Food Tourism
We all know that food is an essential part of our daily lives. Furthermore, it has the potential to serve as the foundation for a wide variety of important industries that can be found in many countries around the world, including agriculture, food processing, retailing, and food service. There is no doubt that the food tourism industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourist market, and that it encompasses many aspects of the food and tourism industries. Generally, culinary tourism, agricultural tourism, and enotourism fall under the category of food tourism, but other forms of tourism that revolve around food can also fall under this.
There has been a shift in the way food tourism is marketed over the years, where it used to focus on farm markets, restaurants, food gardens, and farmers' markets. As the food experience is now seen as a significant way for leading retailers to engage with consumers, that expectation is much broader today. Currently, there are a variety of food tourism products that are being offered in the market today. We believe there are some areas that probably won't be considered as food tourism by purists, but we see them as areas that need to be addressed since the boundaries between food tourism and other tourism forms are becoming increasingly blurred with every passing year.
During the past decade, it has become evident that food tourism has gained momentum throughout the world for two main reasons. First, people want to know where their food comes from, and secondly, they want to discover new foods and foods in new ways.
Globally, according to a report by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the number of tourists who are traveling for food is increasing by 15 percent a year. It forecasts that by 2025, the revenue generated by food tourism will reach €130 billion worldwide. Additionally, this industry is a huge asset to the growth of small, local economies, as 62 percent of food tourists choose their vacation destination based on the food they are served there.
There are three key drivers of tourism around the world, and one of them is food tourism. The result is that food tourism is receiving an increasing amount of media attention around the world. It is difficult to pinpoint when food tourism developed. Several experts agree that mainstream interest in food and wine tourism actually began with the wine industry and then developed into a range of food and drink interests.The trend consequently led many growers and producers in the food production industry to investigate opportunities in the food tourism sector as a means of diversification.