Cultural Dynamism in Food Choice by Hospitality Clients: a Case Study of Kisumu County in Kenya

EasyChair Preprint 452

Abstract

Culture in its diversity, comprising of beliefs, taboos, traditions, as well as rituals, has dietary requirements with regard to the dishes and/ingredients that may be consumed. Consequently, Food choices among the global hospitality clientele are diverse; including ethnic, fusion and contemporary cuisines, with a variety of factors determining these choices. However, in spite of this broad classification of cuisines, the Kenyan menu, has particularly focused on exotic national cuisines in an effort to increase and/ or maintain profitability. Moreover, the Kenyan hospitality training institutions have put more emphasis on culinary skills that incline towards the worlds’ cuisines, with very little, and sometimes no focus on the pure ethnic culinary skills within their programs. The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate the cultural dynamics of food choice among hospitality clients. On the other hand, the general objective was to investigate the hospitality industry’s client food choice, and the cultural dynamics in the food choices among the clients. A cross-section survey as well as descriptive correlation survey approach was adopted, while the target population constituted hospitality clients. Purposive sampling, systematic random sampling, as well as simple random sampling were employed, with a sample size of 384 respondents. Interview schedules and questionnaires were administered to the study population and recorded a response rate of 97.6%. Data was coded and analyzed by use of SPSS version 20, and presented via descriptive statistics; frequencies and percentages, inferential statistics; regression and chi square ( ), ANOVA and t-test. The results of the study show that there is a relationship between cultural dynamics and food choice by hospitality clients. Conversely, the study results depicts that there is influence of environmental factors on the relationship between cultural dynamics and food choice by hospitality clients.

Keyphrases: CONTEMPORARY CUISINE, CULTURAL DYNAMISM, Ethnic cuisine, FUSION CUISINE, food choices

@booklet{EasyChair:452,
  author    = {Simon Were Okwachi},
  title     = {Cultural Dynamism in Food Choice by Hospitality Clients: a Case Study of Kisumu County in Kenya},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 452},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2018}}