Gastronomic Tourism - Coursework Example

Gastronomic Tourism] [Name] [Course] [Lecturer] [Date] Gastronomy is a term used to refer to reflective eating and cooking as well as food preparation, production and presentation directed to maintaining the association with excellence. Moreover, it is also related to growth of cultural practices related to food and therefore it’s currently evolving to a gastronomic culture. There has been an increase in popularity of world food and world travel has really boosted the relationship between food and tourism and the role of food as a tourist attraction (Brillat-Savarin, 2000). That satisfaction of nutritional needs is increasingly becoming a culinary gastronomic experience with some tourists (Au & Law 2002) such as what happens in Hong Kong sampling local food as their most important activity. Images of food have been shown to have good potential to enhance sustainability of tourist destinations and therefore this is a very important tourist’s catchment segment. Having that all have to eat and have a small part in the local food experiences, gastronomy has been and is part of the tourism experience. Food tourism as it can also be referred to is also defines as visitation to primary and secondary food producers, food festival, restaurants and certain locations for which food tasting or experiencing the attributes of the specially prepared of the region are the main purpose of that travel. This is also co-hosted together with wine tourism which is a visitation to the vineyards, wineries, wine festivals and wine shows region also attracting many visitors making it a tourist attraction. Many people enjoy having foods and drinks from other cultural entities but not from a hotel; when this is done ceremonially it is tourism by itself (Brillat-Savarin, 2000). This kind of tourism is accelerated by peoples desire to experience a particular type of food or the produce from a specific region and as a result this influences special interest travel. Food tourism is therefore called culinary, gastronomic, gourmet or cuisine tourism that reflects consumers for whom interest in food and wine as a form of leisure (Mitchel & Hall 2000). The profound reason why gastronomic tourism is gaining more fame is because of its wider interest in food and wine and this get deep to integrating with cultures and landscapes that produce them making it more of a tourist attraction segment. Gastronomic segment has much attachment on cultural tourism. This means that just like how music and history are commonly seen as cultural tourism resources, gastronomy together with other areas like religion, festivals are also rich zones for cultural tourism. Bearing in mind that food is the main unit of gastronomy, it is worth noting that there are cultural dimensions of the meal and this makes it a tourist attraction. The meal is the point of confluence of the production, storage, treatment, transport, processing, cooking and preparation of food. A meal talks more of customs, manners and traditions. Most importantly, a meal represents a complex and homogenous dominant feature for elaborating more on general system of taste and habit. In other words, cooking is a universal form of human activity which contains and signifies a system of communication, body of images, a protocol of usage and behaviors. This makes meals well exposed to many people who would want to know how, why certain foods taste and thus making it full fledged tourism (Fields 2002) Meal is a cultural artifact and therefore has value transcending the physical combination of stuff in the dish. As Michael Symons (2000) puts it meals express cultural realities and culture is an expression of meals. Gastronomy covers all the areas that need to be covered by any other cultural tourism product. One it is viable alternative for new destinations that cannot benefit from sun, sand and sea resources, it adds value to the tourist experience and is associated with quality tourism, it fits into contemporary pattern of consumption tourism for it gives chances to search for new products and experiences which result to high satisfaction and more importantly it offers answers to the ever increasing demand for more short breaks Food and beverage as destination products, maybe primary or secondary motivators and they add value to the image of a destination. However, the foods consummated during travel should not be confused with food tourism. Tourist choices are not determined by the need to feed oneself but by a strong desire to eat interesting products in suitable environments, then this is gastronomic tourism. Another aspect that is closely associated with this tourism is that food is becoming an essential part of a destination’s identity and a tourist attraction in its own right (long 2004). This gives it a total qualification of being a tourism segment of its own. Due to the strong relationship between food and identity, its not surprising that food becomes a very important marker in tourism promotion. When there is new food which is very tantalizing, it is said to be more enjoyable to the tourists and most tourists wish to experience non-threatening, exotic experiences (Boyne & William 2003). Food is therefore the heart of gastronomic tourism which is a potential tourism catchment segment. It is well established that, there is a strong relationship between a region’s land, its climatic condition and the character of food it produces. This diversified geography provides regional distinctiveness in culinary traditions and the evolution of a characteristic heritage. The link between location and gastronomy has for a long time being used in differing ways like promotional efforts based on national foods in many parts of the world (McKercher 2002).. This is a cultural attraction which can be used to harness tourists to the benefit of the society and the state at large. In many areas, the driving factor of visitors is the national foods cooked there. This is evidence at the look of the amount spent on food as compared to those for bed and board. This is a clear signal that, food tourism is real and it happens. When such settings are noted, much emphasis is put on food and in the long run increases the visitors and revenue. This eventually makes food tourism a national tourism strategy (McKercher 2002). This makes the destination vie for classic foods not only to maintain their competitiveness but most importantly in the overall quality of food related experiences which contribute to building reputation of the entire destination for the foods they prepare. This increases the tourists’ numbers and as it is with such an increase, there is a bounty harvest as far as revenue is concerned. According to Howard (2001), the linkage of the food and tourism industries has the potential to increase the number of visitors in a certain region, extent the amount of days they are planning to stay there and in the long run increase the revenue generated. This insinuates that when a region is known for its tourism and then the food it offers results to local economic development, thus it is the main catchment of tourists. There are initiatives that have been used to increase the implementation of food and tourism associations range from culinary tourism strategies to integration of food into national tourism strategies. Most regions have used food and tourism networks, tourism websites and marketing initiatives dedicated to food. When developing this culinary events like festivals, documentation of culinary heritage and food related activities like dedicated and cooking holidays (Herderson 2004). This is after the authorities have recognized the untapped potential that is in the use of food and wines in tourism Wolf (2006) states that there are tourists who travel in order to search for, enjoy prepared foods and drinks only. This does not fall in the category of those known for fine dinning but even those that known memorable food experience or even a visit to a farmers market provided there are prepared foods for sale, or even getting to local events that eating’s labeled local only makes food a tourism segment. Foods are an integral part of the culture community and destinations and there are tourists who look forward to experiencing and tasting the region they are visiting (Wolf 2006). It is a reality that tourists experience the foods of the regions that are visiting intentionally and some unintentionally. More over, only a small number of tourists would visit a place just for reasons of food. But food just like other groups of factors like transport, accommodation, attraction and other activities, is a basic and crucial element of tourism product which if developed and emphasized, would become a source of attraction. Commonly, tourist destinations are prepared and designed with a focus on the consumer rather than adopting a resource oriented approach. As for a resource based approach focuses on the natural and cultural attributes that contribute to a sense of place. In recognizing the role for food in tourism rather than that of the confines of special interest tourist, enlarges the market for the supply base of food tourism recognizing important social and environmental perspectives (Haven Tang & Jones 2006). There is ample evidence that food is becoming an important means of providing new tourism products that sell character and culture of the destination and is also a potential antidote to stagnating mass tourism demand and a means of supporting and promoting sustainable tourism when implemented properly (Jones & Jenkins 2002)Availability of special kinds of food, selected wines fruits and vegetables has given rise to festivals and other events which are appealing to tourists and local residents of the regions they take place (Hjalager & Corigliano 2000). Many have a notion that, visiting a local food festival is one of the best ways to get a sense of the community’s flavor and thus this makes the whole setting a tourist catchment segment. In multi ethnic communities this makes them highly potential of setting up festivals and activities that will attract a wide number of visitors who want to have a taste of the other cultural foods and activities and in the long run end up being an attraction to many visitors and raise the revenue generated in the whole process which is the main aim of a tourist attraction segment (Charters & Ali-Knight 2002). There is a lot of competition in the world of world of tourism marketing. This has given rise to innovations for every region and destination is looking for a unique product to differentiate itself from the other destinations. Local foods and cuisines that are unique to an area are the only distinctive resources that are used to get more visitors. This is actually evident in the studies conducted by Charters and Ali-Knight (2002) which clearly shows that tourists travel to destination with an established reputation as a local experience quality local products as it is an example in Napa Valley in California, Provence in France and Yarra Valley in Victoria Australia just to mention but a few. Finally, tourists dine for differing reasons. To some dining can be a necessity or a pleasure or even both. While some dine to satisfy their hunger, other does so at a particular region just to experience the local food and cuisines because for the latter these form an important component of their travel. This makes food a tourist attraction segment. The growth of eating out as a form of consumption and the market segment forces of globalization have made food products and cuisines from all over the world more accessible (McKercher 2002).. Through multimedia adverts are all over about foods from this region and the other. These developments have given rise to interests in experiencing unique and indigenous food, food products and cuisines of a specific destination and these have resulted to people traveling to a destination to experience the local delicacies to taste the dishes of its local chefs (Mitchell & Hall 2003). And to crown it all, a resent survey of visitors to Yucatan Peninsula where 46% of the meals consumed by tourists were local delicacies (Torres 2002). This means that foods are a source of tourism in many regions that are said to make a kill in tourism sector. References Au, N., Law, R., 2002. Categorical classification of tourism dining. Annals of Tourism Research, 29 (3), 819-833. Brillat-Savarin, J., A., 2000. The physiology of taste or, meditations on transcendental gastronomy. (M. F. K. Fisher, Trans.). New York: Counterpoint Press Boyne, S., Hall, D., Williams, F., 2003. Policy, support and promotion for food related tourism initiatives: A marketing approach to regional development. In C. M. Hall (Ed.), Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing (pp. 131-154). New York: Haworth Hospitality Press. Charters, S., Ali-Knight, J., 2002. Who is the Wine Tourist ? Tourism Management, 23(3), 311-319. Fields, K., 2002. Demand for the gastronomy tourism product: motivational factors. McKercher, B.,2002. Towards a classification of cultural tourists. International Journal of Tourism Research, 4, 29-38. Haven-Tang, C., Jones, E., 2006. Using local food and drink to differentiate tourism destinations through a sense of place. Journal of Culinary Science and Technology, 4(4), 69-86. Hjalager, A., Corigliano, M., A., 2000. Food for tourists – Determinants of an image. International Journal of Tourism Research, 2(4), 229-306. Henderson, J., 2004. Food as a tourism resource: a view from Singapore. Tourism Recreation Research, 29(3), 69-74. Howard, D., 2001. Creating your destination’s competitive advantage: Your regional identity. Paper presented at the 2nd New Zealand Food and Wine Tourism Conference. Hall, M., Mitchell, R., 2000. We are what we eat: Food, tourism and globalization. Tourism, Culture and Communication, 2 (1) 29 – 37. Jones, A., Jenkins, I., 2002. A taste of Wales - Blas Ar Gymru: Institutional malaise in promoting Welsh food tourism products. In A. Hjalager & G. Richards (Eds.), Tourism and gastronomy (pp. 115-131). London: Routledge. Mitchell, R., Hall, M., 2003. Consuming tourists: food tourism consumer behavior. In M. Hall, L., Sharples, R., Mitchell, N., Macionis B., Crambourne , Food Tourism Around the World. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. Symons, M., 2000 'Gastronomic authenticity and sense of place', in: Proceedings of the Ninth Australian Tourism and Hospitality Education Conference, Adelaide: CAUTHE: 333-340. Torres, R., 2002, Toward a better understanding of the tourist and agricultural linkages in the Yucatan: Tourist food consumption and preferences. Tourism Geographies, 4(3), 282-306. In A.M. Hjalager & G. Richards (Eds.), Tourism and Gastronomy (pp. 36-50). London and New York: Routledge. Long, L., M., 2004. A folkloristic perspective on eating and otherness. In L. M. Long (Ed.), Culinary Tourism (pp3-25). Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. Wolf, E., 2006. Culinary tourism: The hidden harvest. Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing. Read More