Collaborative Economy and Cuisine in France and Around the World

This essay examines the collaborative economy and collaborative cuisine within the travel and tourism industry, focusing primarily on France and its broader European context. It discusses the rise of peer-to-peer networks and online platforms that facilitate interactions between producers and consumers, highlighting examples such as car sharing, house sharing, and collaborative cuisine platforms like EatWith and VizEat. The essay also addresses the economic impact of the sharing economy, noting its significant revenue generation within the EU, particularly in accommodation and transport sectors. It further explores the role of travelers and businesses in utilizing and providing collaborative services, emphasizing the flexibility and efficiency these models offer. The European Commission's efforts to balance traditional and collaborative economies are mentioned, as well as the challenges and opportunities presented by this evolving economic landscape. Desklib offers similar essays and resources for students.

Running head: TRAVEL AND TOURISM
A Research on Collaborative Economy and Collaborative Cuisine in France and Around the
World
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Collaborative economy in France and around the world
Collaborative economy refers to the concept of the interaction and participation of the
producers and consumers over the online and peer-to-peer networks and platforms (weforum.org,
2017). It is also known as sharing economy. As the world is becoming heavily dependent on the
internet and technologies have been developed for online based economic activities, the growth
of the collaborative economy has been exceptional in the past decade. This economy mainly
includes the interaction between the horizontal networks and community participation, through
internet based activities, apart from peer-to-peer networks. This economy prevails in almost all
types of industry across the Europe and travel and tourism is one of them. The collaborative
economy services in this industry include car rental, car sharing, house sharing, and collaborative
cuisine, spread across all the countries in Europe (Petropoulos, 2017).
With the development of internet and smartphone technologies, the concept of
collaborative cuisine has become immensely popular. In this cuisine, the food market and the
restaurants are using websites and apps to do business with the customers, apart from the
personalized services. Apart from the internet and app based services, the businesses involved in
creating collaborative cuisine platform, also focus on peer-to-peer interaction and participation
with the consumers. Various types of food apps are being developed for the purpose of
establishing a platform for collaborative cuisine (Trendhunter.com, 2018). Interactive platform
for the consumers regarding the choice and making of the food has been extensively used by the
restaurants to make more direct connection with the consumers, which is the core purpose of
collaborative cuisine. There are some platforms, such as, EatWith, that allow the visitors to get
involved with the locals to get a taste of their regional food at a reasonable price (EatWith.com,
2018). European VizEat has acquired US based EatWith and now operates in more than 130
countries, making it one of the biggest platforms in collaborative cuisine across Europe and USA
(O’Hear, 2017).
In Europe, the collaborative economy has become prevalent since past decade. The
collaborative activities are not only based on the internet, but on direct peer-to-peer interactions
also. On one hand, this provides new opportunities for businesses between the innovative
entrepreneurs and citizens of Europe, on the other hand, it has also created tensions between the
existing market operators and new service providers. The European Commission has been taking

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initiatives to create a balance between the traditional market economy and collaborative
economy to promote growth in both (ec.europa.eu, 2017). France is no exception. Being one of
the most developed countries in the world, with a rich history of politics, culture, cuisine and
many more, France has always been a popular travel destination for visitors from all across the
world. With the emergence of the collaborative economy in Europe, France has also taken part in
this revolution. The businesses related to travel and tourism in that country has taken active
participation in this economy, which has encouraged the visitors to participate also. To promote a
balanced development of collaborative economy in Europe, the EU has provided clarity on the
relevant EU policies, rules and regulations for helping the new and existing businesses and the
citizens (Petropoulos, 2017). These initiatives also include the policies for collaborative cuisines.
The concept of collaborative economy was started by the startups like Zipcar, Eatwith,
Airbnb. Currently, it is expanding to the food industry. It is seen that increasing number of
companies are developing collaborative marketplaces for exchanging food products and
platforms for sharing cuisine experences. This promotes a collaborative consumption model
through networks of peer-to-peer food sharing. Many of such collaborative cuisine projects
address challenges like food waste, and meet some social problems in the local communities.
The users of collaborative economy are the users of the products and services available
under sharing economy. According to a report of European Parliamentary Research Service
(EPRS), in 2015, the gross revenue from the sharing economy platforms and providers for EU
generated around €28 billion, in which the tourism industry has been a major contributor.
Accommodation and transport are the two major sectors in this industry that earned the
maximum revenue. It is also found that 85% of the revenue is generated from the providers while
platform revenues depend mostly on the fixed or variable commissions, with around 20%
coming from the ride sharing services and 1% or 2% from the peer-to-peer lending (EPRS,
2017). The travelers, travelling for different purposes, like, business, study, and vacation are the
major users of the collaborative economy as well as cuisines. This type of economy offers
greater flexibility and efficiency to the travelers, customers and to the owners. For example,
Uber uses online platform to connect the customers with the drivers and it provides the facility
for surge pricing for the drivers during the times of higher demand. Hence, it is making the
service flexible and profitable for both the customers and providers. It is estimated that by 2025,

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this economy will grow to $335 billion from $14 billion in 2014 (Karsten, 2017). The users are
of the cuisines are mostly the customers or travelers who prefer to participate in interactive food
service, like in the case of ordering the pizza online, checking the preparation status and getting
it delivered on time. The international visitors, who prefer to be involved in slow tourism due to
their thirst of exploration of the country, are also the users of collaborative cuisine, as this gives
the scope of getting involved directly with the locals in the regional food consumption process.
EPRS (2017) also showed that the business associations of hotels, cafes, restaurants, ride
sharing services, accommodation sharing services and tour service operators are the ones who
offer the services in collaborative economy. For example, in the European countries, Airbnb and
Homeaway provide the accommodation sharing services, Uber and BlaBlaCar operate in the
transport sharing sector, EatWith and VizEat operate in the food and dining that is in the
collaborative cuisine, and Vayable and ToursByLocals are travel service sharing platforms.

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Table 1: Examples and numbers of collaborative economy in tourism industry of EU
(Source: EPRS, 2017)
Hence, it can be said that, collaborative economy as well as collaborative cuisines is
mostly found in the travel and tourism sector, as this industry provides the opportunity for
immersive tourism along with the scope of experiencing the authentic cuisine.

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References
Eatwith.com. (2018). Food Events With Locals Around The World | Eatwith. Eatwith.com.
Retrieved 12 April 2018, from https://www.eatwith.com/pages/about-us?c=EUR
ec.europa.eu. (2017). Collaborative economy - Growth - European Commission. Growth:
Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Retrieved 12 April 2018, from
http://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/services/collaborative-economy_en
EPRS. (2017). Tourism and the sharing economy. European Parliamentary Research Service.
Retrieved from
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2017/595897/EPRS_BRI(2017)59
5897_EN.pdf
Karsten, J. (2017). Sharing economy offers flexibility and efficiency to consumers. Brookings.
Retrieved 12 April 2018, from
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2017/01/09/sharing-economy-offers-flexibility-
and-efficiency-to-consumers/
O'Hear, S. (2017). European ‘social eating platform’ VizEat acquires U.S.-based
EatWith. TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 April 2018, from
https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/07/vizeat-swallows-eatwith/
Petropoulos, G. (2017). An economic review of the collaborative economy. European
Parliamentary Research Service. Retrieved from
http://bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PC-05-2017.pdf
Trendhunter.com. (2018). Collaborative Cuisine - Apps in the food market hone in on a
communal approach to dining. Trendhunter.com. Retrieved 12 April 2018, from
https://www.trendhunter.com/protrends/collaborative-cuisine
weforum.org. (2017). Collaboration in Cities: From Sharing to ‘Sharing Economy’. World
Economic Forum. Retrieved from
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/White_Paper_Collaboration_in_Cities_report_2017.pdf

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