Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
I
Food Tourism and the Tourist
The world has become accustomed to tourism. According to the World
Tourism Organization 1 a tourist is 'travelling to and staying in places outside
their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure,
business or other purposes.' In 2012 over 1 billion of us were tourists and
as tourists we spent over US$1.03 trillion. In 2012 China became the biggest
tourist spenders as a nation, spending US$102 billion on tourist activities.
According to Funk and Wagnall, 2 the difference between a tourist and a
visitor is that a visitor is 'one who visits an area within their local area.'
'Food tourism' may be a new set of words on the tourist scene. Even
though the first guide to food tourism was written in 1931, Guida Gastronomica
d'Italia , 3 food tourism is still looked on as something new and trendy.
Food tourism in most regions of the world has been and needs to be
integrated into traditional tourism activities, although in some regions,
for example in France and Italy, it is becoming the main reason to visit the
destination.
The wonderful thing about this type of tourism is that it is a 24/ 7, global
and available 365 days of the year activity. The authors have been up at 3 am
in Japan to join a line of tourists to visit the Tsukiji Market 4 in Tokyo ( www.
tsukiji-market.or.jp ) and tolerated the snow of Vermont in New England, in
the sugaring season in March to taste maple syrup ( www.vermontmaple.
org) . At Christmas the Christmas markets of Prague (Czech Republic) and
Germany are now major tourist attractions with a global market. Many
business people may not even consider they are in food tourism. Ask the
majority of tourists visiting the UK for the first time what they are going to
do when they arrive and one common answer is to visit an English pub. This
has become a real tourist experience, but how many publicans would classify
themselves as working in tourism?
 
 
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