Development of training material for hotel staff on sustainable food operations and development and implementation of communication tools to communicate the sustainable food offer to hotel guests, "Taste the culture", Turkey
Many travelers to the Turkish Aegean region have a huge interest in the local cuisine, and many hotels already source from local producers. Nonetheless, the connection between agricultural producers and purchasers from the hotel industry still needs to be improved. Furthermore, the concept of organic food is largely unknown in the Turkish hotel industry. The project "Taste the culture", which was funded by ÖGER Tours, Germany's leading tour operator specialized in travel to Turkey, addressed these issues by setting up a training program for hotel staff on sustainable food and by developing and implementing sustainable food signage. The project aims at enhancing the offer of regional and organic food in the hotel branch. The hotels get expertise how their F&B teams can develop a sustainable food offer and how to communicate it to their guests. Local traders, farmers and other food producers will profit as well. Apart from that, by enhancing the demand for sustainable products a transformation process to organic food will be promoted. Improved communication about sustainable food can enhance guest satisfaction. The awareness for the benefits of sustainable food will be enhanced and the participants will become advocates for sustainable buffets in hotels.
In the first phase, training courses for hotel staff were developed with a local project partner and organic-farming expert. The courses were based on the "Sustainable Food Manual", and included purchasing, storage, and processing of organic and sustainably produced foods. The course material conveys the benefits and value of sustainable and regional food. The second project phase dealt with the presentation and communication of sustainable food offers. The aim was to design and test communication tools to promote local produce on buffets. This phase was based on the tools and the results of the MU project "Sustainable Food Communication" and was implemented in a five-star resort in Izmir Province. The results showed an average increase in the consumption of the advertised local products of 53.1%. This increased consumption supports local vendors as well as local food producers and also helps to strengthen the integration of hotels into the local economy. A simultaneously conducted guest survey indicated moderately positive changes in the attitude of tourists towards sustainable food. To make this project scalable, the educational material, the communication tools including guidelines for implementation are freely available to the Turkish hotel industry. Using these materials, together with ÖGER Tours, sustainable food trainings and sustainable food communication tools will be implemented in other Turkish hotels in spring 2018.
Images
External source(s)
Resource
Image
The manual is freely available to the tourism industry. Through the use of these tools hotels' commitment to sustainable food...
