Food, glorious food! The intersection of food cultures and creative tourism in Brunei

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to apply the theoretical frameworks of resource-based view (RBV) and Social Creativity to elucidate insights related to food cultures and creative tourism in the context of Brunei. This addresses an important gap in the literature to unpack how food cultures and creative tourism can become a vehicle for the diversification of a country’s reliance on oil and gas as primary industries.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study approach was taken in this research, utilising both primary and secondary data such as social media posts, media reports and semi-structured interviews to shed light on an emerging niche market in Brunei tourism.

Findings

The research revealed the entrepreneurial mindset of local food chefs and enthusiasts in showcasing Bruneian heritage and cultures, supported by government campaigns and technological advances. This lends further evidence that food cultures and creative tourism can be a lever for a national economic diversification strategy and can be validated elsewhere.

Research limitations/implications

This is one of the first studies to investigate the intersection of the RBV and Social Creativity to advance the theory and practice of tourism in South East Asia.

Practical implications

The intersection of food cultures and creative tourism within Brunei is dovetailed into the theoretical frameworks of the RBV and Wilson’s Social Creativity Framework. This is evidenced in a diversification strategy emerging from the case study of Brunei, where food is earmarked as a heritage resource and leverages individual, and in particular, young people’s creativity to generate a niche tourism market for the country.

Social implications

The paper illuminates the role of technology as a vehicle for the discourses of creativity, reflexivity, education and economy to flourish. Through co-created content on social media, food heritage and creative tourism experiences are foregrounded and assisted by the entrepreneurs in reaching their desired audiences. Arguably, such tools helped the country alleviate the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and thrust domestic food tourism experiences into the spotlight, like other destinations.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to investigate the intersection of the RBV and Social Creativity to advance the theory and practice of tourism in South East Asia.

Citation

Tham, A. and Chin, W.L. (2024), "Food, glorious food! The intersection of food cultures and creative tourism in Brunei", Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 121-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEAMJ-10-2023-0076

Introduction

The importance of food in tourism has been strongly endorsed, with prior studies reiterating its value in enriching visitor experiences and connecting to local communities and cultures (Everett & Aitchison, 2008; Kim & Iwashita, 2016). Food has been acknowledged to be a primary and secondary form of tourist motivation, leading to terms such as foodies, culinary tourism and gastronomy being used almost interchangeably to reflect the growing sophistication of food-induced tourism experiences (Kim, Goh, & Yuan, 2010; Okumus, 2021). Whilst food cultures have been a widely studied phenomenon across the globe, questions remain about how they intersect with the creative industries to become a competitive advantage for destinations seeking to leverage potential strengths over others (Knollenberg, Duffy, Kline, & Kim, 2021; Rousta & Jamshidi, 2020). This comes amidst a growing number of UNESCO City of Gastronomy awards, especially in the South East Asian context, such as Kuching, Malaysia, in 2021. Drawing from Wernerfelt’s (1984) resource-based view (RBV) and Wilson’s (2010) social creativity framework, a decentred approach to food cultures and creative tourism is proposed in the context of Brunei. This helps to bring knowledge up to the speed of the diversification of mature industries for the country and positions it favourably in considering possible future initiatives, e.g. the intention to apply and become a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.

Literature review

Food cultures and creative tourism

In this research, food cultures are broadly defined as the processes, heritage and identities associated with any form of food production or innovation along their respective supply/value chains (Sims, 2010). Food cultures are of importance to destinations as they are a strong brand of local communities and their associations with food, including beverages (de la Barre & Brouder, 2013). It goes beyond the basic role of food as sustenance and primary needs but is a vehicle for storytelling around why particular heritage and rituals are interwoven into elements such as seasonality, community-based festivals and other key elements such as food sovereignty and security (Andersson, Mossberg, & Therkelsen, 2017; James & Halkier, 2016). In a tourism context, food cultures enhance visitor experiences as they are a highly tangible and sensory approach, a proxy of an object or an existential form of authenticity (e.g. eating a native dish or being part of a cooking class) (Lunchprasith & Macleod, 2018). In addition, food cultures provide a valuable glimpse into health and well-being outcomes and thereby support the realisation of Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG3 (good health and well-being) and SDG12 (responsible consumption and production), among others (Naruetharadhol & Gebsombut, 2020).

Creative tourism has been framed as an opportunity for visitors to harness their creative potential in co-designing outcomes through participation in art, dance, music, craft and food (Richards, 2020; Luh, Luh, & Kung, 2014). There is also now a shift in the focus of creative tourism from a supply-side perspective, advocating for more widespread support to facilitate these innovators and entrepreneurs to have sustainable futures (Lindroth, Ritalahti & Soisalon-Soininen, 2007). The value of creative tourism in terms of food cannot be underestimated, as food tourists are now engaging with destinations in various forms of participation, such as concocting one’s own craft drinks or being involved in the preparation of delicacies for an event. Due to the highly immersive nature of creative food tourism experiences, these interactions elevate memorable outcomes and therefore, trigger positive word-of-mouth and loyalty/revisit outcomes (Farsani, Ghotbabadi & Altafi, 2019). Collectively, creative food tourism is reportedly worth an estimated US$ 4tn within the next decade (Rokou, 2023). This trajectory is supported by post-pandemic trends where visitors are seeking health and well-being outcomes as a priority, where food becomes an important part of this quest (Fountain, 2022; Piboonrungroj, Wannapan & Chaiboonsri, 2023).

UNESCO creative cities of gastronomy

The UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy is a subset of the organisation’s wider network where cities can be nominated and assessed for their sustained contributions and leadership in the space of literature, media, music, and gastronomy. As of September 2023, 49 cities have been awarded the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy label, each offering a valuable glimpse of how food cultures are interwoven into the societal fabric and everyday lives. In South East Asia, only Phuket (in 2015) and Kuching (in 2021) have received this award, with both destinations leveraging on such an outcome to attract visitors to enjoy and engage in creative ways such as cooking classes and digital content (e.g. Instagram). Evidence suggests that destinations receiving such an award can use food cultures and creative tourism as a catalyst to develop an ecosystem surrounding sustainable food practices and futures (Park, Muangasame & Kim, 2023; Xie, 2021).

Whilst there are destinations that have associations with types of food, e.g. cheese, olives and tomatoes, these do not necessarily translate into creative tourism’s competitive advantages. Some scholars also highlight the increasingly saturated landscape where food identities can be a crowded space with different operators, regions and countries jousting for superiority and being associated with authentic gastronomic experiences (Henderson, 2014; Symons, 2010). Food tourists may be confused and are confronted with choice overload, which can lead to deleterious outcomes (Duruz, 2011). In addition, tourists visit destinations under time, resource and spatial constraints. This means they will likely source food experiences within their locus of control or destinations visited. Amidst this backdrop, countries such as Brunei perceive the potential for food image and the country-of-origin effect to create national brands and gastronomic identities (Franco & Bakar, 2020; Musa & Chin, 2021, 2022). There is therefore a need to consider key theoretical frameworks that serve to anchor and inform how the context of Brunei can be applied to a brand and market-proliferated landscape.

Resource-based view (RBV) of food cultures and creative tourism

The RBV was proposed by Wernerfelt (1984) as an approach for organisations to leverage their knowledge, skills or abilities to create competitive advantages over others. This reflects the unique endowment for the organisation and the fact that it can be extrapolated to the national level, as argued by tourism scholars elsewhere (Campbell & Kubickova, 2020). Importantly, countries extract the most value from the natural or human assets they can access rather than clamour for resources that do not exist (Grimstad, 2011; Pechlaner & Fischer, 2006). Such an approach supports capability development and more strategic outcomes when long-term benefits can then be reaped in areas such as economic growth and social capital (Fuste-Forne, 2020). However, natural or human resources alone are not enough to create a sustained competitive advantage, as other countries may be equally or more endowed with similar assets (Amoako, Obuobisa-Darko & Marfo, 2022). For this reason, some countries have leaned towards elements of social creativity as inimitable resources to harness desired futures (Adamo, Ferrari & Gilli, 2019; Blapp & Mitas, 2018; Stolarick, Denstedt, Donald, & Spencer, 2010).

Related to food cultures, RBV is a crucial element in unpacking people, agriculture, heritage and gastronomy to showcase unique images and stories that are authentic elements of a country (Horng & Tsai, 2012; Presenza & Del Chiappa, 2013; Seyitoglu & Ivanov, 2020). Because each country is endowed differently, there are creative elements at play as food becomes a socially constructed commodity. This gives rise to the notion of social creativity, as countries seek to keep up to date with new trends, tastes and fads to attract current and new food tourists (Abidin, Che Ishak, Ismail, & Juhari, 2020). With the advent of technological advances and globalised mobility, there is certainly a wider appetite for social creativity to be foregrounded in fields such as food cultures and tourism (Raji, Ab Karim, Che Ishak & Arshad, 2017).

Social creativity

As its name suggests, social creativity refers to the inter-group phenomenon where innovation and entrepreneurship are co-created by individuals (Watson, 2007). Proponents of social creativity attest to the need for ideas to be shared and synergistic outcomes when two or more people build on one another’s expertise (Wilson, 2010). Whilst the results of social creativity appear straightforward, the antecedents to success are founded on principles such as trust, open communication and mutually agreed goals (van Bezouw, van der Toorn & Becker, 2021). This is like how team dynamics work, though the fruits of the labour associated with social creativity may have fewer formal structures and be personalised to individual needs (Stoletov, 2006). All the same, social creativity does not require individuals to have a specialisation in expertise, but the combination of knowledge and skills can derive synergistic outcomes (Reilly, 2008). This research adopts Wilson’s (2010) social creativity framework, consisting of five steps:

1. Discourses of creativity

2. Discourses of creative criticality

3. Discourses of social justice

4. Discourses of reflexivity

5. Discourses of education and economy

These five steps are manifest across individuals and spaces and intersect with one another’s knowledge and learning to deal with uncertain outcomes through iterative methods. In acknowledging other social creativity frameworks that exist, the work of Wilson (2010) is selected because of its ability to be adapted across contexts openly, especially in the absence of formal governance structures for creative food tourism within Brunei.

It should be noted that creative tourism featuring food is a highly complex undertaking, as various actors and food systems evolve over time and place (Alonso, Kok, & O’Brien, 2018). Some scholars argue that creative tourism expedites opportunities for consumer-to-consumer content creation and, over emerging tools such as Instagram, formulates faster and wider opportunities to disseminate national food images and cultures digitally (Putra, Putra & Novianti, 2023). Others, though, challenge the legitimacy of creative tourism, querying if such a process serves colonial powers of food quests and silencing local communities from their agentic voices in how food cultures are portrayed (Bessiere, 2013; Sharma & Wattana, 2024). Then, there are also ongoing legal ramifications of food branding, with European cities seeking to ban other regions from using labels such as feta and gruyere on cheese products manufactured elsewhere (Clun, 2022). Likewise, failed food branding campaigns can be costly, as evidenced in other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, where a lack of communication and sustained resourcing limited the effectiveness of creative tourism strategies (Purnomo, 2023). Nonetheless, creative food tourism offers Brunei a vehicle to diversify national economies away from petroleum-led industries.

Context

Brunei is a small country with a land area of approximately 6,000 km², located on the island of Borneo in South East Asia. Brunei’s main economy is highly dependent on the oil and gas reserves, which generate more than half of Brunei’s GDP (Centre for Strategic and Policy Stu, 2023). Recognising a need to diversify from its reliance on the oil and gas industry, the Tourism Development Department identified gastronomy tourism as one of the niche areas that Brunei could leverage. Gastronomy tourism is identified as a key to promoting Brunei’s intangible heritage through food. In 2017, the Brunei Tourism Board under the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism (MPRT) launched Brunei Gastronomy Week to showcase Bruneian local cuisine whilst collaborating with restauranteurs, airlines and hoteliers. Participating members were expected to promote the local cuisine with their chefs’ creations, making it a competition among members. The theme for the first Brunei Gastronomy Week was “Bamboo chicken”, a traditional Iban ethnic group dish. The initial objectives of Gastronomy Week were to highlight Bruneian local dishes and encourage chefs to elevate the gastronomical experience for visitors, both domestic and international. In 2019, more and more younger chefs were interested in participating; hence, it eventually became a platform to encourage and support younger chefs to be more innovative and gain exposure to improve their culinary skills.

The most recent Gastronomy Week was held last year, in 2022. The theme for Brunei Gastronomy Week 2022 was “Pandan Leaves: Local Flavours, Tantalizing Taste”. Gastronomy awards such as the “Best Chef Award” and “Best Dishes” awards were given to participants. A series of events were held during the week, ranging from cooking competitions, cooking classes and even a segment featuring young participating chefs. This segment highlights the strengths of individual chefs for the public whilst at the same time giving exposure and competing experiences to up-and-coming young chefs.

Within the series of events, Brunei Gastronomy Week, in collaboration with the School of Hospitality and Tourism Singapore, invited Chef Mark Tai (2021 Michelin Guide Young Chef Awardee) to a virtual workshop to showcase his culinary skills and inspire hospitality students and young chefs (Brunei Tourism Board, 2022). In addition, the “Brunei Gastronomic Cuisine Book” was selected as one of the winners of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards by countries for the year 2023 in the Best Asian Cuisine by Countries category (Borneo Bulletin, 2023). The book is a compilation of unique Bruneian flavour recipes and memories from the “Annual Brunei Gastronomic Week” since 2017.

Methods

The case study of Brunei was selected as it is one of the understudied destinations in Southeast Asia. A total of 16 respondents were interviewed using in-depth, semi-structured interviews, comprising chefs, people involved in the culinary industry as well as domestic tourists. This approach is widely utilized to recognize community opinions and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the current state of the culinary landscape. Throughout the fieldwork process, notes were recorded based on firsthand observations and interview data were cross-examined in light of emerging themes. The qualitative methodology provides a flexible means of delving into a relatively unexplored subject with limited preliminary information, affording a more profound exploration of the evolving gastronomic scene. The richness of food cultures amplifies visitor experiences, offering a deeply immersive and sensory journey. The Resource-Based View (RBV) lens applied to food cultures and creative tourism suggests leveraging the unique knowledge, skills and abilities inherent in these cultural assets to gain a competitive edge. This theory facilitates capability development and fosters strategic outcomes, enabling economic growth. Hence, RBV and social creativity serve as vital phenomena for exploring the intricate relationships between people, heritage and gastronomy, showcasing the unique narratives and images of a particular country. The inclusion of both of these theories, where the dynamic landscape of creativity and leveraging available assets are both highly pertinent to exploring this paper.

Findings and discussions

Food cultures and creative tourism in Brunei

The culinary culture in Brunei is notably robust, serving as a prominent source of social enjoyment in light of the limited entertainment options within the sultanate. Due to the lack of other recreational opportunities, people in Brunei tend to value the social interaction that comes with sharing delicious meals with loved ones. This deeply ingrained culinary tradition has, in turn, influenced younger generations to adopt a more innovative and entrepreneurial mindset when embarking on their business ventures.

One of the respondents (R1) started her career as a chef in Brunei back in 2019. She has graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, London, and has decided to open a business with her partner (R2) as they felt that there was a gap in the market for exclusive private afternoon tea. R1 initially started her small business alone as a home baker selling cakes but wanted to cater to a wider audience, hence partnering with R2, who is also a chef, combining their skills.

I am good at making savoury canapes while my partner is great at baking sweet goods. It’s a perfect combination to offer for high tea sessions. Coincidently, my family has a nice vacant house as a venue, so we decided - let’s do it. It will be something different and unique that no one else has done in Brunei before. Exclusive high tea at home- not a restaurant but home. The exclusivity is one of our selling points as we are only catering to a certain amount of customers at a specific day and time. (R2)

We are all professionals who are passionate about local and international food and “name of home dining” is known for creating a “fusion” of local and international tastes. We have intentionally avoided having a social media account as we are not doing this full-time while at the same time we want to maintain this idea of exclusivity. We have attracted a lot of attention, especially among the expatriate community as a place to host their visitors. People are bored with the existing food and restaurants that we have. We need to come up with something new, a new ambience, a new experience, and new food so we thought of creating fusion cuisine to merge local and foreign tastebuds which we don’t see in Brunei. She has an empty house, I have the cooking skills and he is a people person. So it’s a good blend! (R3, R4, R5)

I have inherited a house in the water village from my late father. Rather than allowing it to rot and with the support of my mom, we have decided to renovate the house for homestay. To be honest, homestay business alone wasn’t great at first so I have decided to offer complementary services like providing people who stay here with local culinary experiences such as ambuyat (sticky sago) making while telling them the history and tradition of ambuyat, and offering Brunei traditional dishes that pairs well with it. It turns out that the culinary experiences have attracted a lot of attention not only to international tourists but also the locals. (R6)

The findings above reflect the notion of the Resource-Based View and Wilson’s Social Creativity Framework, as respondents were utilising their knowledge, skills and abilities strategically to gain a competitive advantage in a market. In this case, businesses have chosen to partner up and combine their available resources to form a strategic edge. Combining resources to open exclusive high tea sessions and fusion home dining experiences reveals aspects of social creativity among the respondents interviewed (see Plate 1). Combining their strengths has resulted in innovative ways of doing business by creating the experience of exclusivity, which acts as a pull factor for lots of domestic tourists.

Creative and curated experiences

Our farm-to-dining experience has brought us tremendous headlines in the local media. People are looking for more than just a product. They wanted an experience that they would remember. We noticed this is lacking so we decided to give it a try offering tourist more hands-on experience in picking their ingredients and involve them in cooking and preparing while narrating the history and connection of the dishes to them. We offer more home-based local dishes here to portray local cultures. (R7, R8)

Our farm-to-table experience is a little different as our selling point is not only using locally grown ingredients from our farm but also incorporating flavours using the French and Asian cooking techniques from our chefs’ overseas training. Some of the dishes are cooked in front of guests and visitors are included in part of the culinary experience. We offer a five-course menu, and we will only accommodate 15 guests each session due to space constraints. To date, it is quite well-received by people and we have guests travelling from other districts just to experience this. (R9)

The farm-to-dining experiences outlined a trend towards offering more than just a meal. They aim to provide a memorable and interactive encounter for visitors. Combining regional ingredients and cultural components with international cooking methods denotes a blending of customs and creativity. The success, as indicated by guests travelling from other districts, highlights the growing demand for carefully crafted, one-of-a-kind culinary adventures that go beyond standard dining norms. This goes hand in hand with Fountain (2022), who states that people are looking for more than a tangible dish but also interactions that create memories and elevate experiences. This is exactly what Bruneian entrepreneurs are doing with their creative food and dining experiences (see Plate 2).

Gamification and digital technologies

Selera Bruneiku (A Taste of Brunei) is a domestic tourism initiative and campaign (see Plate 3) organised by the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism (MPRT) to highlight gastronomy as part of each district's promotional element. The campaign aims to highlight traditional food and recreational activities in each district to encourage domestic tourism and inter-district travel. This campaign aims to leverage the residents' love for food and incorporate cultural and food heritage into staycation packages across all four districts. For instance, staying in a hotel in the Tutong district would include a visit to the Lamin Warisan cultural site, where local cuisine will be served and activities such as making traditional “kueh” will be offered.

MPRT engaged local influencers in this campaign to compete against one another to create a one-minute video of the district that they had chosen. This has resulted in higher engagement and successful marketing techniques as the competition has encouraged constant viewers and increased followers on the “behind-the-scene” of making the official videos. Social media users were following the behind-the-scenes influencers' Instagram stories on how they planned their storyboards and where they visited to create the official videos. A total of five local influencers were engaged, namely @ranoadidas, @djdaffy, @kurapak and @eat.what.now (a channel that is run by @venturingfoodie and @papaboy). The videos highlight the cultural attractions and activities as well as the unique cuisine specifically known for the respective districts. For instance, the Iban ethnic group’s longhouse and bamboo chicken were highlighted in the Belait district; nature, adventure tourism, “Wajid” and “Udang Galah” were highlighted in Temburong; Lamin Warisan, Eco-Ponies cooking classes, “Kelupis”, honey were featured in the Tutong video and lastly, Kampong Ayer and more modern cuisine like buffets and “Sup Tulang” were featured in the Brunei-Muara video. The gamification of this campaign has caught attention domestically, and locals are more intrigued to visit and partake in local activities, as supported by studies on social media elsewhere (Shoukat, Selem, Elgammal, Ramkissoon, & Amponsah, 2023).

Findings show that most of the respondents were aware of this campaign and have been following the content created by the influencers. Most have admitted that they do not know all the areas advertised in this campaign and that they have learned a few new places to dine or visit. The consensus among all respondents was that leveraging influencers to attract domestic tourists through this creative approach is considered effective and more cost-efficient compared to traditional advertising methods.

I think everyone nowadays has Instagram or Facebook or some sort of social media account. Some of the places advertised in this campaign were unheard of until this advert came out. We are so happy to know about it and have visited some of the places since. (R13)

I think the government is going on the right track. Engaging the influencers would be more efficient at reaching wider local audiences via social media rather than traditional adverts in TV. I would imagine it would cost less too! (R11)

Yes, I have seen the videos on Instagram. I think it was quite informative as I didn’t know some of the places like Lamin Warisan existed. Engaging in those influencers increases exposure to younger generations. (R10)

Respondents were also inquired about the extent to which the consumed content translated into real purchases and visits. Around 40% of the respondents ended up visiting places after the campaign was released. The findings reveal that the influencer-driven campaign has effectively increased awareness, sparked the discovery of new places and influenced the decision-making process.

Conclusion, limitations and future studies

In conclusion, the intersection of food cultures and creative tourism within Brunei is dovetailed into the theoretical frameworks of the RBV and Wilson’s Social Creativity Framework. This is evidenced in a diversification strategy emerging from the case study of Brunei, where food is earmarked as a heritage resource and leverages individual, and in particular, young people’s creativity to generate a niche tourism market for the country. Drawing from Wilson (2010), creative criticality is also underpinned by government action to put resources behind the support for a Gastronomy Week, thereby showcasing local and aspirational chefs to engage with food heritage and events.

Then, the paper illuminates the role of technology as a vehicle for the discourses of creativity, reflexivity, education and economy to flourish. Through co-created content on social media, food heritage and creative tourism experiences are foregrounded and assisted by the entrepreneurs in reaching their desired audiences. Arguably, such tools helped the country alleviate the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and thrust domestic food tourism experiences into the spotlight, like other destinations (Durmaz, Cayiragasi, & Copuroglu, 2022; Piboonrungroj et al., 2023; Vaishar & Stastna, 2022).

The research is not without its limitations. As a case study comprising a single sector within one country, the results may not be generalisable across other contexts. Likewise, primary data from more interviews with participants or surveys with food tourists in Brunei may reveal similar or different outcomes. These limitations notwithstanding, the research has documented some areas for future investigation.

Future studies may be interested in comparing the effects of gender, income, race and ethnic background on food cultures and creative tourism. Other studies can also trace longitudinal outcomes since the outset of COVID-19 and ascertain whether food cultures and creative tourism are sustainable business models. Finally, some scholars may be keen to compare what forms of creative tourism are best suited across various social media platforms, e.g. TikTok and Instagram, for depicting food cultures.

Figures

Plate 1

Featuring fine dining experience

Plate 2

Featuring farm-to-table experiences

Plate 3

Selera Bruneiku marketing campaign