Essay On Food Tourism

Food tourism

Definition

Food tourism is the pursuit and enjoyment of unique and memorable food and drink experiences both far and near. (n.d.).

A typical definition of food tourism would be like a “visitation to primary and secondary food producers, food festivals, restaurants and specific locations for which food tasting and/or experiencing the attributes of specialist food production regions are the primary motivating factors for travel” (Buhalis and Costa, 2006, p.137).n

Food tourism is “the intentional, exploratory participation in the food ways of an Other” (Long 1998)

Introduction

Food tourism is special interest tourism because people’s interest in food is the primary reason why they want to travel to certain areas. Last time,

For these people food is an important component in their travel itinerary. They travel especially to destinations just to try out its local cuisines. Food tourists normally have higher average expenditure. Food tourism is linked with other products such as culture and heritage. Therefore, a country’s food tourism is not only about food. It also takes into consideration the cultural and heritage characteristics of the area. The food that a country provides will match with its local culture and heritage. This will enable food tourists to experience the culture and heritage of a country when tasting and experiencing their local cuisines.

There are basically four types of food tourist namely, the gastronomes, indigenous foodies, tourist foodies and familiar foodies. Gastronomes are the ones that have the highest interest and involvement in food tourism whist familiar foodies are the ones with the lowest interest and involvement in food tourism.

Factors influencing tourist food consumption

The factors that influence tourist food consumption can be classified into five main categories: cultural and religious influence, food-related personality traits, socio-demographic factors and exposure and past