference for Tainan's tourist attractions has been topped by the Tainan food in recent years.
1.2 Research Objective
The specific objective of this study is to know how to attract foreign tourists through
Tainan food tourism. The historical stories and cultures of street food in Tainan are in
Chapter two. The third chapter is concerned with the methodology used for this study.
1
To know how foreign tourists feel about the experiences when traveling in Tainan and get their opinions. The data for this study were collected using interview method to interview foreign from different countries. The detailed information will be elaborated in Chapter three. Chapter four analyses the results of interviews. Chapter five presents the findings of the research, focusing on combining food tourism with the cultures and historic sites. There are more derails of notes of interview in Appendix.
2
Chapter 2 Literature Review
Food tourism is simply a matter of traveling beyond your immediate neighborhood to find great food. Of course, the further you are willing to travel, the broader the range of culinary experiences will be. Food tourism doesn’t mean that you only eat gourmet meals. Often, food tourists are simply in search of authentic or new culinary experiences. Food tourism isn’t about the type of food that you eat; it’s about the fact that when you go to a new place, you seek out new food experiences. (Taste Trekkers,
2014) In food tourism we learn about local culinary cultures and customs. Also, we travel near and far to find authentic food and beverage experiences. Finally, in food tourism we discover and open our minds to new flavors, textures, cultures, and heritage. (World Food Travel Association, 2020)
2.1 Origins of food culture in Tainan
Located in the southwest plain of Taiwan, Tainan is the earliest developed city in
Taiwan and the birthplace of the island's culture. It has been the political, economic and cultural center of Taiwan since the period under the Dutch (1624-1662) to the end of the Qing dynasty (1911). Although Tainan city has now lost its leading role, the charms of its past glory survive. Tainan city has kept a large number of archives since the Dutch foundation. Tainan has the leading historical sites, historical buildings, cultural relics, the long-time background and special cultural lifestyle. And these
3 reasons let people created a lot of excellent flavor and famous street food (Huang,
2003). There are variety kinds of street food all over Tainan such as Danzai noodle, shrimp rolls, coffin bread and rice dumpling. You can eat street food at the night market, restaurant and some stands. The history of Tainan street food can be traced back to the early 16th century. The ancestor from Fujian, Guangdong and other places to move to establish homes in Taiwan and the earliest gathering place is Tainan city.
Early residents were engaged in agricultural and farming requires more physical labor.
So, in addition to three meals, people still need something to supply energy. This habit made the people start to make a variety of street food (Wu, 2006). Such as the centuries-old Du Hsiao Yueh is Zhangzhou taste; the "Zai Fa Hao Zongzi" next to
Minquan road god temple is Quanzhou taste. They are all produced by ancient immigrants from different areas.
Tainan people are not exclusive to tasting new dishes. They have mixed different food materials, cooking methods, eating habits and taste differences into street food.
(Huang, 2003) The "milkfish" is a tropical species introduced from Indonesia 400 years ago by the Dutch to Tainan. Tainan people make soup with the fish bone, make fish ball with meat and they become Tainan people’s usual breakfast. They also found
Tainan's climate is suitable for planting sugar cane. The Dutch introduced scalpers, and supported Tainan people to plan sugar cane. Because of the availability of sugar
4 at that time, Tainan people's food is sweeter than other cities. Port, temple, theater, vegetable market, has always been the place where people gather together, but also the places that developed early Tainan street food. (Huang, 2003) The appearance of
Tainan city is being transformed step by step. Although Tainan people are eating the original street food, some innovative and distinctive tastes are gradually combined with the original street food. The combination of different local food tastes has also made Tainan become "street food capital". Many of the dishes it was submitting were rooted from its oldest city, Tainan. (CNN, 2015) Once in town, the dense city center is ideal for a walking tour of Tainan’s most acclaimed spins on street food, aided by this guide to crawling your way through them all. (Crook, 2019)
Oyster omelets are said to be one such creative dish invented in a poor society. So, over a hundred years of development, Tainan evolve a variety of street food with local characteristics like tofu pudding, popsicle, beef soup, wa gui, traditional fruit shaved ice, Oyster omelet, Danzai noodles, shrimp rolls, coffin bread, eel noodles and rice dumpling. The oyster omelet was created in times of scarcity, hence its inherent simplicity. The bulk of it is sweet potato starch, oysters, egg, and lettuce. Bean sprouts are added for extra crunch, and it's blanketed in a beautiful, sweet red sauce.
The owners of Old Fort Oyster Omelet, established in 1958, claim their ancestors were the first to serve the famous delicacy. Danzai noodles are as essential to Tainan
5 food culture as Bruce Lee is to Chinese kung fu. It features oil noodles with minced pork and fresh shrimp in a shallow broth. Translated as "peddler's pole noodles," the dish was invented in 1895 by Hung Yutou, a fisherman who sold it from buckets strung on a bamboo pole. Shrimp rolls are Taiwan's answer to Japanese tempura, except the shrimp is wrapped in caul fat and stuffed with aromatics like scallion before being deep fried. The most famous rendition comes from a store called Chou's
Shrimp Rolls, established in 1965. Coffin bread is invented in the 1940s; coffin bread is the Taiwanese answer to the western bread bowl. The dish is a piece of remarkably thick toast that holds a seafood chowder pool with pork, mushrooms, peas, and carrots.
It gets its name because it resembles a coffin. Anping Guiji's coffin bread is known for being incredibly crisp. For solo diners they have a miniature version meant to be devoured in one bite. (Clarissa Wei,2015) Tainan street food is full of historical and cultural stories. Tainan municipal government proposed open sites through night lighting, hold night, concerts and other activities to attract tourists to visit. And provide opportunities for citizens to know more about historic sites. However, a variety of activities are also held with Tainan street food. The rich originality and diversity Tainan street food are often memorable to tourists (Huang, 2003), and become the most important part of Taiwan's street food culture.
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2.2 The importance of food in Taiwanese tourism
In Tainan, you can eat a variety of delicious street food everywhere. Matching with historical sites and food tourism has become the important tourist resource of Tainan city tourism (Huang, 2003). According to Zhang yuanxiang (2018) in Global Views
Monthly, Tainan has the largest variety and output of Taiwan street food. Tainan street food is famous throughout Taiwan. According to the collect statistics from
Culture Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government, more and more tourists are willing to visit Tainan to enjoy delicious food. To promote the development of tourism, street food represents the essence of local cuisine. They can not only increase local employment opportunities but promoting social and economic development.
2.3 Tainan street food to foreign tourists
Eating is a kind of knowledge. Taiwan people take “eat” as a philosophy of life.
Eating is the expression of a cultural atmosphere and shows the pride of the local culture. Tainan food has the great material and the price is low. Tainan street food is unique in the world, where every foreigner wants to explore. According to the statistics of the tourism bureau, the ranking of foreign tourists' preference for Taiwan's tourist attractions has been topped by the Tainan food in recent years (tourism bureau of the ministry of transport, 2008). It is the most representative food culture in Taiwan.
The price is low and the food is delicious. People can experience the cultural
7 characteristics through food of the night market. In addition, the night market is also a special culture of Taiwan cuisine. Each night market is full of a variety of specialties and street food with different characteristics and flavors. Through local street food, visitors can get to know local specialties, cultures and cultural allusions.
Therefore, the local government realized that street food could be transformed into a local industry with high value. The Tainan city government tourism bureau has hold
“Tainan Food Festival” since 2015. It attracts the food lovers; combine the chef, the restaurant owner to participate. They discuss how to combine food materials with cuisine knowledge, history and culture. Take the activity in 2019 for example; all the participants cooperated to make over 36 traditional cuisines to show Tainan food culture. Also, the “Tainan Food Festival” helps to develop the food tourism and expand the consumption of Tainan. The tourism bureau of Taiwan transportation ministry also creates a website to introduce the food in Taiwan to foreign tourists.
This shows that street food, the leisure industry and tourism business are inseparable.
"Local street food" is a new and high value-added industry with development.
Because most of the food materials used in “local street food " are from local areas, which can not only promote local agriculture, but also highlight the new trend of social in Taiwan (Yu, 2005).
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The flavor of street food in Tainan is totally different from foreign countries. To attract more foreign tourists to visit Tainan, this research will interview the foreign tourists who have been traveling around Tainan. It will lead to the research question:
How to attract foreign tourists through Tainan food tourism.
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Chapter 3 Research Methodology
3.1 OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this study is to find out how to attract foreign tourists through Tainan food. It is not specific and we cannot know how exactly the foreign tourists feel to come out a result by numbers. So the study has been conducted by the qualitative method by interviewing five foreigners who has been traveling in Tainan. From the interview, it can be analyzed the reasons why foreign tourists are willing to travel
Tainan. And we can know how to improve and come up with new idea to make Tainan more attractive.
3.2 METHODOLOGY DESIGN
This study uses qualitative analysis to have interviews with foreigners to know more about why foreigners want to travel Tainan. So I have chosen the interview method to know more about foreign tourists’ opinions. The unstructured interview is chosen to gain a detailed understanding of how much foreign tourists know about the food and the experiences they had in Tainan. The interviewees are interviewed one by one and they are all being done through online call. The benefit of online call is not we are not limited to the locations even though my friends are in other countries like Thailand and Korea. The interview questions are designed base on the key words in literature review. A short questionnaire was designed to ascertain the interviewees’ answers are
10 related to Tainan tourism. The interviewees could say everything about Tainan without limitation. The interviewees would elaborate the experience of traveling
Tainan according to the interview questions. On the other hand, we can know how foreign tourists feel when travel in Tainan and receive opinions from people from different countries. Therefore, we can think of the new plan to attract foreign tourists from their suggestions.
Literature Design Conduct review interview interviews
outline
Analyze Result
Figure 1 The design of research method
3.3 INTERVIEW OUTLINE
The questions of interview
I. Do you know Tainan is famous for food?
II. Why do you want to visit Tainan?
III. Have you tried the street food? Which one is your favorite?
IV. Which part of Tainan do you like?
V. Do you know any historical story about Tainan street food?
VI. Will you visit Tainan again? 11
VII. Do you have any suggestions to Tainan tourism?
The questions asked participants to describe the experiences or suggestions. I have
expected the interviewees to answer each question as detailed as possible. The main
questions is “Do you have any suggestions to Tainan tourism?”. This could lead the
suggestions to the result of the research analysis. I have done the interviews with
notes and they are available in appendix of Chapter 6.
3.4 SAMPLE INTRODUCTION
There are five foreign interviewers that have been to Tainan to travel around. They
study in Taiwan and have a lot of experiences of traveling in different cities in Taiwan.
Each of them is from different countries like France, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippine
and Korea.
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri, Thai people, who was an exchange student in Tainan 10
years ago. He had stayed in Tainan for a year. He always rode the bike to eat around
Tainan after school. He has eaten a lot of Tainan street food and loves Tainan very
much.
Miss. Linh Trang, Vietnamese, who has been to Tainan twice. She has rent a scooter
to travel around Tainan. Also, she tried a lot of Tainan street according her friend’s
recommendation. She studies her master’s degree in Taiwan and lives in Kaohsiung.
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Miss Keann Lu, Korean, who is the exchange student in Taiwan and stays in
Pingtung. She has traveled to Tainan for several times and love the food in Tainan.
And her favorite part is the beautiful temples in Tainan.
Mr. Justine Pura, Filipino, who studies his master’s degree in Kaohsiung. He has been to Tainan third times. But he went to Tainan with a group of people every time.
He loves the historical sites in Tainan and he has also taken a lot of pictures of them.
Miss Agathe, French, who has visited Tainan with friends many times. Although the flavor of food is totally different from France, she still enjoys all the food and the experiences when traveling Tainan.
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Chapter 4 Research Analysis
This chapter is to analyze the result of the interview of five interviewers from different countries. The interviewers have been studied aboard in Taiwan. These views surfaced mainly in relation to the experiences of traveling in Tainan. We can get their motivation and suggestions according to the interview. A recurrent theme in the interviews was a sense amongst interviewees that the public transportation is inconvenient in Tainan. And it is also a problem for foreign tourists to travel around.
There are some points that have been concluded base on the interviews .The detail of interviews as follow.
4.1 The reason why foreign tourists want to visit Tainan
There are a lot of cities in Taiwan, why do foreign tourists choose Tainan to be their destination? We will know from the content of interviews.
“I’ve heard that Tainan has the most delicious street food and also the price is inexpensive.” told by Keann. “I heard that some old building is from Dutch people.
And I heard Tainan is full of different cultures. I want to see more historic sites with cross culture.” told by Justine. “Tainan has numerous places to visit and see.
Traveling expenses are not that high: delicious but not too pricy dishes. Tainan has a lot of historical stories.” told by Trang. Tainan is the old capital city which full of different cultures and delicious food. Besides, the cost in Tainan is cheaper than other
14 cities in Taiwan. People in Tainan are friendly to foreigners even though some of them cannot speak English.
4.2 Most of the foreign tourists know that Tainan is famous for the street food.
As Taiwanese people know, Tainan is a city which is famous for food. But is that the same for foreign tourists?
The detailed of the interviews is as following. “I knew Tainan is famous for street food before I visit Tainan! Because I have a friend from Pingtung and she taught me that. She said that Tainan street food will never let me down and she is so right.” told by the interviewee Keann. Before the interviewees travel Tainan, most of them have searched some data on the internet. Despite the historic sites, the most popular activity in Tainan is “eat”. They know there are a lot of kinds of local street food and they can see the articles of introducing Tainan food on the internet. Here comes a sentence
“People who visit Tainan should be full when leaving” It is because there are so many kinds of delicious food in Tainan. It will be unfortunate if you don’t try enough Tainan food. Also, their local Taiwanese friends would highly recommend them to eat as much as they can when traveling in Tainan.
4.3 Some foreign tourists know nothing about historical stories of street food.
There are a variety of street food in Tainan and each of them has their own story. Do foreign tourists know about that?
15
“I have eaten everything in Tainan, but I don’t know the history. In my opinion, it lets me think the local food belongs to Tainan people. I know Tainan is the capital city in
Taiwan. The culture is very rich.” told by the interviewer from Thailand. The food in
Tainan has the story behind. For example, the "milkfish" is a tropical species introduced from Indonesia 400 years ago by the Dutch to Tainan. The oyster omelet was created in times of scarcity, hence its inherent simplicity. Shrimp rolls are
Taiwan's answer to Japanese tempura, except the shrimp is wrapped in caul fat and stuffed with aromatics like scallion before being deep fried. Most of the foreign tourists know Tainan is an old city. But they do not know much about the history.
Actually, they are willing to know more about the historical stories behind Tainan street food. So we can promote Tainan by the food and the connected stories. For instance, the stand or restaurant can show the historical story of food to let tourists know more about it. It will be more interesting and meaningful when having Tainan food.
4.4 The new sightsee spot is attractive but there is less connection with street food.
“Tainan Chimei museum and Anping beach are my favorite. Chimei carries with its mesmerizing Greek style architecture. It’s a perfect place for a small chilling weekend picnic date. And., there would be no better place to enjoy sunset than Anping. But t we
16 couldn’t have much Tainan food around Chimei museum” told by the interviewee
Trang. There are a lot of new sightsee spots that attract tourists, for example Chimei museum, the spring, Zuozhen fossil museum and Shan-shang garden and old water works museum. In recent years, more and more people like to visit the new sightsee spots. The problem is that there are less kinds of Tainan street food around the new sightsee spots. So it will be hard for tourists to taste Tainan food when having fun at the new sightsee spots. To let tourists taste street food in the new sightsee sites, it is suggested that they can build a Tainan street food district which combine food and historical stories around new sightsee sites.
4.5 The public transportation is not convenient enough to foreign tourists.
When asked about suggestions to Tainan, the participants were unanimous in the view that the Tainan government should improve the public transpirations. “I think it will be better if there are subway stations. Because actually I had a hard time taking buses,
I got lost few times. Fortunately, I met some kind people in Tainan who helped me to get to the places that I wanted to visit.” told by Keann. “Some little bus stop did not tell anything. It should show some information in English.”, told by Sin. “It would be perfect if Tainan could offer more public transport, for example MRT. Also, uber does not work at Tainan so it is a little bit inconvenient for foreigners like me to travel around the town”, told by Trang. In recent years, Tainan government has paid a lot of
17 efforts to make subway system work in Tainan. But the problem is that there are too many historic sites around the city. They need to come up with a lot of new ways to avoid destroying the historic sites. Therefore, the Tainan government is still working hard for the subway system and it will work on 2027. Taking buses in Tainan is a challenge for all people especially for foreign tourists. There is less information on some bus stops and even no English words on the them. The bus in Tainan is always delay no matter what. So it would be difficult for foreign tourists to travel by bus even though it is cheap. Tainan government should plan to provide a tour bus that not only for sightsee spots but also combine with the street food to make tourists experience more than seeing.
4.6 All the foreign tourists love Tainan and will visit again after visiting Tainan
After visiting Tainan, how did the foreign tourists feel?
“I love Tainan, and definitely will visit this beautiful hometown whenever I have time” told by Trang. “I love the food and lifestyle in Tainan. It makes me feel relaxed and all the old building are so beautiful that contain different time and each of them has their own historical story.” told by Sin. Tainan is the old capital city, so we can experience different cultures in the same place.
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Chapter 5 Conclusion
This study set out to know how to attract foreign tourists through Tainan food tourism.
The main goal of the current study was to determine the food tourism plays an important role in Tainan because many foreign tourists visit Tainan for food. The results of this investigation show that some of them know less about the history about
Tainan food. We can make Tainan more attractive with food tourism if combine food tourism with the cultures and historic sites.
5.1 Theorical Implication
The results of this study indicate that in food tourism we discover and open our minds to new flavors, textures, cultures, and heritage. (World Food Travel Association, 2020)
Taken together, these results suggest that most of the food materials used in " local street food " are from local areas, which can not only promote local agriculture, but also highlight the new trend of social in Taiwan (Yu, 2005).
5.2 Limitation
Although the current study is based on a small sample of participants, the findings suggest that the public transpiration has limited foreign tourists to travel around. All interviewees suggest that it would be better for foreign tourists to travel around if there is subway in Tainan. Also, some interviewees also think that it should show information in English on the bus stop. It is unfortunate that the study did not
19 include the research of the public transportation in Tainan. An issue that was not addressed in this study was whether we still not sure about when exactly the subway will work and how much it will help foreign tourists to travel in Tainan in the future.
5.3 Recommendation
Even though many tourists have known Tainan is famous for food. They still know less about the background of street food. The question raised by this study is how to combine the street food with historic sites or different cultures to make Tainan food tourism more attractive. For example, we can follow the “Food map” according to the historic sites. (Figure 2)
Figure 2 The picture of food map from 魚夫大哥手繪
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Foreign tourists can follow the map to enjoy the street food and sightseeing at the same time. Tainan city government can cooperate with the illustrators to make more
“food map” and add more information include the public transportation in English especially for foreign tourists. According to the interviewee’s opinions, the public transportation has limited foreign tourists to travel around Tainan. But there are some alternative ways to travel Tainan. For instance, there are some biking tour or walking tour that you can travel around without public transportation. They can be provided to foreign tourists to have different experiences. Also, we can combine food and games for tourism, the successful example is night market. The night market is including street food and entertainment. Foreign tourists love to visit night market a lot and
Tainan city government can do more promotion for foreign tourists. For further research, it might contain how to improve the public transportation and build a Tainan street food district which combine food and historical stories in new sightsee sites to attract more foreign tourists. Another important practical implication is that foreign tourists do love Tainan after visiting. Tainan will attract more foreign tourists if
Tainan government can make some improvements.
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Reference
Retrieved August 20, 2020, from
https://www.cw.com.tw/article/5093005?from=search
Crook, S. (2019, March 06). A Culinary Walking Tour Through Taiwan's Street Food
Capital. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from
https://www.eater.com/maps/best-restaurants-street-food-tainan-walking-tour
Taste Trekkers · Food and Travel. (n.d.). Retrieved August 20, 2020, from
http://tastetrekkers.com/
The Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications launches
the "Two people travel together, one person travels for free" High Speed-Rail
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travel discount program News. (n.d.). Retrieved August 20, 2020, from
https://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0029252
Wei, C. (2015, February 26). 19 great dishes in Tainan, Taiwan's capital of food.
Retrieved August 20, 2020, from
http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/tainan-street-food/index.html
What is Food Tourism? (2020, July 29). Retrieved August 20, 2020, from
https://worldfoodtravel.org/what-is-food-tourism/
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Appendix
The content of interview Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
Laura:
Before you come to Tainan, do you know Tainan is famous for food?
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
Of course, when it was 2010, before I go Tainan I know nothing just search it on the internet. I knew that Tainan is the third biggest city in Taiwan.
Laura:
Why do you want to visit Tainan?
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
When I was applying the exchange program, I had searched some information of
Tainan. I found out Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan just like my hometown in
Thailand. All the building seemed beautiful on the internet. That’s why I wanna go.
Laura:
Have you tried the street food? Which one is your favorite?
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
I have tried almost everything in Tainan, like stinky tofu, Danzai noodles and shrimp rolls. I love all of them!
Laura:
24
Which part of Tainan is your favorite?
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
I prefer around the historic sites and the night markets. When I was in Tainan there are a lot of local food I could eat. When I was riding the bike around historic sites, it was so amazing and I miss it.
Laura:
Do you know any historical story about Tainan street food?
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
I have eaten everything in Tainan, but I don’t know the history. In my opinion, it lets me think the local food belongs to Tainan people. I know Tainan is the capital city in
Taiwan. The culture is very rich.
Laura:
Do you like Tainan and will visit again?
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
I love the food and lifestyle in Tainan. It makes me feel relaxed and all the old building are so beautiful that contain different time and each of them has their own historical story. I love all the Taiwanese food and I will definitely visit Tainan again.
Laura:
Do you have any suggestions to Tainan tourism?
25
Mr. Sin Rugborrisuttisri:
Yes, a lot of people come to me and ask the suggestion to go to Tainan. I always give the suggestion to go to Tainan to eat food. Tainan food is the best. Go for food to
Tainan. I think some little bus stop did not tell anything. It should show some information in English.
Miss. Linh Trang:
Laura:
Before you come to Tainan, do you know Tainan is famous for food?
Miss. Linh Trang:
Yes, my local Taiwanese friends told me a lot about the food in Tainan.
Laura:
Why do you want to visit Tainan?
Miss. Linh Trang:
Tainan has numerous places to visit and see. Traveling expenses are not that high: delicious but not too pricy dishes. Tainan has a lot of historical stories
Laura:
Have you tried the street food? Which one is your favorite?
Miss. Linh Trang:
I did, I love duckblood and Anping bean pudding
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Laura:
Which part of Tainan is your favorite?
Miss. Linh Trang:
Tainan Chimei museum and Anping beach are my favorite. Chimei carries with its mesmerizing Greek style architecture. It’s a perfect place for a small chilling weekend picnic date. And., there would be no better place to enjoy sunset than Anping. But t we couldn’t have much Tainan food around Chimei museum
Laura:
Do you know any historical story about Tainan street food?
Miss. Linh Trang:
I have no idea.
Laura:
Do you like Tainan and will visit again?
Miss. Linh Trang:
I love Tainan, and definitely will visit this beautiful hometown whenever I have time
Laura:
Do you have any suggestions to Tainan tourism?
Miss. Linh Trang:
It would be perfect if Tainan could offer more public transport, for example MRT.
Also, uber does not work at Tainan so it is a little bit inconvenient for foreigners like
27 me to travel around the town
Miss Keann Lu
Laura:
Before you come to Tainan, do you know Tainan is famous for food?
Miss Keann Lu:
Yeah, I knew it before I visit Tainan! Because I have a friend from Pingtung and she taught me that. She said that Tainan street food will never let me down and she is so right.
Laura:
Why do you want to visit Tainan?
Miss Keann Lu:
Because I’ve heard that Tainan has the most delicious street food and also the price is inexpensive.
Laura:
Have you tried the street food? Which one is your favorite?
Miss Keann Lu:
Yes, and my favorite is potato with cheese and bacon on it!
Laura:
Which part of Tainan is your favorite?
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Miss Keann Lu:
I think expect the delicious street food, my favorite part is the beautiful temples. I’ve been watching lots of Taiwanese dramas in Korea and it’s really cool to see and to experience it directly.
Laura:
Do you know any historical story about Tainan street food?
Miss Keann Lu:
I am not so sure about that.
Laura:
Do you like Tainan and will visit again?
Yes, I will.
Laura:
Do you have any suggestions to Tainan tourism?
Miss Keann Lu:
I think it will be better if there are subway stations. Because actually I had a hard time taking buses, I got lost few times. Fortunately, I met some kind people in Tainan who helped me to get to the places that I wanted to visit.
Mr. Justine Pura
Laura:
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Before you come to Tainan, do you know Tainan is famous for food?
Mr. Justine Pura:
Yes, lots of my friends told me about that.
Laura:
Why do you want to visit Tainan?
Mr. Justine Pura:
I heard that some old building is from Dutch people. And I heard Tainan is full of different cultures. I want to see more historic sites with cross culture.
Laura:
Have you tried the street food? Which one is your favorite?
Mr. Justine Pura:
The only that I try is milk tea. The flavor is sweeter than other city.
Laura:
Which part of Tainan is your favorite?
Mr. Justine Pura:
Hmm I really love Chimei museum it made me feel like I was in different country countries.
Laura:
Do you know any historical story about Tainan street food?
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Mr. Justine Pura:
No.
Laura:
Do you like Tainan and will visit again?
Mr. Justine Pura:
Of course I like Tainan. It is totally different from where I live before. I also want to visit some new sightsee spots in Tainan.
Laura:
Do you have any suggestions to Tainan tourism?
Mr. Justine Pura:
I mean maybe I usually travel in a group so I don’t have any complain
Maybe they can provide shuttle bus of tourism like each place would provide food in different destination. And I heard that the transportation is not really efficient.
Miss Agathe
Laura:
Before you come to Tainan, do you know Tainan is famous for food?
Miss Agathe:
Yes, I have searched it on the internet.
Laura:
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Why do you want to visit Tainan?
Miss Agathe:
I originally chose this city when I had to chose where to study Chinese in Taiwan.
Back then in my search I saw a lot of information saying that Tainan was a very historical city with a lot of delicious food.
Laura:
Have you tried the street food? Which one is your favorite?
Miss Agathe:
Yes I have tried a few, to be honest the food in Taiwan in general is very strange to me.
And the food in Tainan is often sweetened so I appreciate a few of it. (Just too different from the European food haha) But if I have to name my favourite I would say 牛肉麵 !
Laura:
Which part of Tainan is your favorite?
Miss Agathe:
My favourite part is definitely 安平樹屋! I have been there many times and I think it is so special and beautiful to let nature take over a building. I also really enjoyed going to the Chimei museum. I think the person that created it out a lot of work to finding great art pieces.
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Laura:
Do you know any historical story about Tainan street food?
Miss Agathe:
To be honest no, I never heard much about the history behind the food I eat. But I would like to learn more about it!
Laura:
Do you like Tainan and will visit again?
Miss Agathe:
I love Tainan! I go there very often! It's a very peaceful city and people are very kind and slow paced.
Laura:
Do you have any suggestions to Tainan tourism?
Miss Agathe:
Definitely the transportation. The transportation in Tainan is a very big problem if you don't own a scooter or a car, it makes it very hard to reach a place. The bus system is not very good and it can take a lot of time to reach somewhere and there are no MRT.
It's one of the downsides of this city.
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