Wine and Food Festivals - Essay Example

Wine and Food Festivals Name Course Lecture Date Contents Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Cultural Impacts 3 3.0 Social Impacts: Community Involvement 5 4.0 Economic Impacts: Destination Marketing and Its Impacts 6 5.0 Political Impacts: Industry Involvement 8 6.0 Environmental Impacts 9 7.0 Conclusion 10 1.0 Introduction Wine and Food Festivals are held in many regions around the world to celebrate local cuisines and wines. Festivals increase the popularity of regions and towns as tourist destinations and have many positive and negative impacts on the locality. In this essay, the social, cultural, political, environmental and economic impacts of wine and food tourism are discussed. The paper uses examples from Wine and Food Festival across the World from the Grape Harvest Festival in Argentina to the local Melbourne Wine and Food festival to illustrate these impacts and how they can be managed. 2.0 Cultural Impacts This section of the essay discusses how culture interacts with tourism in the Food and Wine Festival destination. This section focused on the cultural impacts of holding a Food and wine festival in a tourist destination. The section uses the Grape Harvest Festival Argentina as an example. In many tourist destinations, culture and tourism come together to make a destination more attractive. According to Schlüter and Norrild (2015), the cultural aspects of a destination are one of the main reasons tourists are attracted to the destination. The Grape Harvest Festival reflects on Argentine history and has been existence since it was decreed in 1936. The Grape Harvest Festival is now a tradition of the Argentine people and a social and cultural part of Argentina. Tourism at the festival has helped to legitimize the idea of the grape festival (Schlüter and Norrild 2015). The festival showcases the culture of the World famed Mendoza wine region and promotes the culture of this region. Argentine wine culture is celebrated with a banquet at a local winery and carousel and a tour on San Martin Avenue. The Grape Harvest Festival is also a reflection of the popularity of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina. The wine festival is mixed up with many religious rituals meant to thank the almighty for his blessings. Participants in the Grape Harvest Festival are involved in prayer to invoke the patron saints of vineyards (Schlüter and Norrild 2015). The Wine festival is also a celebration of the beauty, grace and freshness of each participant. A beauty pageant is held each year to choose the festival queen. The pageant reflects the spread of Greek culture in Argentina where a Greek-style amphitheater is used to parade the beauties. Play and dances are also held as they were in ancient Greek festivals (Getz and Brown 2006). The festival also pays homage to Bacchus, the Roman God of wine and participants become more knowledgeable about the history of wine. The Grape Harvest Festival enhances its attractiveness as a cultural destination by diversifying into other ritual activities other than wine tasting. The pageant is one of the most attractive cultural rituals of the Grape Harvest Festival. The many participants in the festival also get to participate in the many dances, parties and parades held during the festival (Schlüter and Norrild 2015). Therefore, the Grape Harvest festival provides an exciting and authentic experience for tourists that they cannot get elsewhere in the world. My recommendations to the Grape Harvest festival would be to increase and enhance their global marketing campaign. Although, the Festival provides an exciting and unique experience for visitors it is not as popular as the Rio Carnival in neighboring Brazil. With enhanced marketing more people will become interested in visiting the Mendoza region during the Grape Festival and after the festival. The enticing cultural stories of the patron saint of vineyards and the story of Bacchus, the Roman God of wine could be key selling points for the Grape Harvest festival. The festival organizers should also include Inca rituals into the festival to showcase ancient South American culture into the festival. 3.0 Social Impacts: Community Involvement Napa Valley Festival del Sole is one of the most successful events in promoting community involvement in wine and food tourism. This section covers the impact of community involvement on wine and food tourism in the Napa Valley. According to Getz and Brown (2006), community involvement in wine and food tourism is one of the critical success factors of successful food and wine tourism marketing. Cooperation of the local community and their involvement in the tourism industry benefits both the local community and the tourists. Wine and food tourism is marked by higher levels of involvement of the local community than other types of tourism. For example, in the Napa valley, tourist visit homes and are served home cooked gourmet during the Napa Valley Festival del Sole (Getz and Brown 2006). The tourism planners thus cooperate with the community to give tourist a taste of local gourmet in home settings. Tours of vineyards with local farmers acting as guides are also a part of the Napa valley tourist experience. Tourism promoters also rely on wine the hospitality of the people to make the Napa Valley feel like a welcoming tourist destination. Community involvement is also key in maintaining the quality of wine presented to tourists during their visits to the Napa valley. The community has to be involved as the quality of the wine is dependent on quality of grapes grown by the community (Hall and Sharples 2008). Lifestyle is another important aspect of a community that may attract tourists to the region. The Napa valley lifestyle is focused on wellness, good health, relaxation and fine dining a factor that attracts tourists to this paradise of vineries. The local community has also acknowledged the importance of embracing tourism as a contributor to the area’s economy and cultural vibrancy (Hall and Sharples 2008). The success of wine tourism in the Napa valley is a result of strong alliances between the local community, wineries, hotels, restaurants, event planners and the government. Resident participation in the workforce and wine production is one of the critical success factors. The residents of Napa valley have also committed to educating themselves about culinary and wine traditions of the valley. Most residents and workers in the Napa hospitality industry have a wealth of knowledge on wine and local culinary offerings (Houghton 2001). Napa valleys wine and food tourism has been able to achieve the enviable goal of gaining community involvement in tourism activities. The residents of Napa valley feel like they own the Napa Valley Festival del Sole and are proud to be associated with the event. In the views of Houghton (2001), tourism events like the festival can bring about closer cohesion among communities. As the members of the community participate in the many activities that are part of the festival. The community also cooperates with one another to make the Napa valley wine festival successful. I would recommend that the Napa Valley festival organizers include more activities that take place in local farms. As part of the festival a marathon or bike race through the vineries can be organized. 4.0 Economic Impacts: Destination Marketing and Its Impacts Food and Wine festivals can serve as a key selling point for a tourist destination. Tourist destinations that market their attractions together and relate it with local cuisines are likely to attract more customers. In this section we look at the economic impacts of destination marketing with reference to food in the Galway Oyster festival and the Gilroy Garlic festival. The section will look at how the branding and positioning strategies of the tourist destination as places where you can experience the best in Oyster and Garlic delights has succeeded in successfully marketing the two destinations. Gilroy is one of the main destinations that is known to attract people due to its garlic cuisines. Gilroy success as a Food tourism destination can be owed to the positioning strategy adopted by the town’s marketers. Gilroy proudly branded itself as the “Garlic capital of the world” (Hall and Sharples 2008). Gilroy’s destination marketing strategy was based on the fact that food had been discovered to be the second most important tourist attraction. Gilroy used a differentiation strategy as no other place could claim to focus on Garlic as Gilroy. Gilroy provides a unique and authentic cuisine experience for travelers who came to the Garlic capital of the world. Today, Gilroy has positioned itself as one of the top destinations where a tourist can enjoy Garlic (Adema 2009). To everyone who knows Gilroy, the mention of the name evokes images of food prepared using the best Garlic menus. The success of garlic destination branding is evident in the number of tourists the small community receives. In 2006, over three million visitors visited the Gilroy area (Scarpato 2002). Gilroy is now famed as the top producer of Garlic around the world. It is able to sell more products through the fame gained through destination marketing. Local business also benefit greatly from the number of tourist who tour the area attracted to it garlic-related fame. Galway town is one of the top tourist destinations in Ireland that depends of Food tourism and other festivals to attract tourist to the coastal town. Galway has a festival month which is world renown and includes a film, racing and Oyster festival (Hall and Sharples 2008). The Galway Oyster festival is branded as having the “tastiest Oyster” in the world. The Clarensbridge Oyster is reputed to be the tastiest Oyster in the world by those who have taken the delicacy. According to Hall and Sharples (2008), the Galway Oyster is one of the top attractor of tourists into Galway and appeals to many tourists who attend the other festivals in Galway. With over 30,000 visitors attracted to the Galway Oyster Festival the success of festivals destination marketing is felt by people fishing, food and other industries. 5.0 Political Impacts: Industry Involvement Food and wine festivals can be used as launching grounds for public health campaigns targeting at risk population groups. In this section of the essay we look at the political impacts of the Melbourne Food and Wine festival as regard healthy eating campaign in Australia. The Melbourne Food Festival partners and the national and regional government uses the festival as a platform to promote healthy eating across Australia. Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is involved in efforts to fight childhood obesity in Australia (Mebourne Food and Wine n. d). According to Gill et al (2009), one in every four Australian children is overweight or obese. At the Melbourne food festival the Kitchen foundation strives to ensure children stick to healthy eating habits. The Melbourne food festival also promotes slow food which is seen as an alternative to fast foods which are responsible for the obesity scourge in Australia. Food festivals are also valuable platforms for promoting locally produced food. Local consumption is one of the goals of national and regional governments as they seek to improve the economic well being of local farmers and producers (Mebourne Food and Wine n. d). Food festivals like the Melbourne food festival can be used to build up patriotic sentiment which will increase consumption and demand for Australian produced foods and wines. Political entities can thus gain popularity by promoting the Melbourne food festival as a stage for promoting Australian farming industry. The Melbourne food festival and its partners are also actively engaged in fighting youth unemployment in the Melbourne area. HEAT (Hospitality, Employment and Training program) is partner of the Melbourne organization that engages school dropouts between the ages of 16 and 27 in hospitality jobs (Mebourne Food and Wine n. d). In effect, the Melbourne food festival is one of the main seasonal employers for Melbourne’s unemployed youths. 6.0 Environmental Impacts Like other tourist activities, food and wine tourism has many environmental effects. This section studies how the Galway Oyster festival impacts the environment and whether food and wine tourism is less impact on the environment than other forms of tourism. Environmental impacts of tourism vary according to the number and nature of tourism activities. Although a single tourist has a small environmental impact, vast numbers of tourists can significantly impact an areas environment (Everett 2012). Many tourists may overuse resources such as water and sanitation. Galway knows that the many tourist who visit the area for the Oyster festival may become an environmental disaster. Therefore, Galway tries to manage the negative impacts of tourism by identifying, measuring and evaluating them. In this section we will address some of the environmental problems Galway faces as a result of receiving tourist for the Galway Lobster festival. Environmentalist worry that the overcrowding, overuse of natural resources, transportation and building of infrastructure among other tourist activities have negative impacts on the environment. The Galway area experiences some of these impacts as a result of the Oyster festival (Derrett 2004). In particular seafood tourism is related to destruction of sea habitats and overfishing. The Galway area especially the famed Clarensbridge bay is experiencing a shortage of lobsters. Local authorities in the Galway area also have to worry about the effect of tourist activities on the aesthetics of the area. The litter produced by the thousands of tourists who visit the Galway area may present a solid waste management if not properly managed (Everett 2012). In many tourist destinations, tin cans, bootlegs, plastic bags and food is carelessly dropped in the surroundings. Littering by tourists therefore presents a serious environmental problem to local authorities. Left unmanaged the like littering problem may deface an entire tourist destination as experienced in Khumbu area of Nepal (Hall and Sharples 2008). Another serious environmental impact of food and wine tourism is concerned with the fuel used for transport and preparing food for the festival. Transportation to the food or wine tourist destination is either by air, water or road (Everett 2012). All these means of travel depend on burning fossil fuel which has a negative impact on the environment. On the other hand, fuel is used to prepare the thousands of meals that are eaten at major food festivals like the Galway food festival. I would recommend that Galway area comes up with a comprehensive environmental impact management plan for the Galway Lobster Festival. It should ensure that the tourist activities are sustainable. The Galway area should also use renewable energy sources for preparation of food to be consumed during the Galway Lobster Festival. 7.0 Conclusion Tourism activities in the wine and food festival industry have many impacts including cultural, social, economic, political and environmental industries. This essay uses examples from several Wine and Food Festivals around the world to illustrate these impacts of Food and Wine tourism. The Essay starts by looking at the Grape Harvest Festival that takes place in the Argentine wine producing region of Mendoza. The essay notes that the harvest festivals is a platform for showcasing Argentine culture and the influences of outside culture like Greek wine culture. Secondly, the paper explores social impacts of the Napa Valley Festival del Sole especially the community’s participation in the Festival and various tourist activities. The report notes that the Festival enhances social cohesion and cooperation among the local Napa valley community as the community comes together to produce an exciting environment for their visitors. Thirdly, the report analyzes the economic impacts of the Gilroy Lobster Festival and the Galway Garlic festival. It notes the destination marketing of the two regions together with the local cuisine attracts thousands of tourists to the area. In addition, the paper analyzes how the Melbourne Wine and Food Festival is used by the Government to promeote healthy eating. References Adema P 2009, Garlic capital of the world: Gilroy, garlic, and the making of a festive foodscape. Univ. Press of Mississippi. Derrett, R 2004, Festivals, events and the destination. Festival and events management, 32-64. Everett, S 2012, Production places or consumption spaces? The place-making agency of food tourism in Ireland and Scotland. Tourism Geographies, 14(4), 535-554. Getz, D., & Brown, G 2006, Critical success factors for wine tourism regions: a demand analysis. Tourism management, 27(1), 146-158. Gill, T. P., Baur, L. A., Bauman, A. E., Steinbeck, K. S., Storlien, L. H., Fiatarone Singh, M. A., ... & Caterson, I. D 2009, Childhood obesity in Australia remains a widespread health concern that warrants population-wide prevention programs. Medical Journal of Australia, 190(3), 146. Hall, C. M., & Sharples, L 2008, Food and wine festivals and events around the world: Development, management and markets. Routledge. Hall, C. M., Sharples, L., Cambourne, B., & Macionis, N 2009, Wine tourism around the world. Routledge. Houghton, M 2001, The propensity of wine festivals to encourage subsequent winery visitation. International Journal of Wine Marketing, 13(3), 32-41. Mebourne Food and Wine n. d, Community Partners, http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/about-us/community-partners Scarpato, R 2002, Sustainable gastronomy as a tourist product. Tourism and gastronomy, 132-152. Schlüter, R. G., & Norrild, J 2015, Enotourism in Argentina: The Power of Wine to Promote a Region. In Tourism in Latin America (pp. 71-84). Springer International Publishing. Read More

The Grape Harvest Festival enhances its attractiveness as a cultural destination by diversifying into other ritual activities other than wine tasting. The pageant is one of the most attractive cultural rituals of the Grape Harvest Festival. The many participants in the festival also get to participate in the many dances, parties and parades held during the festival (Schlüter and Norrild 2015). Therefore, the Grape Harvest festival provides an exciting and authentic experience for tourists that they cannot get elsewhere in the world.

My recommendations to the Grape Harvest festival would be to increase and enhance their global marketing campaign. Although, the Festival provides an exciting and unique experience for visitors it is not as popular as the Rio Carnival in neighboring Brazil. With enhanced marketing more people will become interested in visiting the Mendoza region during the Grape Festival and after the festival. The enticing cultural stories of the patron saint of vineyards and the story of Bacchus, the Roman God of wine could be key selling points for the Grape Harvest festival.

The festival organizers should also include Inca rituals into the festival to showcase ancient South American culture into the festival. 3.0 Social Impacts: Community Involvement Napa Valley Festival del Sole is one of the most successful events in promoting community involvement in wine and food tourism. This section covers the impact of community involvement on wine and food tourism in the Napa Valley. According to Getz and Brown (2006), community involvement in wine and food tourism is one of the critical success factors of successful food and wine tourism marketing.

Cooperation of the local community and their involvement in the tourism industry benefits both the local community and the tourists. Wine and food tourism is marked by higher levels of involvement of the local community than other types of tourism. For example, in the Napa valley, tourist visit homes and are served home cooked gourmet during the Napa Valley Festival del Sole (Getz and Brown 2006). The tourism planners thus cooperate with the community to give tourist a taste of local gourmet in home settings.

Tours of vineyards with local farmers acting as guides are also a part of the Napa valley tourist experience. Tourism promoters also rely on wine the hospitality of the people to make the Napa Valley feel like a welcoming tourist destination. Community involvement is also key in maintaining the quality of wine presented to tourists during their visits to the Napa valley. The community has to be involved as the quality of the wine is dependent on quality of grapes grown by the community (Hall and Sharples 2008).

Lifestyle is another important aspect of a community that may attract tourists to the region. The Napa valley lifestyle is focused on wellness, good health, relaxation and fine dining a factor that attracts tourists to this paradise of vineries. The local community has also acknowledged the importance of embracing tourism as a contributor to the area’s economy and cultural vibrancy (Hall and Sharples 2008). The success of wine tourism in the Napa valley is a result of strong alliances between the local community, wineries, hotels, restaurants, event planners and the government.

Resident participation in the workforce and wine production is one of the critical success factors. The residents of Napa valley have also committed to educating themselves about culinary and wine traditions of the valley. Most residents and workers in the Napa hospitality industry have a wealth of knowledge on wine and local culinary offerings (Houghton 2001). Napa valleys wine and food tourism has been able to achieve the enviable goal of gaining community involvement in tourism activities.

The residents of Napa valley feel like they own the Napa Valley Festival del Sole and are proud to be associated with the event. In the views of Houghton (2001), tourism events like the festival can bring about closer cohesion among communities.

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