Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box
1
Ecotourism - what is it?
It is useful to place food tourism into the broader context of contemporary ideas about
tourism development, and especially the concept of 'sustainable tourism. Sustainable
tourism became popular in the early 1990s as an off-shoot of 'sustainable development,
an idea itself popularized in the late 1980s as development that meets the needs of pre-
sent generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their
own
needs.
20
More operationally, and recognizing that there is no such thing as completely cost-
free tourism, sustainable tourism can be regarded as tourism that is planned and managed
in such a way as to minimize and maximize the associated costs and benefits, respectively,
both locally and globally.
21
These costs and benefits are environmental and sociocultural as
well as economic, leading to widespread support for 'triple bottom line' sustainability that
takes all three dimensions into account at the same time.
22
Food tourism, with its focus on delicious and distinctive food and drink, has obvious ap-
peal to tourists, but is also increasingly seen as attractive by destination stakeholders inter-
ested in becoming more sustainable. The main association with the economic pillar of the
triple bottom line is that many culinary tourists are high-spending and well-educated con-
sumers who like to spend time in a favoured destination, are more likely to return, and are
willing to say positive things about it to friends and family in person and on social media.
23
A more subtle connection is that this spending tends to strongly benefit the local economy,
since culinary tourists are mainly interested in experiencing products and services that are
unique
to a particular destination. One hundred dollars spent at a local event such as the
Manjimup Truffle Festival in Western Australia, therefore, is more likely to go directly into the
pockets of local farmers, generating in the process strong revenue 'multiplier effects' within
the local and regional economy.
24
Positive environmental impacts arise from the same desire to consume special local
products. In an era where consumers are barraged with media coverage of 'pink slime, gen-
etically modified foodstuffs and rampant use of pesticides and antibiotics,
25
there is (at least
among those who can afford it) a great desire to eat wholesome and healthy foods in the
places where they are produced. The remoteness of Tasmania was long regarded as a
tourism liability, but this same isolation is now being promoted as an asset that conveys an
image of unadulterated, fresh and delicious food.
26
New Zealand has long recognized this
connection in its wildly successful '100% Pure' marketing campaign. As such a 'clean and
green' image becomes more important for attracting tourists, governments and other stake-
holders have an enormous incentive to ensure that the image is accurate, which benefits
local residents as well. Locally, this might be reflected in the establishment of organic farms,
grass-fed cattle operations and sustainable seafood restaurants. From a global perspective,
food tourism also helps in its own way to reduce the effects of global warming, generating a
very low supply-side 'carbon footprint' because of local sourcing.
Higher local incomes and jobs from food tourism contribute significantly in their own
right to a higher quality of life among residents, but powerful sociocultural benefits also
result in the way that this sector promotes destination identity. 'Sense of place' is a term used
by geographers to describe the unique combination of attractive characteristics that distin-
guish a particular destination from all other destinations, thus making it uniquely competi-
tive.
27
It is very easy to cite Australian examples - King Island cheese, Barossa Valley wines,
Buderim ginger - and to note how frequently the local sense of place is both developed
and reflected in various food festivals. Such events generate and display a strong sense of
community pride, and can be very valuable for building social capital, that is, connections
and trust within the community.
28
These effects are not just confined to small rural commu-
nities, but also figure more and more prominently in the marketing of major metropolitan
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