Gastronomy Tourism.
In this article, I’ll provide a brief understanding about Gastronomy Tourism.
Food, Foodie and other related terms
The term Gastronomy Tourism also known as Food Tourism, Culinary Tourism, or Gastronomic Tourism.
So what is gastronomy tourism?
Gastronomy tourism is defined as the pursuit of unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences.
They seem to be the most cited definition to date. It is basically the trip to the food destination for entertainment purposes. including, dining in the destination, tasting food and wine, and other activities related to food.
However, there has been an ongoing misunderstanding that gastronomy tourism is part of agritourism. which is not true,
but it is a subset of a cultural tourism and we divide those who travel for food experience as food travelers or foodie. Gastronomy tourism also includes
- accommodation,
- other attractions,
- culinary schools,
- farmers’ markets,
- restaurants and tours.
Now, let’s hear from the expert, how they define gastronomy, cuisine, and culinary
Ok, when we talk about Gastronomy .Gastronomy is a study of a relationship between food and culture and it focuses on how we eat and how we choose the ingredients and also how we cook food in a particular way.
That’s related to a style of the region, so we have a word referring the narrowed frame of Gastronomy. we called them a cuisine.
cuisine is a style or method of cooking, especially a specific in country or region that we refer to like Thai cuisine, Japanese cuisine or Chinese cuisine.
So the difference between cuisine and culinary is culinary is an adjective that refers to an activity related or connected with cooking like we have a culinary skill, it means we have a skill of cooking.
The good presentation is a part of the food element that’s so important for nowadays.
Because they can add the value on the food and create a very good first impression from the customers. Garnishing and presentation can tell the customer how delicate this dish was made.
The design and style can be changed all the time which is depended on the trend
which one can catch the customer and be more acceptable and also popular the most at that moment.
Gastronomy tourism simply refers to food tour (Food Tourism),
in which food is the main factor that links between nature, lifestyle and cultural arts.
When the tourists arrive, they will gain sense of place of that particular destination. Additionally, gastronomy tourism is not only to visit, cook, taste, shop, and snap a photo but gastronomy tourism goes beyond that.
It begins with learning, practising, exchanging, developing, and inspiring the tourists.
Specifically, gastronomy tourism is like from “a farm to fork” in which the tourists will have an opportunity to experience from food production to helping locals to harvest crops, and also other processes until cooking procedure.
And then, they eat with the community in an authentic local style.
When the tourists do gastronomy/food-related activities or the gastronomy tourism, it is not just about doing the activities, but they will also develop a relationship with the host because they seem to exchange knowledge and learn with the community as well as have a general conversation. Once the relationship is established, the tourists tend to revisit that particular destination.
(Explain in details) Let’s start from the input.
Basically, for the overall mechanism, gastronomy tourism initially requires available local resources, and raw materials from a production area, community, or farmers to producers.
Then, equipment is required. The community must prepare the equipment like dishes or maybe pottery like celadon ware. And so, the tourists will be able to learn the process of making celadon ware, and painting celadon as well as moulding pottery.
Making celadon ware is part of food-related activities as it will be used as a plate on the dining table. Also, those fish patterns on it have reflected the local lifestyle.
In the ancient Thai kingdom of Sukhothai the saying “There are fish in water and rice in the fields” has reflected everything in the food tourism process,
such as way of life and local wisdom. The equipment, such as weaving machine or cloth weaving, and table cloth, have reflected community lifestyle.
Additionally, the input process also includes “wisdom” which refers to the local wisdom of that particular community.
For example, in the cooking process, various kinds of local herbs will be used to mix and match each dish.
Besides, it is about “a sense of place”which refers to all related venues (e.g. local village kitchen or homestay) that must be prepared. Those are all the inputs required for the tourism process.
After considering all required inputs, we then move on to the next level which is a “process” or “management” also known as “Community-Based Tourism” (CBT).
Simply put, if we have all available inputs but without people to manage them, tourism activities or gastronomy tourism will not happen. Hence, community-based tourism (CBT) is used as a tool that allows the community to manage those inputs by itself.
In this case, the community does not mainly manage tourism to serve tourists, but the community members themselves manage and run the tourism activities that benefit the community as a whole. Then, when the community has been strengthened, they will have the ability to manage and run the tourism by themselves.
What they can do next is a “creative tourism” which refers to the activities that allow tourists to exchange knowledge and learn with the local community.
More specifically, part of the creative tourism activities can be labelled as gastronomy tourism. It can be assumed that gastronomy tourism is a subset of creative tourism. As aforementioned in gastronomy tourism, food is related to cultural arts, lifestyle, nature, and sense of place of various destinations.
After that the outcomes we get are
1) income for the community Besides the community itself, all nearby communities which supply the raw materials and equipment will be able to distribute those incomes to other communities.
This will also create art of food and community chef or known as artisan chef.
Housewife, elderly people, or those who cook can develop foods.
The food itself does not need to be modified muchbut it must maintain its “authentic”. However, food can be customized to make it more interesting, and appropriate to the modern world. It does not focus on the appearance itself but the core.
After that, the stage of outcome includes income distribution and art of food.Another outcome is “preserving local wisdom” which mainly focuses on the “local identity”.
Apart from food, there is also another wisdom, such as a traditional show. When visitors come to dine in the community,there will be a gathering of local artists from youths to seniors conducting a traditional show during a meal.
