Asia is home to some of the world’s favorite cuisines. That makes it a natural to want to include authentic local flavors when incentive winners visit China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam or almost any other destination in the region. But as any experienced business or leisure traveler can tell you, Chinese food in New York bears only a passing resemblance to Chinese food in San Francisco or Chicago or Vancouver. And none of them are quite like Chinese food in China.
“Planners absolutely need to provide a localized culinary experience because that’s what incentive winners want and expect,” says Fernando Lonergan, director, Asia-Pacific, for BCD Meetings & Incentives in Sydney, Australia. “But you have to have Westernized options available, too. Not every winner is going to be entirely comfortable going into a local market and tucking into the local specialties straight away. Eating locally is not just about presenting a new menu, it’s about creating a new experience that includes food.”
Tapping into local culinary trends is a relatively easy job in Europe, which offers a much more homogenous. mix of cultures than Asia. Every country in Asia has its own trends, based very much on its own history, culture and connections to the outside world. Singapore has a thriving Western-style food and wine scene. Hot tables in Vietnam feature traditional dishes, many of them tempered with French touches. Foodies in Thailand flock to chefs with distinctively Japanese touches while their Japanese counterparts are agog with Korean imports one month and French influences the next.
Don’t just give winners a menu filled with strange flavors and unpronounceable food names, he suggests—give them an experience. In Singapore, that could mean eating in a hawker center, the modern, indoor version of street vendors and food carts that once clogged city streets. In Thailand, it could mean visiting a night market and watching chefs prepare amazing dishes in minutes.
“You are making food part of the experience,” Lonergan says.“You are creating an atmosphere in which people happily lose themselves in the experience that surrounds eating. You aren’t giving them a meal, you are creating an emotional connection with the place where food plays a role.”
