ABSTRACT
The question of whether food and beverage policy has a single or dual focus is a strategic issue. If it comes down to appealing to both tourists and the local population then issues of the food and beverage concept, marketing, and pricing have to take cognisance of divergence of taste and expectation between those of the indigenous population and those of the tourists. The key issues here are the distinct possibility that tourists and locals will have different frameworks for evaluation of the food and perhaps more importantly, different concepts of value for money. Evaluation, appreciation and value for money are culturally determined. Furthermore, any strategy has to also consider how to be competitive through differentiation between establishments in the market. The demands of appealing to a dual market and the demands of competition may not always be easily reconciled. On the one hand, the hegemony of tourism may demand a convergence of menu types in conformance with the destination image but, on the other hand, the demands of competition may push for divergence in the marketplace. In strategic terms there is a friction between the need to differentiate in the local market and the need to conform to expectations encouraged by tourism images.
