Tourism Fieldwork: Gastronomic Tourism in Barcelona

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TOURISM FIELDWORK
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Research Aim...............................................................................................................................2
Research question........................................................................................................................2
Research Approach......................................................................................................................3
Research Method..........................................................................................................................3
Fieldwork Location......................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Relationship between Tourism and Gastronomy.........................................................................3
Impact of Fieldwork on Gastronomical Development.................................................................4
Issues of Fieldwork on Gastronomical Development..................................................................6
Methodology....................................................................................................................................6
Research Methodology................................................................................................................6
A Case Study of Barcelona and its Surroundings........................................................................7
Qualitative Analysis.....................................................................................................................8
Transcript:....................................................................................................................................9
Findings and Discussion................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
Reference.......................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
This research will be conducted based on a fieldwork at Barcelona with a number of students to
explore the sectors of gastronomy and exotic tourist destinations in the beautiful city. According
to Bell (2015), the city chosen for this research project have a wide variation of tourist
development and gastronomy in the second most populous municipality of Spain. The exotic
destinations that will be visited by the students in the capital and largest city of the autonomous
community of Catalonia are Boqueria, Fabrica de Xocolata, and Cava Freixenet (Beltrán, Cruz
and López-Guzmán, 2016). The main research will be conducted on the vast area of tourism and
gastronomy in the city as it includes a rich culture in food and exotic destinations. This research
will be focused on the experiences of this fieldwork with specific research question, critically
analyzed literature review, methodology, research discussions with relevant result and
conclusion.
Research Aim
 The significant aim of the research will have focus on gaining immense knowledge by the
students regarding the nature of tourism in this beautiful destination at Europe
 At successful completion of this research assessment, the student will have a clear knowledge
and idea regarding the nature of how a practical fieldwork is conducted, outside a specific lab
or classroom
 This experience will help the students in gaining absolute skill of interpretation, observation,
enquiry and analysis of the information gathered in Barcelona
 This familiarity with practical fieldwork will help the students in understanding the essential
requirements and adjustments of working in a group
Research question
 What is the knowledge gained by students regarding the nature of tourism with regard to
gastronomy?
 What is the nature of a practical fieldwork conducted, outside a lab or classroom?
 What are the skills gained by students of interpretation, observation, enquiry and analysis of
information gathered in Barcelona?
 What are the essential requirements and adjustments of working in a group?
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Research Approach
In order to gather essential knowledge by students, in this practical fieldwork at Barcelona
deductive approach would be selected, in place of inductive approach. This will help in gathering
knowledge about the experiences of students and evaluate the efficacy of this field trip.
Research Method
This research assessment will be conducted by collecting data from primary sources and by the
application of qualitative research method. The primary sources utilized for this research
assessment will be semi-structured method of interview of the students with about five to ten
questions addressed to each of the three students (Kallio et al., 2016). The interview of the
students will be gathered to evaluate collected data from this fieldwork.
Fieldwork Location
The location of this qualitative fieldwork will be at the beautiful city of Barcelona, in Spain. The
location has a huge scope of exploring various sectors of gastronomy and exotic tourist
destinations at Boqueria, Fabrica de Xocolata, and Cava Freixenet that will help the students in
gaining experience.
Literature Review
Relationship between Tourism and Gastronomy
The tourism industry is vast and has a huge scope of exploration for the ambitious tourists to
explore the exotic destinations at its best. It has become an essential part for earning a valuable
living for many types of tourists around the world (de Albuquerque Meneguel et al., 2018). The
branches of tourism are vast and explore various other practices into its own forte. Tourism
expands as far and wide into other industries of hospitality, travel agents, tour and travel
operators along with leisure and sectors of ecotourism. The conception of gastronomy has been
established as the significant study of various food preparations and presentations that occupies a
huge part of hospitality management (Frisvoll et al., 2016). It explores an intrinsic relationship
between food and culture in various areas in the world. It also includes the various preparation,
manufacture and processing of different recipes based on a particular areas food culture and
habits of food consumption. This study of gastronomy is called practical gastronomy. There is
also another segment of gastronomy, which concerns the theoretical evaluation of the systemic
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approach towards preparing the dish. This area of gastronomy is mainly related to the theory of
making food in an area (Gálvez et al., 2017). The concept of gastronomy has however been
undergone a period of alteration regarding its conceptualization and has been established a
relationship between food and culture in the modern world. The effect of gastronomy always had
an important consequence on tourism. The variation of tourists who visit different exotic
locations across the globe spend about one-third of their monetary resource on gastronomy
industry. This high demand of gastronomy in the internalized sectors of tourism on a global basis
calls for more involvement of gastronomy in the industry of tourism (Guerrero et al., 2019). This
particular involvement has reshaped the culinary identity across the globe with respect to the
social identity, food preference and concepts of gastronomy. This in a way causes more
complexity for the visiting tourists to a foreign place and adjustment to that area’s culinary
preference. Therefore, there has been an immediate birth of different reactions that a tourist has
to undergo globally while dealing with the various gastronomy cultures of various destinations
(Hernández and Dancausa, 2018). This established relationship between gastronomy and tourism
upsurges the economic factor along with the cultural concoction. The market of tourism therefore
thrives based on the enrichment of various gastronomic resources.
Impact of Fieldwork on Gastronomical Development
The practice of any kind of fieldwork or field research is a constructive approach to any type of
research assessment. A fieldwork is a practical approach to add more information to the
experience for the subjects conducting a particular research (Jiménez et al., 2016). The fieldwork
gives enough scope to the researcher to experience the different outcome and variability that can
occur in the practical familiarity of the research. The theoretical approach to the research that
was conducted in a research lab or classroom is completely different from this kind of fieldwork.
The fieldwork enables the subjects to experience and collect specific data and practical
information that is not possible to gather within the confinement of a lab or a classroom.
Fieldwork principles and disciplines depend and vary according to the type of approach that a
particular research requires (Lara et al., 2019). This fieldwork if extended to foreign locations,
which are outside the particular city, involves tourism in its domain. Tourism has a farfetched
utility if the research fieldwork is based on the subject of gastronomy. The field of gastronomy
has a wide area of study for the field research to take place. Since the culinary and tourism
industries have collided due to high revenue income, the impact of gastronomy has farfetched
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areas of observation by the candidates of research fieldwork (López-Guzmán et al., 2017). The
detailed study of food and culture by the candidates help in gaining various kinds of ideas that
the gastronomy industry has involved in their culinary art in the recent times. The details and
data collected from this kind of fieldwork contribute to the overall development of an area where
the research is taking place. The contribution to fields of hospitality management and culinary art
is highly related in this type of practical research work (Navarro and Medina, 2018). The
economy, cultural admixture and potential development in terms of gastronomical development
related to study of food preparation and development are also major assets of conducting
fieldwork based on gastronomy. The potential attractiveness and competitive advantage of a
particular place is evaluated on high scale in terms of addressing to impact of gastronomy on
such practical fieldworks. The data thus collected can be implemented on other places with
stunted development of food culture and gastronomy.
The relatable and detailed studies in terms of gastronomy and food culture helps mainly in
highlighting the economic development of a particular area. The resources obtained from such
research work helps in the development of practical issues related to the field of gastronomy
(Sivakumaran and Prabodhani, 2018). This information is essential in the sustainable
development of a proper culinary industry and contributes to various arts and presentation of
food. The customers in an area where the culinary development is advanced spend more money
in this kind of advanced technological and practical implementation of gastronomical
development. This is the result of the data collected from the gastronomical fieldwork that took
place and has essentially contributed to the development of a particular industry. Due to
development of culinary and hospitality industry there is a huge expansion of economy that
provides more financial support by providing employment in these related fields of work.
Gastronomy also has the capability to contribute to the cultural development of food preference
in a particular destination by providing a huge scope of culinary presentations from various parts
of the globe (Daud et al., 2017). Therefore, the fieldworks are essential in causing a great deal of
improvement for a particular area by expanding the food preference of that area. The impact of
fieldwork therefore has immense impact on the development of gastronomy as an industry and
helps in the sustainable development of an area.
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Issues of Fieldwork on Gastronomical Development
The fieldwork is an essential part of a research assessment in developing practical skills for the
researchers to implement those in the relatable fields of work. The exclusive and unique result
that is obtained from a particular type of research helps in the development of a whole array of
industry. This type of development if not implemented with skill and enough experience might
produce certain limitations that can cause negative impact to the development of a place or an
industry (Pérez-Priego et al., 2019). The relatable aspects of issues that are often found due to
wrong collection of data from a fieldwork are connected to different sectors of the gastronomical
industry. The improper study from a fieldwork ultimately results in the ill development of the
gastronomic tourism. The gastronomic tourism basically pertains to development of a local
destination and also regulates and distributes the different areas of local and raw food products.
If reliable data is not gathered from the fieldwork, the development of gastronomic tourism in the
area is unable to sustain the changes and affect the development of that area in terms of growing
industry of gastronomy and tourism. This not only creates a barrier for growth of any single
industry, but also affects both the industries as a whole. The result of ineffective fieldwork on
gastronomical tourism also limits the networking of stakeholders who are essential subjects who
help in development of food distribution and manufacturing in a particular area. Many strategies
are implemented by thorough understanding of the data that is obtained from this industry. The
functional quality of these strategies are lost if no proper implementation is applied in the
required sectors of gastronomic tourism (Fusté Forné, 2017). If the strategies are not applied in a
correct method, the whole foundation of the relationship between the areas of gastronomy and
tourism industry can lose its core potential to develop as an independent industry. The ill
treatment of strategies also results in the collapse of the socio-economic development of the
gastronomic tourism, which essentially loses the logical context of production.
Methodology
Research Methodology
The research assessment of fieldwork to Barcelona will be conducted using deductive approach
instead of inductive approach, as it will help in gathering knowledge regarding the experience of
the students and evaluate the effectiveness of the fieldwork (Palinkas et al., 2015). The research
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approach that would be used is primary qualitative research. The purpose of taking primary
source as tools of research is due to getting information from the students regarding the
experience they gained at the exotic destinations at Barcelona. The data will be collected through
a semi-structured interview of three students, each of whom will be asked five to ten questions.
Semi-structured interviews are conducted through a set of some pre-determined questions, the
rest of which are unplanned (McIntosh and Morse, 2015). Thus, a similar set of questions will be
addressed to all the students, while the rest will be spontaneous and not pre determined. This
type of interview method include both structured and semi-structured mode of interview. These
set of questions will both objective and subjective that will allow the student to explore their
personal experiences as well as objective details of the fieldwork (Forrester and Sullivan, 2018).
This type of qualitative interview will explore the various responses that will be gathered from
the students, opening new areas of topic.
A Case Study of Barcelona and its Surroundings
The students visited Barcelona for a fieldwork on Gastronomic tourism and were taken to three
exotic landmarks in Barcelona. This helped them in evaluation of gastronomical data for the
research assessment. The students were taken to La Boqueria, Fabrica de Xocolata and Cava
Freixenet for fieldwork. Boqueria is a huge Spanish public market in the district of Barcelona,
Catalonia in Spain (de Madariaga and del Hoyo, 2019). This exotic market is one of the foremost
tourist landmarks in the city with a wide variation of local food products, starting from fruits,
vegetables to raw food items. The students could gather various data on the variation of raw food
items in the market that helped them to formulate their data. Barcelona has a rich collection of
chocolate factories, Spain being the country that originally introduced chocolate to the rest of
Europe. The students visited a number of chocolate factories that helped them to evaluate the
quality of chocolates required for data research on gastronomy. The location is Cava Freixenet
factories that introduce a rich collection of wine industry in the city (Fernández et al., 2016). The
entire range of wine vineyards and factories in Barcelona has helped the students in evaluation of
wine management, production and distribution in Spain. The data collected from this fieldwork
has helped the students in collecting effective data from this fieldwork.
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Qualitative Analysis
First Candidate
1. Did you visit Boqueria for the first time?
2. What was the memorable experience?
3. How was the food market in Boqueria?
4. How was the general gastronomy experience?
5. What Spanish food did you try in Boqueria?
6. Why the place looked so attractive to you?
7. What are the economic impacts of this food market on Barcelona?
Second Candidate
1. Did you visit Fabrica de Xocolata for the first time?
2. Why this part of Barcelona is famous?
3. What was most beautiful experience you have in Fabrica de Xocolata?
4. How can you say that the businesses in Fabrica de Xocolata have a competitive
advantage over others?
5. What were the food items you tried there?
6. Why would you like to visit there again?
7. How this place is contributing to the economic benefit of the country?
Third Candidate
1. Did you visit Cava Freixenet for the first time?
2. What was the most memorable experience gained from that place?
3. Why that place looked attractive to you?
4. What are the food items you tried there?
5. What is the relation between gastronomy and tourism in Cava Freixenet?
6. Why this Cava Freixenet is important for the financial enhancement of the city?
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Transcript:
First Candidate:
Interviewer: Did you visit Boqueria for the first time?
First Candidate: I have visited Boqueria last year with my family. This year luckily, I got
another opportunity, in the name of field study to visit the heart of Rablas.
Interviewer: What was the memorable experience?
First Candidate: The street was full of hustle and bustle. Numerous stalls were selling prawns,
crabs, oysters, etc. I liked the friendly nature of the stallholders who were conscious about the
fresh seafoods they were providing to their customers. In short, I can say that it was love at first
visit.
Interviewer: How was the food market in Boqueria?
First Candidate: The food market offered numerous delicious dishes for breakfast, lunch and
dinner. We had reached early for the market as more than 35,000 visitors were witnessed by
Boqueria every day and hence, there were no reservation. Meat of duck, hares, etc. were
displayed lavishly. Moreover, eggs of all sizes were available. I found ostrich eggs to be most
strange. The central area of the market was crowded as it offered seafood variety.
Interviewer: How was the general gastronomy experience?
First Candidate: It was indeed very good as Boqueria was an amalgamation of tourism and
gastronomy. Everything was perfectly arranged like beads in a string. I was surprised as food and
tourism were perfectly linked to one another. The shopping of food items included Ham, Read
meat, fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish and infinite items (Barcelona Food Tour, 2019). The
shopkeepers offered quality food products to us and indeed, they were fresh and affordable.
Interviewer: What Spanish food did you try in Boqueria?
First Candidate: As you know, Boqueria is famous for traditional Spanish dishes; we visited the
famous stalls that were established many years before. We visited stall 606 and tried fried eggs
with baby squid, grilled garlic shrimp and oxtail risotto. Then we visited stalls 465 to 469 and
tasted garbanzo beans with blood sausage. This part of the market is home to numerous Tapas
and is mostly family run business.
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Interviewer: Why the place looked so attractive to you?
First Candidate: Although the place was massively crowded, the ambience containing the
flavors of exploration and provender attracted me. Moreover, we visited the place for field study
and I found that Boqueria contained all the elements that we needed for our project. The health
and nutrients information along with a touch of expedition provided us a perfect site for our field
study.
Interviewer: What are the economic impacts of this food market on Barcelona?
First Candidate: As per my belief, the uncountable food stalls are a major source of income for
the tourism sector of Barcelona. The city has popularized Boqueria food market through
numerous marketing channels. Due to this, Boqueria has developed into a tourist spot attracting
tourists from all over the world. Thus, tourism industry and gastronomy is the source of GDP in
Spain.
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Second Candidate:
Interviewer: Did you visit Fabrica de Xocolata for the first time?
Second Candidate: Numerous times, I have thought to visit Fabrica de Xocolata, but the trip
could not happen. Therefore, when I got a chance to participate in the field study to Fabrica de
Xocolata, I did not lose this opportunity.
Interviewer: Why this part of Barcelona is famous?
Second Candidate: The chocolate museum located here not only offers different kinds of
chocolates and candies but additionally host numerous events. I found that children are
especially attracted towards this place as multiple events like chocolate making; chocolate
storytelling, etc. are hosted every month. They also organize events for adults like pasta
workshop, pastry workshop and many others. I visited the thematic dinner party organized by the
museum and was stunned to see that the kitchen contained Harry Potter, Musical, Star Wars, etc.
themes (Museuxocolata.cat, 2019).
Interviewer: What was most beautiful experience you have in Fabrica de Xocolata?
Second Candidate: The combination of tourism and gastronomy attracted my view. The place is
actually famous for chocolate manufacturing, but it is being turned into a tourist spot by offering
numerous chocolate food recipes. Thus, you can say that Fabrica de Xocolata is a mixture of
knowledge and experience. The best part of the whole field study lied in the workshop
participation in the chocolate factory. Especially, the children enjoyed every moment of
chocolate making and they were proudly presenting themselves as master chefs.
Interviewer: How can you say that the businesses in Fabrica de Xocolata have a competitive
advantage over others?
Second Candidate: This is the only place in Barcelona that offers tourism and gastronomy in one
hand. Fabrica de Xocolata is attracting numerous explorers who are interested in food cum
tourism industry. I believe this initiative has popularized Fabrica de Xocolata as the chocolate
factory of Barcelona.
Interviewer: What were the food items you tried there?
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