Food tourism reviewed

The purpose of this paper is to review the contribution of food to tourism with particular reference to the importance of food tourism and the factors which are critical to its success, highlighting topics for future research.

Findings are based on analysis of academic and practitioner materials in the public domain collected from a range of print and electronic sources.

Food is the subject of various types of tourism product and is a common theme in marketing, by businesses and destination authorities. Tourism in which food plays a primary or supporting role is already popular and has good prospects, but there are also challenges for the food and tourism industries to overcome, which vary with location.

Opportunities are suggested as well as some of the problems to be resolved by suppliers and marketers if the potential of food tourism is to be fully exploited.

The paper is a reassessment of the significance of food tourism as a product and market and a reminder of possible pitfalls regarding its successful sales and marketing.