Our study reveals the impacts of various COVID-19-related restrictions on the culinary tourism industry by exploring how street food vendors deal with this unprecedented encounter. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews of 20 street food vendors and later analyzed using qualitative data analysis, focusing on the thematic analysis of coded interview transcripts, as a basis for generalization of our findings. This study unfolds the knock-on effects of the lock-down, social distancing, and movement restrictions imposed on the street food vendors and sheds light on how the culinary tourism industry can become more resilient and sustainable in facing a future or recurring pandemic. Understanding the dynamic impacts of the pandemic will offer insights for the culinary tourism industry and the government in the development of relevant policies to alleviate those impacts and protect the culinary tourism industry in the ‘new normal’ post-pandemic era.

This study was undertaken to develop understandings of the self-empowerment process of a marginalised community within the hospitality industry. The majority of studies have focused on top-down empowerment programs designed by institutions or individuals with more power, aimed at power re-distribution. This is problematic because power cannot be spread; it can only be exercised within individuals. In comparison, little attention has been given to the actual empowerment process that occurs inside empowered individuals. Street food vendors were chosen as the study sample because they and their businesses are marginalised in society and the hospitality industry. This study employs the critical paradigm, which focuses on transforming the lives of marginalised communities. A qualitative research design was utilised, consisting of 25 online unstructured interviews with street food vendors in Indonesia. The interview data was analysed using thematic analysis. The results identified three themes representing the process of self-empowerment within the street food vendors (i.e. consciousness, autonomy, and agency). Additionally, while external support (tangible and/or intangible) to aid empowerment is necessary, this should not be generalised, as each individual faces unique barriers.

The tourism industry can bring benefits to its stakeholders. However, some actors receive more benefits and/or disadvantages than others. This is related to marginalisation. As such, it is imperative to understand how the process of marginalisation occurs in tourism destinations. Previous studies have depicted cases of marginalisation in the tourism industry. Yet, there has been a dearth of analysis of the conceptualisation of the process of marginalisation within the industry. Consequently, this conceptual paper proposes a conceptual model of how marginalisation occurs in the tourism industry. The proposed model is situated in a tourism destination, and explains the marginalisation process among tourism actors that contribute to building tourist experiences. We argue that marginalisation is caused by power differentials in tourism destinations.