Introduction - Food Tourism: A Practical Marketing Guide - page 10

overseas. For example, is it more sustainable to produce tomatoes with a low
'food mile' in a glasshouse in the middle of the UK or to import field-grown
tomatoes with a low carbon footprint from a Mediterranean country?
These are issues that producers need to be discussing with culinary tour-
ists when they visit a farm. Many food tourists are confused by the values of
food miles versus carbon footprints.
The 'short food chain network' became an alternative and this is where
food tourism has a great attraction to the farmer. A shorter network where the
farmer has more control over the produce, keeps more of the retail food dollar
and engages with the consumer now appeals to many farmers and growers.
One of the global leaders in 'short food chain' thinking is Joel Salatin
of Polyface Farm from Swoope in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia ( www.
polyfacefarms.com) . He and his family believe that the future is about sym-
biotic relationships on the farm and involving the community and visitors. 19
His farm thinking can be viewed on http://vimeo.com/81468461.
Tourism is one of the main drivers of the economies of many countries
around the world. As the industry has matured it has segmented into dif-
ferent categories. Some areas of tourism have increased in popularity whereas
other areas have found it more challenging to grow their market segment.
Food Tourism Development
Food tourism is one the three key tourist drivers around the world and as a
result is gaining more media exposure. It is difficult to pinpoint when food
tourism developed.
Many experts believe the mainstream interest really started with wine
tourism and has evolved into food in all its aspects. The wine producers of
Australia, Canada, France, South Africa and the USA were considered the
innovators of wine tourism. They saw the potential and diversified from just
being vineyards into linking their facility to restaurants and general rural
entertainment.
As a result of this growers and producers in the food production in-
dustry saw the opportunity for diversification and entered into the culinary
tourism sector.
In the UK and the USA farmers have historically been more proactive
in food retailing than in many other countries. Organizations such as the
National Farm Retail and Marketing Association (FARMA) in the UK and
The North American Farm Direct Marketing Association (NAFMA) in the
USA are both 'peak' bodies for the retail sector of farming that have been
established for many years.
Consumers are also now more concerned about food security and want
to know where their food is coming from. The 2012/ 13 UK scare on horse
meat being sold as beef meat helped to make more consumers more aware
of food security.
Interested parties and organizations are now joining forces to help pro-
mote culinary tourism. For example in 2010 Ed Walker, the Chef Instructor