Tourism - Food, Wine, and Festivals - Literature review Example

Tourism: Food, Wine and Festivals Name: Course instructor: Course: Institution: Date: Tourism: Food, Wine and Festivals Introduction The tourism industry has in the recent past experienced vibrant revolution attributed to emerging developments in technology, strategic formation of relationships, and an increase in the categories or fields of tourism. In consideration of the fact that a third of money spend on tourism travel is spend on food, strategic decision making in tourism must focus on identifying and understanding attributes of culinary tourists to be able to realize profitable market segmentation. According to Dr. Long (2005), culinary tourism refers to the exploration and discovery of cultural and historical aspects through food and related activities in attempt to create memorable experiences. It refers to the search and exploration of food or drink in the context of travel. According to Au and Law (2002), adequate comprehension of food and wine tourists and associated behaviors is a prerequisite to effective segmentation of the market. Precision in market segmentation is essential in determination of behavioral patterns of food and wine tourists thereby enabling tourism companies to plan and develop marketing strategies that reflect the needs and preferences of target market segments. Food and wine tourists have been profiled in previous research as much older than generic tourists, highly educated, and affluent. With an annual average income of approximately $125,000, culinary tourists are known to spend on visits twice as much as generic tourists. Culinary tourism has in previous research been segmented into wine-based tourism, food-based tourism, and food and wine-based tourism. According to this research, tourists that have interest in both food and wine tend to have higher economic profiles, engage in more tourisms activity, have a wide range of reasons for their travel, and preferred to stay in resorts, inns, spas and hotels (Ignatov, 2003) Wine market segment The wine tourism market is composed of three main segments: the wine lovers, the wine interested, and the wine novice or the curious tourist. Wine lovers read books on wine and are generally well educated. Having participated in wine tasting forums, they have a genuine interest in buying and tasting wine at wineries. Richards (2000) notes that this category normally has no interest in other activities during their visits. The wine interested category is composed of tourists who are not well educated about wine, but have previously attended wine tasting. They are genuinely interested in knowing more about wine, as well as tasting. They generally portray less interest in links of food and wine. The wine novice or the curious tourist despite having attended wine tasting, they have very little knowledge about wine. They have interest in visiting wineries, but exemplify minimal focus in their inspiration (Wolf, 2002). The preferred target market is the wine lovers by virtue of the vast knowledge they have about wine, and their ultimate need to buy and taste wine. The segment is composed of mostly affluent younger and older couples capable of taking a minimum of 5 trips to various destinations. The objective is to attract this segment of high yield travelers, and develop capacity and ability to meet their needs and expectations. To this end, destinations endeavor to provide great food and wine to our visitors, indulgence and luxury, unanticipated highlights, sharing of the greatest food and wine stories, engagement with people in destinations, great interaction with nature, and great opportunities to participate in a variety of informative and interesting activities. To be able to communicate effectively with these high yield visitors, the communication strategy is to effectively utilize the internet, pay TV, newspapers and magazines, ABC and cinema. The destination brand must hence be molded around key strengths, which are inexorable innovation and creativity, home of exceptional wine and outstanding produce, a spirit of festivity, beautiful city, and proximity to unspoiled nature. The ultimate objective is to deliver to wine lovers expectations, which is to offer surprising discoveries that are both inspirational and challenging. This is in the spirit of appreciating good life, incorporated in the celebration and participation in culture and heritage. To this end, visitors are guaranteed of an intimate encounter with people and well-preserved nature. The ultimate goal into celebrate the good things in life. To this end, wine lovers can be assured of an experience that is participatory, engaging intriguing and delightful (Goldsmith & Hofacker, 1991). Food market segment Food tourism has gained significant attention in recent years as tourists become attracted to local produce in various destinations. Because of the deep connection that food has with its origin, food tourist destinations have an opportunity to develop unique marketing strategies and mixes that are distinct from what others offer elsewhere. Of significant importance to tourism companies and destinations is gastronomy which enables them to diversify and stimulate both local and national economic development. In its discourse, food tourism incorporates sustainable values and ethical considerations based on the destination, local culture, authenticity, local products, and the landscape. Food tourism is characterized by travelers who have experience and more disposable income which enables them to have a break from their routine schedule and seek freedom and novelty in distant places (Deneault, 2002). The tourists are driven by a need to explore tangible learning experiences; the gastronomic experience hence plays a sign cant role in very diverse ways. According to Quan and Wang (2004), tourists spend over a half of their resources on food. It’s therefore apparent that a designations cuisine is a significant aspect that determines the quality of holiday experience. According to Hall (2003), food tourism involves an experiential visit to a gastronomic destination for the purposes of recreation or entertainment. This involves visits to food producers, both primary and secondary, visits to gastronomic festivals, events, food fairs, cooking shows or demonstrations, food product tastings and many other activities associated with quality food. Nonetheless, these experiential visits are determined to unique tourist lifestyles that involve a need for experimentation and to learn from and about different cultures. Food tourists endeavor to understand and acquire knowledge about tourist products and especially culinary specialties that are produced in the destinations (Deneault, 2002). In consideration of the fact that gastronomic tourists involves visitors and tourists who deliberately make plans for trips totally or partially to explore and taste the cuisine of their destination or to indulge in activities associated with gastronomy, a more interesting and valuable market segment to be targeted for this visits would certainly be the food lovers. The behavior, activities and selection of destinations by food lovers is influenced by a genuine and pressing interest in food and related activities (Hall, 2003) In offering a gastronomic route of choice to food lovers, the objective is to offer an inclusive package of all that could interest and delight such high profile visitors. In the offering is a series of products and services that include food factories and restaurants offering foods that are differentiated in quality, related activities and gastronomic events. Of interest to visitors in this gastronomic route is the incorporation of historical, cultural and gastronomic heritage offered in a package that is convenient to the visitor. Ritchie and Zins (1978) state that several other products are offered in the gastronomic route, they include; participatory visits to cooking schools, food festivals, fruit picking, tasting and buying of products from local farmers’ markets. Visitors will also get an opportunity to tour the food, cheese and wine route. In the offering are also traditional dining experiences, visits to museums that are food related, and packages for dinner and theatre (Hjalager & Richards, 2002). Conclusion A significant tourism marketing concept that emerges from this discussion is the opportunity that tourist companies and designations have to cross-sell. In consideration of the fact that this destinations and companies offer a variety of interrelated products and services, it is important to regard food and wine tourist as culinary generalists who would be interested not just in one product such as a specific brand of wine or cuisine, but many other products which may be packaged in away that is appealing to the visitor. The understanding that food and wine tourists can essentially be regarded in a culinary generalist perspective therefore opens opportunities for tourism marketers to be flexible in development of their products and services and to package them in a form that would be appealing to culinary generalists. This would provide opportunities for cross-selling and thus increase in sales and profitability. Bibliography Journals Au, N. & Law. R 2002, Categorical Classification of Tourism Dining. Annals of Tourism Research, 29:3, 819-833. Goldsmith, R. E. & C. F. Hofacker 1991, Measuring consumer innovativeness. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 19:3, 209-21. Ritchie, B. J. R., & Zins, M 1978, Cultureas a determinant of the attractiveness of a tourism region. Annals of Tourism Research, 5(2), 252-267. Richards, G. (2000). Tourism and the world of culture and heritage. Tourism Recreation Research, 25(1), 9-17 Books Hall, C. M 2003, The consumption of experiences or the experience of consumption? An introduction to the tourism of taste. In Food Tourism around the World, Butterworth Heinemann, New York. Long, L 2005, Presentation at the First Culinary Tourism Symposium, Lecture, George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario. Ignatov, E 2003, The Canadian culinary tourist: How well do we know them? Master’s Thesis. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Deneault, M 2002, Acquiring a Taste for Cuisine Tourism: A Product Development Strategy.: Canadian Tourism Commission, Toronto, Ontario. Hjalager, A. M. & Richards G 2002, Still undigested: Research issues in tourism and gastronomy. In Tourism and Gastronomy, Hjalager, A.M. and G. Richards, Routledge, London. Website Wolf, E 2002, Culinary tourism: A tasty economic proposition, International Culinary Tourism Association. Retrieved on May 8, 2013 from (March 31, 2005). Read More