Why do Tourists Attend Cooking Classes? Some Indications from Thailand

This study sought motivations of tourists attending Thai cooking classes in the tourist city of Bangkok and tourist resorts of Krabi and Rayong. This was particularly so that cooking schools could align their future marketing efforts around the most potent customer attractants for touristic cooking schools, for instance stressing that student groups are multi-national. The study proceeded from the phenomenological assumption that those closest to a phenomenon know about it best. There were no hypotheses from the researcher. The methodological approach was Qualitative. Students were interviewed at the end of their classes. Interviews were of two types, totally open-ended discussion between participants, other participants and interviewer and very rigidly structured individual interviews. Observation was also used and there were two levels of involvement with school owner/managers, informal discussion and formal interviews. For one cookery school, its TripAdvisor reviews were text-mined for cross-reference with interviews at that school for further confirmation or otherwise of findings and to assess the viability of text-mining reviews to inferentially discover client motivations. The body of evidence assembled on balance indicated students being motivated primarily by cultural learning rather than gaining cooking skills. Sociability was also highly important.