Food Tourism in the Academic Literature - Article Example

Food Tourism This article is intended to identify the discussion of food tourism in the academic literature. The key authors have been identified. The evolutions of the concepts in the topic and methodologies from beginning up to now have been included. The future trends have also been discussed in detail in this article. Food Tourism in the academic literature Historically, people used to travel far and wide in search of varieties of foods for their tastes and quality. Enjoying food of different countries and cultures has been a part of their regular travel (Jafar Jafari. 2003). Usually the historians, scholars, traders, warriors and poets used to admire the foods of various cultures for their aromas, tastes, flavors, nutrition and presentations and used to discuss with their friends and families when they come back from far off travel (Marina Novella. 2005). However, there have been far and few instances when the old historical travels used to document the foods of other countries. But, food tourism as a regular subject came into the regular literature very recently (Jan Roth.2007). Before we discuss and identify the advent of food tourism into the discussions of academic literature it is proper that we should explain the concepts of food tourism. Let us discuss these parts of the article as required. Food Tourism as a concept is explained when the people from all over the world and as a first thing visit the hotels, restaurants, motels, food corners and food streets of the visited place not only in order to fulfill their demand of food but also to enjoy the exquisite nature and different tastes of foods. Such restaurants situated even at the airports become places of attraction for the tourists. The foods, the chefs and the bearers in the different cozy and comfortable hotel environments present the culture, history and styles with the values and norms of a country in few plates on a small table. Usually tourism and food can not be separated from each other. The food shows are another mean of promoting the food tourism in the world (Eric Laws, Bruce Parizeau. 2006). Although it is very difficult to exactly identify and locate the inclusion of food tourism in the history or literature. However, a following few examples of discussions of food tourism in literature and history can be presented as below. Food literature and history is actually considered as an interdisciplinary subject that would examines it in various cultural, sociological, environmental, and economic perspectives. Food literature and history can be considered quite distinct from the more traditional field a human history. According to food scholars culture and food can not be separated from each other. Till now this has remained as a fringe discipline. In its first kind of conference in 1981 Oxford Food Symposium was held. Sidney Mints was considered to be the first food historian from Caribbean. As a matter of fact proper discussion of food tourism in the literature books surfaced atop very recently. This would be correct to say that food tourism as a modern subject came under discussion in the books and became a discipline of hotels and food hospitality in late 90s. Before that we find sporadic examples of food tourism in the literatures which are not very well documented. The Key Authors The key modern authors who have written comprehensive books on food tourism are given as below in an annotated form. 1- Joan c. Henderson. Food tourism reviewed. British food journal. 2009. 2- Rhodri Thomas, Small firms in tourism; international perspectives, Business and Economics, 2004. 3- OCTA members, International, 2003, Food Tourism around the World: Development, Management and Markets. 4- Colin Michael Hall, Liz Sharpies, 2003, food tourism around the world; development, management, and markets, Business and economics. 5- Anne-Matte Haulages, Greg Richards, tourism and gastronomy, Social Science , 2002. 6- Patricia Kaplan, food, health and identity, 1997. 7- Colin Michael Hall, wine, food and tourism marketing, 2004, Business & Economics. 8- Derek R. Hall, Irene Kirkpatrick, Morag Mitchell, Rural tourism and sustainable business, 2005, Business & Economics. 9- Lawrence C Rubin, food for thought; essay on eating and culture, 2008. Literary collections. 10- Jafar Jafari, Encyclopedia of tourism, 2003, social science. 11- Chad Randy, revolving architecture; a history of building that rotate, swivel and pivot, 2008. 12- Eric Laws, Bruce Parizeau, tourism crises; management responses and theoretical insight, 2006, business and economics. 13- Jan Roth, tourism, ethnic diversity and the city, 2007, social science. 14- Marina Novella, Niche tourism; contemporary issues, trends and cases, 2005, Business and Economics. Recent Developments Recent developments that recently took place in food tourism are given as below; 1- In May 1991 the Bulgarian food travel industry started reeling from post war crises and oil exploration in the country came to the rescue of food travel industry in Bulgaria. 2- June 2000 Richard Warburton went on investigating the college of food tourism in Birmingham. 3- October 2001 Birmingham College of food and tourism created a lot of research articles on food travels. 4- From July 2002 onwards new initiatives on food and tourism in Thailand are underway. 5- From October 2003 British foods and food tourism initiatives have been launched successfully. 6- In February 2004 Mr Dunlop said that food is a natural part of their North East tourism. 7- In September 2005 British food tourism started booming and rejoicing. 8- In April 2006 in Ireland food tourism and stress management has been under discussion. 9- In July 2007 cookery room of 1916 have been archived and new teaching methods for bakery, hospitability and tourism marketing have been discussed in UK. 10- In May 2008 roll of food in food tourism has been discussed for the first time in Nigeria. 11- According to the latest survey approximately 150 million US tourists visited different countries if the world in search of new foods. Evolution of concepts in the topic and methodologies from beginning up to now In order to reach proper foods and cuisines of different and famous cultures the following research methodologies are being adopted by the tourists before setting off for a food tour (Levant Alpine 2008). It is yet important to mention that for the Asians the American, Italian and European foods are very attractive. For the Europeans and Americans the Chinese and Thai foods along with Egyptian cuisines are very wholesome. Foods in Egypt are very traditional and tasty for the foreigners. Their traditional dishes and cuisines are a source of attraction for the tourists apart from the beautiful sight seeing programmes. Besides this, foods of Denmark, France and their wines are the source of attraction for many tourists from other countries. Wine tourism is a separate and a very wide concept under the heading of food tourism. As far as further investigation into the methodology for food tourism is concerned it is worthwhile to say that quantitative and qualitative research methods are being employed. Both secondary and primary research is being conducted in the Ethics and culture of the country with respect to its historical and present foods and it’s capacity to apply food varieties as a tool of tourism promotion. Both question designs and questionnaires are prepared with well conceived limitations on such research methodologies. Some pilot projects are also launched and research findings are recorded for posing further research questions. However, as far as the promotion of tourism in different regions of the world is concerned the food and its varieties have become an integral part of it. Since the scope of this article is quite limited therefore all the regions of the world with their characteristics of food tourism can not be discussed a full length. Future Trends It is not strange but it looks quite natural that the tourism industry in the world has been booming due to a strong and undeniable factor of food to it. For instance most of the Europeans like to travel to Denmark for its rich food cuisines. The Norwegian foods are famous for their animated aromas. The French and Italian wines are irresistible for most of the European nationals who travel to these countries. The Dutch bear can never be found with its equivalent in the world. The Mexican Tortilla doesn’t have any substitute in the world (Raymond Solomon 1985). The British foods once taken by the foreign tourists can never go forgotten from their minds. Now when we come to Africa the Caribbean’s foods have their own attraction for the tourists from other countries of the world (Derek R Hall. 2005). The Egyptian foods are number one in this list. No foods from the Arab or Middle Eastern countries can be compared with them. The ancient and historical culture has played a unique part in the development, preservation and promotion of such foods in Egypt (Josephine Jacob. 2007). There has been a rule of kings with the name of Pharaohs in the royal courts of Egypt. Therefore, the chefs and cooks used to make strange and delicious foods to appease their masters. So, these traditions have been preserved for posterity. And today these foods are the Hallmark of food tourism in Egypt. Same is the case with Indian foods. Since, over history of thousands of years India has been ruled by kings of different dynasties. Therefore, the spices and recipes worked over thousands of years have gone into the food tourism of India. There is another interesting trend in food tourism that many famous countries for their foods have opened their world wide chains of restaurants in almost all the regions of the world. The Italian restaurants can be found almost all over the world. The Chinese foods and restaurants are found in the world in as much abundance as is their export of children toys. The Japanese food restaurants are also present almost all over the world. These are the food tourism promotion techniques of all the famous countries of the world. The other significant but quite a new and modern trend of promotion technique of food tourism is the availability of processed and packaged foods of almost all famous countries in the world mega stores. The ready and fresh food exports like fish, mangoes, oranges, Palmolive etc in the deficient markets of the world is also food tourism promotion technique. If we take the example of Thailand restaurants in the world Not only these restaurants are existing in individuality but their compartments are also available almost in all four to five star hotel chains in the world like Pearl continental, Marriot and Serena (John C Croats. 2000). The people in the world when once visit such places they are naturally attracted towards their foods and decide to have lavish foods of such countries with their specialities whenever they happen to go to these countries on business or private tours. The specialized foods of Thailand like Thai fish and bamboo soup, the Japanese tea and Japanese foil fish, the American steaks, the Chinese rice, the Egyptian marinated beef, the French wine, the Denmark cheese, the Mexican tortilla, the Indian chicken curry, the Bengali fish rice are actually the tools of food tourism for these countries in today’s world. So, it can be summed up that food and tourism have become integral to each other. If tourism promotes the foods of a country then the food is also bound to promote tourism. Historically this discourse has been a part of literature (Chad Randy. 2008) but, most recently this concept has become a specialized and inter-disciplinary approach having its roots in the culture, religion, atmosphere, geography and values of the people of a given country. Most recently this subject is being documented in the pages of the books more accurately from early 1990s till now. The new trends in research have opened all the modern research methodology to the concept of food tourismMarina Novella. 2005). The specialized foods of countries have become the tools of tourism promotion for these countries (Raymond Grew. 2000). It seems that in future the tastes of the people of the world would become intermingled with each other as the modern and wild foods of the countries will also globalize and as the whole world has become like a single village . The foods of the countries will be playing a more crucial role in bringing the people of the world together by the way of food tourism. References; 1- Joan c. Henderson. 2009. Food tourism reviewed. British food journal. London 2- Rhodri Thomas. 2004, Small firms in tourism; international perspectives, Business and Economics. London 3-OCTA members, 2003, Food Tourism around the World: Development, Management and Markets.ISBN 345678654 4-Colin Michael Hall, Liz Sharpies, 2003, food tourism around the world; development, management, and markets, Business and economics. Prentice hall 5-Anne-Matte Haulages, Greg Richards. 2002, tourism and gastronomy, Social Science ,Oxford Book Press 6-Patricia Kaplan. 1997, food, health and identity, Prentice Hall. 7-Colin Michael Hall. 2004, wine, food and tourism marketing, , Economics. London 8-Derek R. Hall, Irene Kirkpatrick, Morag Mitchell. 2005, Rural tourism and sustainable business, , Economics. London 9- Lawrence C Rubin. 2008, food for thought; essay on eating and culture. Literary collections. ISS Holland 10- Jafar Jafari. 2003, Encyclopedia of tourism, social science. New Delhi Publishes 11-Chad Randy. 2008, revolving architecture; a history of building that rotate, swivel and pivot. NEW YORK 12-Eric Laws, Bruce Parizeau. 2006, tourism crises; management responses and theoretical insight,, business and economics. London 13- Jan Roth.2007, tourism, ethnic diversity and the city, , social science. Prentice Hall 14- Marina Novella. 2005, Niche tourism; contemporary issues, trends and cases, Business and Economics. London 16- Derek R Hall. 2005, rural tourism and sustainable business, Business and economics. London 17-Marina Novella. 2005, Niche tourism; contemporary issues, trends and cases, , Birmingham college of food and tourism. New Zealand publishing house. 18-Josephine Jacob. 2007, cultural anthropology. Leiden University. 19-David Newsome, 2005, wildlife tourism, Leiden University 20- Levant Alpine 2008, planning research in hospitality and tourism,. South California 21-Raymond Solomon 1985. Review; the Cambridge world history of food. Natural History Mints, Sidney Wilfred Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Viking. 22- Raymond Grew. 2000. Food in Global History. West view Press, Culinary History vs. Food History" Oxford - Food and Drink in America Read More