Festival Tourism with Food and Wine Emphasis - Report Example

FESTIVAL TOURISM WITH FOOD AND WINE EMPHASIS by Student’s Name: Course code+name Professor’s name University name City, State Date of submission Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 2 Body 3 The cultural impacts of ritual-oriented festivals (with food / wine emphasis) 3 Community involvement: social impacts 5 Evaluation of economic impacts of Austin wine and food festivals, using three destination marketing strategies 7 Evaluation of economic impacts of the Austin wine and food festivals, using inter-industry interaction issues or financial benefits 8 Evaluating political OR environmental impacts of the Austin wine and food festivals 11 Conclusion 13 Reference list 14 Introduction In this report the Austin food and wine festival will be focused on. Austin food and wine festival is based in Texas in United States of America. Initially known as Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival, it changed names to Austin food and wine festival in 2012.There is no broad definition of festivals. Festivals are defined simply as “themed and public celebrations” (Getz 2007:31). From time immemorial many ceremonies and festivals are celebrated in many communities and parts of the world). Preparations may take months due to logistics involved. Ceremonies and festivals range from traditional dances and drama to modern ones stage performance to entertain tourists. All ceremonies are prepared and spiced up well with lots of foods and drinks famous with the indigenous people (Foods and wines journal 1996). The climax of the festival activities is achieved when jigs and dance shows are performed live on stage to expectant audiences to mark different ceremonies. These events enhance harmony and unity (Wood, 2005 pg 18-22). In the modern world it is a tourist attraction, earning the country foreign exchange through the tourists who come to watch the food and wine festivals. Body The cultural impacts of ritual-oriented festivals (with food / wine emphasis) Austin food and wine festivals based in Texas has had some of cultural impacts on the society in which it is established. Wine and food festival tourism in the Austin food and wine festival has its challenges though. The discussion of cultural, social and environmental impacts of wine, food and festival tourism is aimed at reducing negative impacts and maximize positive impacts. Tourism is the travelling people places of interest for pleasure mainly during holidays or during diverse seasons in the western countries. One may travel to sites like game parks, game reserves, national parks, waterfalls, archeological sites, oceans and sea beaches and many other places that are of great interests to them. Tourism is among major income earner to most countries. Much revenue is derived from the tourism sector to boost a country’s economy. This has improved living standards due to improved roads, schools and health services from the government. Austin food and wine festival has researched best ways of attracting the local and foreign tourists. The research recommends diverse ways of attracting tourism through dancing and festivals by local groups trained in order to display their dancing and singing skills, depicting cultural beliefs and traditions in such a given country. The tourists consume local products that reflect the local’s culture; this helps to promote the local cultural heritages. (Hall, Michelle and Sharples, 2003, pg.26) Austin food and wine festivals show cases the diversity of cultures as well as entertaining tourists. In the festivals the tourists sit and rest in comfortable and cozy chairs and also get the best facilities in the occasions. As they enjoy dancing styles by the locals the tourists are served their favorite foods and drinks prepared by local specialists. The more the number of the tourists visiting, the more the foreign exchange the country earns. It improves economy Most of these festivals are conducted in the coastal beaches in the countries with the coastlines and in the inland music and festival rooms in the countries without the coast lines or rather the landlocked countries around the world (Brown, 2000 pg 33). Culture is an element of festivals; festivals can be profane or sacred time to celebrate (Getz, 2007, Sharples, 2008). Most events and festivals involve the opening ceremony of the event / festival which marks an important time, and other symbolic acts or rituals. The building blocks of festivals are rituals as stated by Getz (2007). Ritual ceremony involves a number of actions performed in a systematic order and habitually done in the same way (Waite and Hawker 2007:791). Religious ceremonies are included in rituals and form part of festival. Some festivals such as annual commemorations and harvest festivals occur at a particular time of the year hence referred as periodic festivals Getz (2007). Sutton (2001) shows that rituals are practices that are stringent in their nature. Wine has different type of festivals such as: wine and food festivals celebrated in a wine region or in a city based area; special functions and events at wineries; (Yuan et al 2005) wine trade events. Other leisure experiences can be found by wine tourists who primarily travel for wine and/ or food experiences. (Yuan et al 2005) special occasions and festivals are the same thing and entertainment is used to complement them, which is how they are different from the wine trade events. There are restrictions on trade events since they are not open to the public whereas wine festivals are open to the public and held in urban areas. (Yuan et al 2005) wine regions and cities can host these wine festivals which are more appealing and convenient for a large group of people. (Yuan et al 2005) suggests that there is high profitability gain when these wine festivals are held in urban cities since there are promoted during the festival season. Community involvement: social impacts Wine and food are an expression of a place and are used in marketing (du Rand and Health 2006). Sense of community is one social impact that has been mentioned in tourism literature. The support within the community and the feeling of belonging is the sense of community (Wood 2005; Derret 2002; Dwyer 2001). Both offer shared experience where the feeling of togetherness is within. Community members want unique entertainment (Allen et al 2008) and interactive participation Events and festivals can actually disrupt normal lives of the host community. In the modern wedding, the tradition norms have also been portrayed as the food and wines. The two families involved may form a committee to plan entertainment expenses and invited guests. The committee is concerned with logistics and bureaucracies. The sources of foods and wines should be identified and the suppliers informed well in advance. Austin food and wine festival has developed different strategies to manage social impacts of festivals (Allen et al 2008). Community involvement is a factor which satisfies the needs and likes of the community (Brennan-Horley 2007). Events can lead to the achievement of social cohesion and volunteering can improve local social networks (Fredline 2000). Festivals is one type of event, other types of event as discussed by (Getz 2007) are carnivals and sports. Major events, hall mark events, community events and mega events are incorporated (Allen et al 2005). There are other events that attract tourists’ media attention and large impact upon the destination more than the community events. Hall mark series of events are well-know and structured events that is synonymous with the cities name (e.g.) Adelaide Festival of Arts. Events of Hallmark attract media attention and a number amount of tourists, Olympic Games is a kind of mega- events that draw international attention. Evaluation of economic impacts of Austin wine and food festivals, using three destination marketing strategies Key destination marketing strategies can maximize economic impacts of the food festivals for successful food tourism destination and development. The tourists are recently interested in places where they get a lot of food variety and entertainment (Boniface, 2003 pg 74). All kinds of foods and wines are provided for by Austin food and wine festival in a quest to attract more tourists and maintain flow. Some personnel specialized in the field of tourism marketing are assigned to look for the best cost friendly ways of attracting tourists and also marketing the country a tourist destination. The emphasis of Food and wines and the festivals tourism has been the main driver of the tourism sector to make a country tourism destination. (Du Rand & Heath, 2006 pg 23-31). Festival tourism and destination marketing have great positive impacts to any country due to good image. (Hall 1992; Chabra 2001; Dwyer 2001; Wood 2005). Differences between new world tourism destinations and old world tourism destination exist. Italy and France are old world destinations and tend to attract tourists who become more interested in achieving knowledge of food heritage. The reactions to consumers, existence of new brands in the market and new demands all these requires recreational experiences and different types of multi-cultural (Boniface 2003). Migration in Australia has caused the food available to change (Mitchell and Hall 2002). The migrants of Europe and Asia have contributed to the availability of wider range of foods and this has led to the agricultural diversity thereby Australia exporting more food. Availability of food in Australia (Multicultural food) makes this region an appealing site for tourism destination, the food tourism products such as farmers markets, food / wine festivals, restaurants which makes Australia having a lot to offer in tourism industry. Food tourism being an attraction in tourism industry forms part of destination marketing strategy (du Rand and Health 2006). The promotion of the destination image can be enhanced by food tourism. (Okumus et al 2007) food can help to provide a strategic advantage and differentiate the destination and this is outlined by Crouch and Ritchie (2003). The government of Australia led branding of schemes and the development of cooperative marketing. The producer has more opportunity to sell directly to the consumers and this can be done when farmers markets, farm shops, food/ wine festivals, and wine/ and food trails are implemented (Hall and Mitchell 2002). The Austin food and wine festival developed local tourism products because it has several benefits such as: Enhances local awareness Helps in diversification of the products and experiences Local tourism encourages the pride of community It reinforces culture and local identity Evaluation of economic impacts of the Austin wine and food festivals, using inter-industry interaction issues or financial benefits The tourism sector has a lot of impact in the economy of a country. It has both the economic benefits and also the economic costs. There are so many economic benefits if the sector is funded for and include as a government ministry. The Austin food and wine festival has been able to establish some of the benefits of festival tourism to a country. At all times the tourist pays fees to access tourists attraction sites such as game parks, game reserves and also the historical sites that attract them. The revenue collected in these sites will be used to fund the government projects that will provide that public with services that are needed to improve the living standards of these people. The second economic benefit of the to a country is that the products that are traditionally made to reflect the culture of a given people will be bought by the tourist as they are very eager to understand the culture of the local people in a country where they tour. The locally made goods will be able to get market to outside its border countries as the tourist who purchase the will be able to market them in their mother countries (Hall & Sharples, 2008, pg 6). These ensure that the country’s exports increase leading to increase in the foreign exchange. The country’s culture will also be promoted as the tourist buy goods that are made to reflect the culture of communities. The third economic benefit of the tourism in a country is the of the increase foreign direct investment (FDI). When tourists visit a country and find investment environment enabling, they will take up investment opportunity. Foreign direct investment in a country means an inflow of funds into the country. The foreign investors will also be able to create job opportunities for the citizens of that particular country. The Austin food and festival based in Texas has also established a number of costs that come with tourism as an economic activity. One of the costs of the tourism activity is the need to improve the infrastructure so that tourist will have. Governments fund construction of roads, provision of water and provision of electricity. The other economic cost of tourism is the cost of providing security in all the areas that are visited by the tourist. Tourists should be provided with vigilant security personnel so that their personal properties are protected against theft. Since most of the time these tourist are targeted by the robbers for their valuable belongings. The country will have to incur a lot of financial resources to hire the security men and women would provide the tourist with security. Insecurity can discourage the tourist from visiting a country. So for a country to register many tourists its security should not be doubted. Wine and food festivals are considered to be one of most effective tools successfully promoting many wine and food tourism in key destinations. (Brown 2000) festivals promote tourism destination by illustrating key attractions of destination that are to be incorporated with the venues or festival programs Similar to food tourism and wine tourism, festival tourism is defined as having special interest in tourism that can be defined from the supply perspective as well as demand perspective. Demand side focuses on tourists in festivals (Getz 2008) and the supply side attracts tourists to festivals. Many states in Australia have established strategic plans and tourism bodies specifically designed to foster the growth of wine tourism. There are many advantages for wineries belonging to individuals that participate in wine tourism like: Opportunity for consumers to try a wide variety of products (new and unknown) at little or no cost Increased profits A compliment distribution outlet for small wineries Faster feedback from customers of wineries Education in non-threatening geographical environment to create awareness, develop wine appreciation, improve knowledge on wines and the wine industry (Dodd 1995) The key business strategies for small wines can be developed out of wine tourism because the ability to sell and widely distribute these wines door to door is tedious job. In economic perspectives it is costly to when distributing wines door to door whereas it could be time saving and reduce cost when trading in international markets or other sales channels. Having this negative impact of door to door sales there benefits having this channel of distribution i.e. wines purchased directly from the winery. This benefit proceeds to the future since tourists can purchase the wines immediately when they return home (Beames 2003) One major problem facing The Austin food and wine festival is lack of integration between tourism industry and wine industry; wine makers prefer door to door sales but the tourists want total experience including exploring other cultural and winery tour and also recreational experience as well as high quality of services (Beames 2003) Evaluating political OR environmental impacts of the Austin wine and food festivals The Austin food and wine festival faces a number of political or environmental challenges in its operation.(Douglas et al 2001) sustainable tourism directly focuses on maintenance of assets to be used in tourism industry. It involves other assets and natural environment that the tourism industry fully exploits in building environments, social and cultural assets. These assets do not belong to any one business as seen in (Douglas et al 2001). Working together of tourism industries ensures the sustainability of these assets. Standards and regulations are set to ensure safe consumption of wine and food. Food standards relates to the production, packaging, storing or holding of food, composition as well as information about food. This information includes promotion, labeling and advertising (Richardson and Fluker 2004). (Hall et al 2005) state the accreditation systems and the development of quality standards will underpin markets for local sustainable products. The study conducted by Getz et al 1999 at wine conference found that accreditation systems were important in wine and food festivals. In Victoria door-to-door accreditation program have been implemented and developed (Jago and Issaverdis 2001). When trying to access this accreditation (Jago and issaverdis 2001) the report found unclear standards were used in giving out accreditation. It was perceived that accreditation increased the level of quality in the tourism industry and the level of professionalism. The issues of wine and food production cannot be said to be said to revolve around the save production of wine and food for consumers. (Poitras and Getz 2006). Materials for wine making such as land and labor, water, capital and infrastructure requirements are used upon wine making. Boland and baker (2001) show the importance of the environmental management in wine industry and it should consider environmental not to pollute it. These points are applied to festival tourism destinations and food tourism. Soft and hard management strategies are main environmental practices and commonly applied in the tourism destinations. Direct management strategies (hard) are related to rules and regulations while indirect (soft) management strategies involve education, voluntary leadership and code of conduct. Both of these strategies are applied to waste management, water management, energy management, organic farming, recycling and climate change-related issues, green industry and green practices and eco-friendly. The Austin food and festivals can maximize positive environmental impact i.e. educating people on environmental issues (e.g. organic farming, climate change, and environmental leadership), this is by using various activities and programs. The increased number of wine and food festival which incorporates environmental practices like seminars on environmental issues or waste management, using recycling glasses. Negative environmental impacts of local festivals have negatively influenced the host environment and the local community these negative impacts should not be overlooked. Conclusion In conclusion, the Austin food and wine festival has been able to provide services that attract tourist and make a country a tourist destination. The food and wine festival in tourism play a very important role in the development of tourism sector in a country. It contributes to the general growth of the whole economy of a country which seeks to make it a tourist destination by providing the best varieties of food and wines to the tourist. The trend in tourism destination should be adopted by a country in order to fit into the competitive sector of tourism and be able to attract tourist reacting to their needs when they visit the country. By providing the best facilities for the tourist to utilized and also portraying a hospitable approach to the tourist they will create a tourist destination and this brings a lot of economic and social benefits to a country. Festivals and events provide many benefits not only for a community and tourism region but also individual businesses. Regional and local events, including conferences and business events increases expenditure and visitation, encourage repeat visitation, reduce seasonality and heighten regional awareness. All these can provide stimulus for development of infrastructure and building community pride. Reference list Allen, J; O’Toole, W; McDonnell, I and Harris, R 2005, Festival and Special Event Management, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Milton, Queensland. Carlsen, J & Getz, D (2006) Strategic Planning for a Regional Wine Festival: the Margaret River Wine Region Festival, in J. Carlsen and S. Charters (Eds) Global Wine Tourism, Wallingford: CAB International Hall, C.M., Sharples, L., Mitchell, R., Macionis, N. & Cambourne B. (2003) Food Tourism around the World: Development, Management and Markets, Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann (Chapter 11) Poitras, L & Getz, D (2006) Sustainable Wine Tourism: the Host Community Perspective, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 14, no. 5, pp 425-448 Mitchell, Richard & Schreiber, Chrissy (2007) Wine Tourism Networks and Clusters: Operation and Barriers in New Zealand in Micro-clusters and Networks: The Growth of Tourism, Advances in Tourism Research Series, 1st Edition edited by Ewen J. Michael & Laila Gibson. Oxford: Elsevier Hall, M and Mitchell, R (2002). The Changing Nature of the Relationship between Cuisine and Tourism in Australia and New Zealand: from Fusion Cuisine to Food Networks, in A.M. Hjalager and G. Richards (Eds.) Tourism and Gastronomy, London: Routledge Carlsen, J., & Charters, S. (2006). Global Wine Tourism Research, Management and Marketing.. New York: CABI. Carlsen, J. (2004). 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