Gastronomic Tourist Motivations: A Literature Review

‘Gastronomic Tourist Motivations’
Introduction
Tourism is an activity which is required by humans to experience new and exciting
things that reduces tensions while increase happiness in everyday life (Cohen & Avieli,
2004). Nowadays, tourists possess more experience than earlier days, have sufficient funds
that can be spared in travelling and are able to spend leisurely time for holidays. Gastronomy
is one of those experience in which tourists and visitors plan a particular trip in order to
experience the taste of new food or local product or take part in activities related to
gastronomy ( Gheorghe, 2014). Even if the gastronomy is not the main reason behind
travelling or choosing a particular destination, it may become second or third reason behind
selecting particular destination. In current literature, gastronomy have become significant
topic for discussion among researchers and authors since gastronomic tourism has been seen
growing immensely in the past few decades. According to (Gillespie, 2001), “Gastronomy is
about the recognition of a variety of factors relevant to the foods and beverages ate and
consumed by a group, in a locality, region or even a nation”. The word gastronomic has been
derived from “gastros” that means stomach and “gnomos’’, meaning knowledge in Greek
language. The word “culinary” is also used by many country people for gastronomy which
means food preparation or dishes (Güzel, 2016). This essay has been prepared to find out
motivational factors involved in the consumption of food during holidays along with finding
major and minor issues related to gastronomic tourism as mentioned in present literature.

Literature review
The interrelationship between tourism and food has become unquestionable topic in
literature not only because food has become obligatory part of hospitality and tourism
industry but also due to increase in recognition of evolving social and contextual practice
( Wehrli, et al., 2012). According to (Hervé, 2013) in some cultures, cookery is considered as
an art where good cooks are referred an artist. It can be noted that significant increase in
number of tourists searching for diversified and unique food and cuisines have been increased
in past few years in which tourists engage themselves in gastronomy to gain memorable
experience. Moreover, contemporary expansion of cultural tourism concept also encompasses
progressiveness in elements of cultural popularity and strategies that can make places more
attractive. According to (Sormaz, et al., 2016) gastronomic tourism consists of activities like
visiting food producers, places like food fairs, farmer’s markets, cooking shows and
demonstration related to special food and eating during special occasion. During visiting,
people look to taste different varieties of food related to ham, cheese, fish, beverages like
wine, horchata, cider, tea, etc. (UNWTO, 2012) Along with it, gastronomic tourism also
includes observing production of special food, tasting any special dish or tasting food from
the hands of famous chef like Peter Gordon, a renowned chef famous for fusion cuisine and
special restaurants (Gordon, 2006). Instead of food prepared at restaurants and hotels, tourists
travel to experience special food and beverage. They pursue to visit those places where food
actually belongs to and comes under the context of gastronomic tourism (Hervé, 2013).
Gastronomic tourism industry does not consist restaurants and food guidance only but
also cover culinary experience like cooking schools, gastronomy tour operators, cookbooks
selling shops, gastronomy related media and magazines, winemakers, breweries, field owners
and distilleries. Development of gastronomic tourism is significant for local region
communities who can also be considered as stakeholders of gastronomic tourism. Some of

the shareholders in gastronomic tourism industry include grape field owners, package tours,
hotel and restaurant owners and local food producers (Galvez, et al., 2017). Culture is another
special feature in gastronomic tourism which is generally expressed under motivational
factors of individuals to know about different culture. Moreover, gastronomic tourism being
experience based tourism, helps visitors in learning cultural characteristics of host regions.
For example, countries like Australia, America, South Africa and Italy are famous for its
wine production and thus many wine lovers visit these countries to experience traditional
flavours of different wines. Moreover, all these places are also famous for other food like
pasta and pizza that makes these countries fall under gastronomic destinations (Sormaz, et al.,
2016). Turkey is another great example where doner kebabs are very famous (special food
made out of meat) and according to a research made regarding tourist choice for food related
destination, Turkey cuisine ranked in fifth position. It was found that people travelled from
far away places to taste and envisage special Turkish cuisine where tourists considered the
cuisine to be very attractive, delicious, spicy and even fatty (Hammond, 2016).
Basic gastronomic tourists are essential for cultural holidays and festivals where food
motivated travellers mainly include couples and groups who poses high educational degrees
or spend more time in other culture’s stay and accommodation places. Their chief
motivations for visiting gastronomic destinations include opportunity to rest, personal
indulgence and for relaxation purpose (Cohen & Avieli, 2004). Similarly, ( Wehrli, et al.,
2012) confirms that international and domestic tourists travelling to gastronomic places gains
experience and knowledge related to different cultures were tourists gets motivated to seek
adventure through tasting special food provided in special occasions along with getting
chance to experience fresh ones like berries, buckthorn, bramble, mountain crowberry, etc.
and different ones like sorbets, berry wine, marmalade, etc. Moreover, by getting experience
of new ones related to food and beverage, food market in tourism destinations also becomes