What is Culinary Tourism?

Culinary tourism has been defined as the pursuit of unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences (International Culinary Tourism Association). It is experience based, a tourism trend that is here to stay. Other terms that have been used interchangeably with culinary tourism include gastronomic tourism and food tourism. Agritourism has sometimes been used interchangeably with culinary tourism; while the two are certainly linked (cuisine often begins with agriculture and ranching), they are not one of the same. Rather, culinary tourism is rooted in cultural tourism, and is also linked to agritourism, rural tourism, and urban tourism.

Another way to look at culinary tourism is as exploratory eating: individuals explore foods new to them and use foods as the basis to explore new cultures and ways of being. Tourism element comes to the fold when individuals or groups use food and drink to construct marketable and publicly attractive identities to ‘sell’ other individuals (Long, 2004).

A final way to look at culinary tourism is as an “experiential trip to a gastronomic region for recreational or entertainment purposes which includes visits to [any of the following]: primary and secondary producers of food, gastronomic festivals, food fairs, events, farmers’ markets, cooking shows and demonstrations, tastings of quality food products or any tourism activity related to food.” (United Nations World Tourism Organization, 2012). These tourism activities are the fundamental ways in which tourists can experience food and drink, and in turn inform the way culinary tourism should be strategized, developed, and executed in destinations.