Factors affecting the intention to consume local food in Koh Samui

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1 ) to study the consumption behavior of local food in Koh Samui. 2 ) To study the levels of factors affecting the intention of local food consumption. 3) To compare personal factors to the intention of local food consumption and 4 ) To find out the correlation between local food consumption factors and the consumption intention. This study was conducted by mixed methods research.The sample consisted of a total of 400 Thai consumers who used to eat local food in Koh Samui and were selected by accidental sampling method. The results showed that 1) the consumption behavior of local food was mostly eaten alone. The top 3 local savory dishes in Koh Samui that the consumer used to eat were as follows: Moo Ko, Yum Sarai Kor and Wai Kua. The sweet dishes were Kalamae, Khanom Ko and Tho Won. The types of fruit were Lukfai Ka, Luk Tho and Luk Kee Kwang. Popularly dined in Koh Samui at famous restaurants. Eat local food because of its unique taste. Family or relatives were influential in choosing the type of food. Local food was usually eaten at lunch and purchasing ingredients from the local community to prepare local dishes. 2) Factors affecting the Intention in term of food identity, food quality, attitude, and convenience of finding local food were found to affect the intention to consume local food at the highest level. 3) Personal factors in terms of age, average monthly income, whether they were Koh Samui residents or not, and whether they had different accommodation in Koh Samui, were found to have a difference in their intention to consume local food at the statistically significant level of .05 and 4) factors of food unique, food quality, attitude, and convenience of finding local food to eat, were found to have correlation with the intention to consume local food in all variables by statistically significant at the .05 level.