Description of the site visit

Discuss about the Food Experience for International Culinary Culture.

Dandenong Market is a very famous and popular market of Australia. And this paper consist of various features of a Dandenong Market, like markets working style, governing power, products this market deals in, its unique style to attract more visitors and details of various events and tours. Dandenong market has planned many strategies to attract visitors toward market. Every tourist who went to Australia for tour they will definitely go to visit Dandenong market. They are using many promotional tools to attract tourist worldwide like Facebook, Instagram, web promotion and many more. Further discussed that, with the increase in globalisation the local market and vendors get affected, and on other hand due to globalisation the people are inspired to travel at various part of world to getting best experience of food, culture, religion and custom, and understand the important role of food and drinks in providing memorable experience to the tourists. Further discussed the complete theoretical framework which includes the views of various writers and authors about globalisation of food, local market conditions, Green revolution, perception of tourist about the destination, and process which tell the food generate experience, importance of festivals and events to encourage tourism. Finally the three concepts of food are discussed namely organic food, migrant cuisine and globalisation of food.  

Dandenong Market was found in 1866 it is Melbourne’s second oldest market. This market is spread over 8001 meters square and it is a second largest market in Australia. This market brings together over 150 Nationalities under one roof. Dandenong Market is a municipal market and it is own by City of Greater Dandenong. It is a busy and lively market full of sights and delights.  This market serves taste for every season and this place is full of stalls. Dandenong market has 200 market traders who are selling everything, from fruits to desserts, from vegetables to main course from fresh fish to fish curry and many more. The market attracts over 5 million visitors every year. Dandenong Market usually opens on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Dandenong market avail free tour on Tuesdays and Fridays. Visitors can get free insider tips from expert traders to get amazing bargains. When schools organise tour to Dandenong market, they provide full facilities to the students and teachers and while there visit to the market, Dandenong market provide free bags, kits containing full information of market and a piece of fruit to all students.( Dandenong market, 2018) 

General Information

Dandenong Market consist of

• 16 fruit and vegetable traders,
• 3 Bakeries,
• 3 delicatessens,   
• 4 Butchers shops
• 1 chicken shop
• 3 sea food traders
• 4 nut shops
• 2 honey stalls
• 31 Cafes and take away outlets
• 120 general merchants selling jewellery, flowers, books and clothes (Dandenong market, 2018).

Dandenong Market has divided in six main areas with the help of which the visitor can go directly to the desired place as per their requirement:

1. Fruit & Vegetables:  Here buyer will find local, fresh, organic and seasonal vegetables and fruits,
2. Meat, Fish & deli: In this part of market the buyers or visitors will find specialist meat cutters, whole fish and all kind of seafood, spices, olives, cheese and dips.
3. The pantry: This area is reserved for sensational coffee, nuts, freshly baked bread and confectionary. Where visitors can enjoy coffee with bakery items.
4. The Bazaar: Here in this part the general merchants sell their stuffs like Clothes, shoes, accessories, jewellery, handbags and toys.
5. Market Square: This a hawkers market of world street food their visitors find variety of food trucks, stalls and carts selling variety of mouth-watering street food.
6. The terrace: It is an outdoor dining area where visitors can have their food, drinks plus there they find plants, flowers and hardware shops (Dandenong market, 2018). 

Dandenong markets have an official website which provides various options e.g. booking food tours, purchase of market vouchers. On website visitors gets all required information about Dandenong market, like opening and closing time, day on which market is open. Events and contest details with date are also available on their site. Besides its official website Dandenong Market has Facebook and Instagram account to connect with their customers and to promote the market.

Globalisation provides lots of benefits to customers and suppliers. Suppliers get a chance and opportunity to present their product in the market, while customers have the chance to try new products. But due to globalisation the local market product and brands are getting affected. When new food chain or any new product was launched in the local market, people demand shifts from local product to newly launched product and due to that the demand of local food product get reduced (Brahmam, 2016). 

But on other hand due to globalisation the trend of travelling has boosted and many people start travelling to different countries to explore different culture, tradition and custom. And with the rise in number of tourist the demand of local food and local items has increased, as local cuisines plays important role in providing memorable experience to the tourist.  

The Dining experience is not only generated by food, but it also includes the atmosphere and settings of area where person is going to take their meal. And for tourists the food always has been a component to recognise the experience of a destination (Henderson, 2009). Now days tourists are already well-informed, and always looking forward to get new experience. Food offers tourists a gateway to get into a new culture, through taste, food preparation and with a complete eating environment. Food and drink provide memories that define their travel experience.

To provide food experience to visitors and tourists Dandenong market takes many initiatives. They know that food and dining plays very important in providing a unique food experience to the tourists. And for that they are offering large variety of food items at very affordable prices which suites to everyone pocket.  The availability of dining area and its proper utilisation is very important and they understand this concept and utilising the area in a way which provide a great vision of market to their visitor (Dandenong market, 2018).

Theoretical Framework

To increase the visit of tourists Dandenong market organised various kind of events like face painting competition, floor event and many more. To provide a great experience to the visitors Dandenong Market has developed an idea of organising Dandenong market food discovery tour which takes place on Tuesdays and Fridays and this tour is free of cost. During a tour expert trader takes tourist to some selected stalls to taste some signature food and boost them to take part in cultural events. And in the end all tour participants of Food Discovery Tour receives a free Dandenong Market shopping bag and delicious food sample. The main perspective of food discovery tour is to provide great experience to the visitors to increase their visitation.      

Some of the theories are discussed here to understand the relationship between food and generation of memorable experience by organising food events. The key elements related to event are tourism and food. By organising various events, not just food but also the local culture of the community can be promoted. Food is very important part of travel experience (Wang, Kirillova and Lehto, 2017). Food adds exclusivity to a tourist place and represents the identity and culture of the place (Quan and Wang, 2004). Food functions as an important element to attract tourist to the destination (Cohen and Avieli, 2004). Food is a part of tourist experience and acquires more symbolic and intangible role (Richards, 2012). Food and wine plays an important role in tourism experience by providing opportunities for self-expression and enjoyment (Gross and Brown, 2010). Visitors mainly choose destination because of, unique cuisine and authenticity of local food product, and while discovering local ingredients they get a chance to know the tradition and custom (Hjalager and Corigliano, 2006). The tourist food experience is not limited to dinning, cooking or grocery shopping it also includes food related events and festivals (Henderson, 2009). Food experiences are created to improve the image of country (Kaplandou and Vogt, 2007).

Experiential outcomes	Associated activities
Intellectual development: • Learning new things • Aesthetic appreciation	• Experiential learning through participation in tasting  • Learning through themes attached to food experiences
Mastery:  a) Technical: how to do things  b) Creative or artistic	a) Mastery through tasting, smelling, planting, etc.  b) Creative mastery through consumption setting
Emotional satisfaction:  • Memorable and transforming experiences  • Satisfaction with experience (value for money	• Personally relevant experiences  • Perceived authenticity and uniqueness of     experience  • Value social experiences  • Facilitated social worlds (social media)

(Source: Getz et al, 2014)

The food events are key element for increase in tourism, these events are all about promoting the destination and also act as internal driver which combines the local community and maintain the local identity (Hall and Sharples, 2008). In modern time food and drinks festivals has become an important tool for generating income and increasing numbers of visitors and these are playing very important part in developing economy of the country (Cavicchi and Santini, 2014). Development of food festivals are supporting local communities and providing valuable income to local people (Hashimoto and Telfer, 2006). But only conducting events will not revitalize a place alone, there need to be a clear communication strategy.

Experiential outcomes

The three concepts related to foods are Organic Food, Migrant Cuisines and Globalization of food

1. Organic Food Concept: The Green Revolution considered dangerous because it include the bad effect of pesticides on food items as well as evolve risk of pest and crop diseases which can harm the health. These factor lead increase in global demand of organic food (Euromonitor International, 2012). Organic and natural foods are those which are produced without use of chemical fertilizers, human waste, pesticides or additives. Organic foods are produced with some production standards which are keeping soil healthy and use of natural fertilizers. Organic farmed foods contain high nutrition value and they are good in taste. The sale of organic food become very popular now days and its demand has increase drastically because health and wellness benefits are associated with it. Purchasing of organic food is become more trendy and popular. Because the prices of organic food item are very high and only wealthy people can buy these fruits and veggies. Purchasing of organic food is become a status symbol among society.   
2. Migrant Cuisines concept: When migrant open their food joint or restaurant in other country and serve the taste or food of their native country, and people appreciate the diverse food culture that term as migrant cuisines concept (Mohring, 2018). In simple words migrant cuisine means food or taste which has been migrated from other culture to other country. When people move from one country to another or shift from one culture to other, theirs roots always remain with them and their home food recipes are also remain with them. They bring those food recipes with them and serve their home test to people of country.
3. Globalisation of food:Advancement in communication and transportation technology has increased globalization of beverages and food industry. The global reach of beverages and food industry has presented business extraordinary opportunities. Companies have developed many strategies to get their product into global market. Big companies bring their own branded food chain in overseas market and smaller firms may go for partnership, merger or joint venture (Brahmam, 2016). 

Globalisation is having substantial effect on the food system of all developing countries in the world. Various forces established by globalisation which include trade liberalization, capital flow and urbanisation. All these forces have changed the nature of food system by availing diverse variety of food at affordable prices. Globalisation has increased the availability of different culture food in country. Globalisation of food is more visible in urban areas where purchasing power of people is high. With the concept of globalisation many large multinational fast-food and super market chain are coming in the economy and giving high competition to local fast- food joints. Large scale food chains are trading their goods all over world and connecting with locals with their food and regional taste.  

Conclusion 

To conclude, when person finishes his/her travel and look back in memories the first flash back come to their mind was an experience of food and drinks the taste of local cuisine, and rest memories come later. That is the reason, why every country consider food is a factor which develop an experience when person visit some destination and in case of Dandenong market they have given priority to food and it is playing an important role, when person visit to Dandenong market they experience a quality of service and mouth-watering tasty food serve at food stall, food trucks and other outlets. The tourist who visits Australia their main objective is to get a memorable experience. One thing on which Dandenong market need to focus is, at the time of the market tour they should advice their expert to take the tourist to the stall and shops which describe the culture and tradition of Australia and also they should take the tourist to the food joints which serve the signature food and local taste of Australia. The concept of globalisation is allowing or inviting world business in one’s economy but not at cost of affecting own local market. Globalisation is incorporating bad impact on local market as new food chains are taking over the local food product and items, so it is important for Dandenong Market to focus more on the local food vendors.

References 

Brahmam, M. (2016) Globalization of Food Has a Long History. [Online] Available from: https://worldbank.org/publicsphere/globalization-food-has-long-history [Accessed on 11 May 2018].

Cohen, E. and Avieli, N. (2004) Food in tourism: Attraction and impediment. Annals of tourism Research, 31(4), pp.755-778.

Dandenong market. (2018)  About Dandenong Market. [Online] Available from: https://dandenongmarket.com.au/ [Accessed on 11 May 2018].

Euromonitor international. (2012) FAST FOOD GROWTH IS SET TO CONTINUE BOOSTED BY OUTLET EXPANSION. [Online] Available from: https://www.euromonitor.com/fast-food-in-malaysia/report [Accessed on 11 May 2018].

Getz, D., Robinson, R., Andersson, T. and Vujicic, S. (2014) Foodies and food tourism. Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers.

Hall, C.M. and Sharples, L. (2008) Food and wine festivals and events around the world: Development, management and markets. U.K: Routledge.

Hashimoto, A. and Telfer, D.J. (2006) Selling Canadian culinary tourism: Branding the global and the regional product. Tourism Geographies, 8(1), pp.31-55.

Henderson, J.C., (2009) Food tourism reviewed. British food journal, 111(4), pp.317-326.

Hjalager, A.M. and Corigliano, M.A., (2006). Food for tourists–determinants of an image. The International Journal of Tourism Research, 2(4), p.281.

Mohring, M. (2018) Transnational food migration and the internalization of food consumption. [Online] Available from: https://enseignement.typepad.fr/printemps08/files/mohring_transnational_food_migration.pdf [Accessed on 11 May 2018].

Pilcher, J.M. (2006) Food in World History. U.K: Routledge,

Quan, S. and Wang, N. (2004) Towards a structural model of the tourist experience: An illustration from food experiences in tourism. Tourism management, 25(3), pp.297-305.

Santini, C. and Cavicchi, A. (2014) The adaptive change of the Italian Food Bank foundation: a case study. British Food Journal, 116(9), pp.1446-1459.

The World Love Melbourne. (2018) BEST MELBOURNE MARKETS – DANDENONG MARKET TOUR [Online] Available from: https://theworldlovesmelbourne.com/ [Accessed on 11 May 2018].

Wang, S., Kirillova, K. and Lehto, X. (2017) Reconciling unsatisfying tourism experiences: Message type effectiveness and the role of counterfactual thinking. Tourism Management, 60, pp.233-243.