Phuket Street Food Festival 2017 Aims to Promote Tourism and Propel Thai Local Food to the World Stage

Monday 09 October 2017 15:55
The Tourism Authority of Thailand Phuket Office, Phuket Tourism and Sports Office, Phuket City Municipality, Thai Hotels Association - Southern Chapter, Phuket Tourist Association, Phuket Chamber of Commerce, Phuket Restaurant Club and Public Private Steering Committee along with many local organizations recently joint hands in the opening of the "Phuket Street Food Festival 2017" at the 72nd Anniversary Queen Sirikit Park (Dragon Square) in front of the Phuket City Municipality. The object of this festival is to indorse, promote and showcase that Phuket is the "Creative City of Gastronomy by UNESCO" to the local and international tourists, MICE's tourist groups, Street Foods business entrepreneur and local hotels. In returns, this project is intended to uplift and further promote tourism in Phuket and showcase its capability to support MICE (Meeting, Incentives, Conferencing, and Exhibitions).

Within Phuket Street Food Festival 2017, visitors got to experience over 150 tasty food from local restaurants along with discounts and promotions from multiple 5-stars hotels starting from the second half of September, or relatively from 15-30 September 2017. Furthermore, Phuket aims to make this into an annual event for the month of September and looks forward to pushing it into a signature event like Phuket's Vegetarian Festival (October) and Seafood Festival (May) for example.

The opening was a successful event with good collaborations from all parties involved. There were over 50 booths, Food-Truck of foods and beverages for the visitors with outstanding menu such as;

- Local Phuket Food – Fresh spring rolls, Fu Jian Chao Mian, O-eo or Southern Thai shaved ice dessert with sweet toppingssuch as red bean, sweet syrup, grass jelly and palm seed, Rice Dumpling, Stir Fried Vermicelli with Pork Rib Soup and Tubo Kiaokoi or Local Coconut Milk Based Dessert with Yam, Taro, Kidney Bean

- Healthy Food – Green Caviar, Local Vegetable Fern Salad, Stir Fried Melinjo and organic vegetable salad

- Seafood – Crab Noodle with Curry Paste, Lobsters, Clamshell and Stir Fried Black Crab with Lime

- Creative Food – Braised Pork Pizza, Penne with Crab Curry Paste and Stir Fried Spaghetti with Shrimp Paste

- Rare Food – Ma Hor or Fresh Pineapple Morsel topped with Minced Chicken and Peanuts, Kuih Talam or Pandan and Coconut Layered Cake, Tu-Mi Curry, Sweet Zongzi and Koey Kem

While the opening was jam-packed with different menu, other activities were there to inspire and showcase to the public on the Meticulousness and specialist of the menu from Phuket's local. Even the Governor, Mr. Norraphat Plodthong, and president of the ceremony also joined the cooking demonstration in the concept of "Handsome Chef". The activities draw a lot of attention as not only that all the Chefs are great around the kitchen, they are also great looking people. The concept is to draw engagement from the younger crowd but there were also activities that are made for children and parents in "Junior chef" Competition.

On Phuket Street Food Festival, Mr. Norraphat believes that, "It is a great opportunity for people in Phuket to join hands and become great hosts to both domestic and international tourists from all over the world. Not only that Phuket is already well known for its natural beauty of the sea, sand and sun, Phuket should also be known for our Food from its delicious taste, varieties of choice and creativities of the menu. As Phuket has been selected to be 1 of 18 cities of Gastronomy by UNESCO, we expect Phuket to draw investment and revenue to our local businesses ranging from the local restaurants, markets and even 5-stars hotels."

"We expect an increase of 30% of the tourists both from domestic and international and the city is ready to host our special guests throughout the month," said Mr. Norraphat.

For further information, please visit www.phuketstreetfoodfest.com or Facebook: PhuketStreetFoodFest

CONTACT: Tourism Authority of Thailand, Phuket Office, Tel: (+6676) 212 213, 211 036 Fax: (+6676) 213 582, Email: [email protected], Website: www.tourismthailand.org/phuket