Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• The journey is part of the pleasure.
• Local markets and shops are equally important.
• The slow traveller needs to slow down to enjoy the cityscape.
• It is important to get a feel for languages and dialects.
• The slow traveller should engage with the community at a right level.
• It is good to do as locals do (such as eating times, restaurants, prome-
nading, etc.).
• Make the best of missed connections to seek out the unexpected.
• Look at ways to give back something to the local community.
Cities or regions have not, as yet, emerged as slow travel destinations in quite
the same manner as for slow food. Gardner, as with other writers in the move-
ment, takes a consumer perspective and the assumption is that every
destination and travel corridor has some potential for the slow traveller. Part
of the experience is about 'reinvigorating our habits of perception':
I find the process of experiencing a place is essentially phenom-
enological. The city square was not designed as a place for
tourists, but rather as the context for everyday lives. It deserves
more than a casual glance - cityscapes are there to be studied
and observed in detail. (Gardner, 2009, p13)
The slow travel perspective, however, is aligned in many respects with the slow
food movement. This is not just a matter of nomenclature. The concepts have
much in common. Firstly, travel has always involved experiencing local food
and beverages (Murray and Graham, 1997; Towner, 1985), and the concept of
slow food, with its focus on locally sourced ingredients, traditional recipes and
taking time to source, prepare and enjoy food, offers many parallels with slow
travel. The slow food movement, inspired by the writer Carlo Petrini (2001),
emerged in Italy in the late 1980s and spread across Europe and North America
(Hall, 2006). The principal aim of the movement is to encourage the making
of good, clean and fair food. There are several underpinning concepts, includ-
ing the need for biodiversity, animal welfare and the protection of traditional
food and beverages. This is set against a background of the homogenization of
food production and hospitality on a global scale, as typified by fast food pro-
duction (Miele and Murdoch, 2002). The slow food movement presents five
core benefits that accrue from the adoption of slow food:
• fresh-tasting food made from local varieties
• reduced food miles saving on energy
• gaining local knowledge and control about what we eat
• survival of local recipes and methods
• enhancement of local landscapes.
(Slow Food, 2009)
These benefits are wider than simply supporting local artisan food and bever-
age producers. The encouragement of eco-agronomy is diffused with an idea
