Thailand serves up journeys of ‘local co-creation’

Cheffy takes on loc­al del­ic­acies were the focus of a com­munity-based tour­ism product launch in Thai­l­and: ‘The Jour­ney of Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’, Septem­ber 19, 2024, Siv­a­tel Bangkok.

What is local co-creation?

The Tour­ism Author­ity of Thai­l­and (TAT) and its ‘Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ pro­ject part­ner, Loc­al Alike, presen­ted ‘co-cre­ated’ con­sum­ables from two com­munit­ies: Ban Sawa­tee in Khon Kaen and Ban Nai Nang in Krabi.

Co-cre­ation in this con­text is about “elev­at­ing” ingredi­ents and cook­ing tech­niques into dishes one might expect to see in cafet­er­i­as and fine din­ing restaurants. 

Mem­bers of those com­munit­ies proudly demon­strated and dis­trib­uted deli­cious snacks and bever­ages for the bene­fit of Bangkok-based rep­res­ent­at­ives of des­tin­a­tion man­age­ment com­pan­ies — EXO Travel, Asi­an Trails, Des­tin­a­tion Asia, and Intrep­id Travel were among those rep­res­en­ted — media, and oth­er stakeholders.

Dendu­en Luengcheng, TAT’s exec­ut­ive dir­ect­or of Tour­ism Products, said that the activ­ity was an exten­sion of TAT’s mis­sion to add value to tour­ism products developed under the ‘Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ pro­ject, which has been under­way since 2023.

‘Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ aims to “cre­ate iden­tit­ies that are con­sist­ent with the con­text of the area and the beha­viour of tour­ists”, she said. Ban Sawa­tee in Khon Kaen, for example, was now able to wel­come MICE (meet­ings, incent­ives, etc) groups of up to 50 people. 

TAT’s ‘Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ pro­ject lever­ages “resources, cul­tur­al cap­it­al, and loc­al wis­dom to deliv­er mean­ing­ful tour­ism exper­i­ences [by] work­ing with our net­work of part­ners from the pub­lic and private sec­tors and loc­al stake­hold­ers,” she said. 

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Sharing food, sharing stories

As part of the co-cre­ation pro­cess, TAT invites experts to the com­munit­ies to “share their know­ledge and enhance the poten­tial of food and cre­at­ive tour­ism” and how best to “con­vey stor­ies, cul­tures and loc­al life­styles through food”. Indeed Chef Pairsarn from Kaen res­taur­ant in Khon Kaen was on hand at Siv­a­tel to dis­cuss the com­munit­ies’ delicacies.

In 2024, in addi­tion to launch­ing the tour­ism products from Ban Sawa­tee and Ban Nai Nang, TAT is facil­it­at­ing “con­tinu­ous mar­ket­ing pro­mo­tion” for the five com­munit­ies that have already launched their co-cre­ated tour­ism products:

1. Mun Homestay Con­ser­va­tion Group, Ban Suk­som­boon, Nak­hon Ratchasima;
2. Ban Tham­machat Lang Com­munity Tour­ism Enter­prise, Trat; 
3. Tha Chai-Si Satchanalai Com­munity Tour­ism Pro­mo­tion Club, Sukhothai; 
4. Phrom Lok Com­munity Tour­ism Club, Nak­hon Si Tham­mar­at; and 
5. Ban Ko Rian Com­munity Tour­ism Enter­prise, Phra Nak­hon Si Ayutthaya.

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Thai hospitality

The Septem­ber 19 event fea­tured after­noon tea and snacks from Divana Sig­na­ture Cafe, and an exclus­ive ‘Chef’s Table’ meal from Thi­tiphan “Phrik Phet” Chongy­ingchar­oen, a chef and “food styl­ist” famed for his role on Hell’s Kit­chen Thai­l­and. 

This gen­er­ous hos­pit­al­ity sup­ple­men­ted sampling of Ban Sawatee’s scrump­tious khao khriep (puffed rice crack­ers) topped with cat­fish and medi­cin­al herbs, and Ban Nai Nang’s prawn kra­thong thong (pastry cups), honey-lime jelly, and fresh fruity mocktails.

Dendu­en Luengcheng hoped the event would serve to illus­trate how ‘Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ uses “ingredi­ents accord­ing to the sea­son, fur­ther devel­op­ing them to present in a more inter­na­tion­al style, while main­tain­ing iden­tity and taste”. This in turn, she hopes, will “help cre­ate added value and enhance the value by con­vey­ing stor­ies through food”.

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Sustainable value

TAT’s ‘Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ pro­ject is one of the ways the agency works with com­munit­ies and stake­hold­ers to devel­op “pro­to­type tour­ism products and services”.

TAT hopes that this pro­ject will be able to “elev­ate com­munity products and ser­vices to cre­ate added eco­nom­ic value, cre­ate incent­ives for travel, and dis­trib­ute bene­fits to the grass­roots eco­nomy for loc­als and all rel­ev­ant sectors”. 

In addi­tion, TAT encour­ages the com­munit­ies to meet Thai and inter­na­tion­al sus­tain­able tour­ism standards. 

Any­ar­in Tsap­manee of Siv­a­tel Bangkok led a quick tour of the hotel’s award-win­ning sus­tain­ab­il­ity ini­ti­at­ives, high­light­ing its treat­ment of food waste — as food for live meal­worms which are traded for chick­en eggs and meat from an organ­ic chick­en farm — and its small but pro­duct­ive herb and veget­able garden.

Your cor­res­pond­ent atten­ded ‘The Jour­ney of Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ event by invitation.

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Featured image (top of post)

The prin­cip­al par­ti­cipants in Tour­ism Author­ity of Thail­and’s ‘Jour­ney of Loc­al Co-Cre­ation’ event at Siv­a­tel Hotel, Bangkok, Septem­ber 19, 2024. Under­neath: Ban Nai Nang’s fresh fruity mock­tails, and Ban Sawatee’s scrump­tious khao khriep (puffed rice crack­ers) topped with cat­fish and medi­cin­al herbs.

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