All about Gastronomy Tourism in Thailand
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has been playing quite an important role in getting Thailand’s gastronomy word out. The priority efforts to raise awareness for gastronomy tourism is driven to building bridges with the agricultural sector that remains Thailand’s biggest employer and the biggest industry overall. The economy in Thailand has been revolving around agriculture since centuries, even before tourists were visiting in measurable numbers.
Hence, TAT wanted to highlight that and then blend these two. In fact, Thai dishes are given great emphasis on the nutritional ingredients including high-value herbs that help TAT to concentrate more on health and general wellness.
Besides, promoting food tourism makes a lot of sense of too, especially on the economic perspective. Gastronomy tourism is capable of generating billions of dollars as according to the UN World Tourism Organization alongside international visitors, spending around 20% of the travel budget.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is closely related to the UNWTO and they hosted 4th UNWTO Forum on Gastronomy Tourism in 2018. Also, Thailand was the first-ever country to host the event and the participants spoke about the smiling Thai hospitality as well as the food. Basically, the agenda was to emphasize on advancing culinary and cultural problems across the ten-member states of ASEAN and Asia-Pacific region.
In a recent move, TAT has collaborated with the France-based Michelin, renowned around the globe for their star rating system. This partnership led to producing the first-ever Michelin Guide Bangkok that highlighted 98 restaurants, which include Asia, international, and Thai with almost 28 Thai street-food stalls.
TAT’s food tourism efforts highlight how diverse Thai cuisine is. In fact, five different regions of the kingdom have distinctive cuisines, and in some cases, smaller areas and individual towns in an area are known for their specialty.
If you have any plan to visit Phetchaburi, south of Bangkok, then you should try Khanom mo kaeng (egg custard).
