Food tourism refers to trips made to destinations where the local food and beverages are the main motivating factors for travel. It is also known as “Gastronomic tourism”, “tasting tourism” or “culinary tourism”. What this means is there is a particular audience of people who are willing to travel the world in order to sample and experience authentic international cuisines.
In Food tourism, food is the attraction.
DIFFERENT STAGES OF FOOD TOURISM:
• Pre- travel: food from the region at home
•On the plane
•Food at the destination
• Post-travel
One famous type of food tourism is Chocolate tourism. People travel from one place to another to taste different types of chocolate. Switzerland and Belgium are from chocolate top destinations in the world.
History of food tourism:
Since the early stages of traveling and tourism it was related to food and it used to be named as ''traveling for food'' people in this early begging's started to travel for food as it was using for cure from diseases and exchanging cultures.
The first country that was popular with it cuisine and food was France.
Italy is also one of the greatest countries that have been strongly associated with food tourism and its popular dishes pizza and pasta become an international phenomenon.
As an emerging travel trend, food or culinary tourism became prominent in 2001 when Erik Wolf, President of the International Culinary Tourism Association (ICTA), presented a white paper about food or culinary tourism to his organization. The paper evolved into a book that documented the growing interest in food tourism and how requests for food tours could drive local businesses and restaurateurs to meet the growing demand.
It should be noted that As a result of the strong relationship between food and tourism led to the establishment of the Faculty of Food and Tourism in 2007 at the Transylvania University of Brasov with the goal to set up the concept of food tourism.