The Relationship Between Foods and Tourism and Their Implications on the Areas

The Relationship between Foods and Tourism and Their Implications on the Areas

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Introduction

       Tertiary industry of the economy (also known as service industry) has witnessed a big leap in the last few decades, and it has become a parameter that represents how robust a country’s economic power can be. Precisely, the more booming the tertiary industry is, the more promising and stronger the nation’s economy is. Tourism section, as one of the major service industries, has contributed to numerous countries’ GDP and it has even become a host of nation’s pillar industry such as France, U.S, Spain and China (Wikipedia.org, 2016). When it comes to tourism, foods can never be forgotten to discuss. It is fair to say that foods play a vital role in the development of civilizations and economies according to recorded history.  

        Throughout this paper, I tend to explore the relationship between foods and tourism, to study foods’ impact on tourism, to observe how areas develop their food attractions and how customers’ psychology and behavior affect the local foods and tourism, and to analyze the potential problems for the food tourism.

Body

• The Trend for Tourism—Food Tourism

         Nowadays, tourism industry has rapidly developed due to the increasing disposable income, globalization, media influence, ease of travel and growing hedonism concepts, etc. Therefore, tourism is a big hit that has led a new and inevitable trend for the whole world to pursue. It is universally acknowledged that traveling a place is to get to know its authentic and local culture, tradition and unique customs; food is a significant method for visitors to get touched with those aspects. “Trend analyst, Ian Yeoman writes that food is a significant aspect of the tourist’s experience of a destination, driven by the growing trends of authenticity and the need to have a high-quality experience. Food tourism shapes gastro destinations such as France, Italy and California whereas in emerging destinations such as Croatia, Vietnam and Mexico food plays an important part of the overall experience” (Yeoman, par.1, 2008). “Indeed, all travelers and tourists must eat; therefore food is an important destination attribute. It is estimated that upwards of 25% of tourism expenditure is attributable to food products” (Getz et al, p.1, 2014). Based on the above descriptions, we can see that food is an integral part of tourism, so improving food culture is necessary. Eventually, a new and creative form of tourism has emerged enormously—food tourism. “According to Jane Chang of Chang Brothers Travel in Singapore, when she was interviewed in March 2014, the growth in food tourism has been 30% a year for the last decade with food tours to China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey being the most popular” (Stanley & Stanley, p.12, 2014). With the support of a series of facts and data, we conclude that tourism is inseparable with food; culinary sector is a steadily thriving part in terms of tourism, which directly leads to a fast-growing food tourism section and the huge economic growth. After realizing this irreversible trend, many countries are dedicated to promote themselves as centers of gastronomy and treat authentic cuisines as their major attractions.

▲Food Tourism’s Implication—Culture Promotion

       As I have mentioned before one of the root causes for traveling is to experience and explore the local culture. Travelers come to unfamiliar places with curiosity and imagination of regional tradition, customs, history and myths. Additionally, food culture is a significant symbol of its civilization and it can also reveal and demonstrate its evolutionary process by varied foods, including authentic foods and introduced imports. All grand events in course of a human being’s life are all centered on foods. Without exaggeration, foods have incubated our society’s progress regarding of all facets. “Food provides much more than nourishment: it is also a key part of all cultures, a major element of global intangible heritage and an increasingly important attraction for tourists. The linkages between food and tourism also provide a platform for local economic development that can be strengthened by the use of food experiences for branding and marketing destinations” (Sánchez-Cañizares, p.14, 2012). There a couple of persuasive examples can verify that theory. For example, U.S is a relatively new rising country with respect to long history of human being and civilized society, so no wonder U.S is full of a wide range of fast-food businesses such as KFC, Pizza Hut and Star Bucks that have been boosting until now. Fast-food restaurants have become the sign to U.S; they also kind of resonate with its general culture tune—fast and eye-catching. Then we can take China as an example as well, since China’s history dates back to thousands years ago, China has eight major cuisines, however, it also involves an increasing number of foreign cuisines along the way. It is because parts of China have been colonized, thus it has been vastly influenced by Western Culture, which can be shown through current China’s foods. Generally, culture comprises foods, and foods are embodiment of various local, regional and national cultures. Therefore, promoting foods is to advocate our culture which is an important factor to appeal visitors.

• Customers’ Impact on Food Tourism

        Note that customers namely visitors’ thoughts and propensities definitely should be taken into consideration about how to improve food tourism. The purpose of food tourism is to attract them to come to visit our places and purchase our foods to facilitate local economic development. “More and more consumers are now wanting to know not only where their food is coming form, they want to visit the source and experience new foods as they travel. Plus they want to experience personally in new ways of adding value to food. As a result more small businesses are getting involved in food tourism. For example, in France there are over 246 varieties of cheese being produced and in the UK over 700 varieties of cheese” (Stanley & Stanley, p.18, 2014).