Introducing Food Tourism

When visiting a foreign country, it’s a waste of time to try a famous restaurant instead of heading to a local establishment. Different cultures also have different tastes. That can be clearly seen while travelling across Asia when you have to specifically point out that you’d like your order to be less spicy than the one usually meant for the locals because, trust me, trying to swallow down a bowl of hot curry can be a bit hard for a Westerner.

Great food and ultimately great drinks can compete with the world’s major landmarks. Traditional cuisine is increasingly becoming the sole reason for visiting a place. It represents a story people want to experience during their visit. More and more tourist destinations are trying to cling to this fact, and I’ll present a few examples of good practice below. Apulia is a region that stretches at the heel of the Italian boot. The local tourist campaign is focused on natural wonders, architecture, and local cuisine that actually made the whole boot famous. It encourages tourists to shift outside of the traditional tourist flows and stop at a small, charming trattoria right in the middle of a village piazza. The campaign’s video and website present food preparation and associate it with its place of origin.

When you think of Texan food, what probably comes to mind is fast food and an awful lot of meat, but Texas is way more than just that. One of the reasons is the large percentage of the Spanish speaking population that tends to make Texan food spicier. With the help of the Discover More Texas campaign, the locals are trying to encourage tourists to fully tap into Texas, including through cuisine. They’re trying to accomplish this with various texts, each one representing a specific region and its culinary features. I guess I should also mention that all these campaigns have a positive effect on tourists flows.

HI hostels in Luxembourg provide daily meals for schools and kindergartens. These meals are fresh, and after all the cooking, there are still some ingredients left. So, the staff have decided to make new meals out of these ingredients and leave them in a common fridge on the main street, which runs through the village, each day. But don’t worry, everything is completely hygienic and organic, as containers in which they store food are made out of sugar cane and bamboo and are sealed with 100% biodegradable polymer. The staff then posts the number of available meals on their Facebook page and each meal costs three euros. Payment is based on honour system, as there is no one to monitor the whole thing. The project has been extremely successful, and the locals are more than eager to promote it. It shows perfectly what you can do with excess food.

But the importance of cuisine for the local population is especially noticeable when it comes to minorities that live in a certain country. These minorities often own establishments with food that is typical for their country of origin and their establishments aren’t only an important source of income, but also a new home for all the members of the same nation whose real home is far away. They represent true social gathering place. People are usually proud of their traditional cuisine and you can often hear from expats how they miss their home food. You could say that food is quite a welcome topic when it comes to conversations. Every local will gladly tell you more about their dish, and if you compare all these stories, you can see that each region has its own story. Particularly interesting conversations pop up when people come together to make a dish, so it’s also good to take part in cooking classes. Cookly Me offers cooking classes that are often even held at a local’s home, plus HI members get 20% off.

The way you eat says a lot about you and your culture. And, oftentimes, the meal itself can be quite a social event. Take Spain, for example, where people don’t go out for dinner before 9 o’clock. But soon after that, a true quest starts when people visit one taberna after another, and non-touristy places also offer a large portion of tapas to go with your coffee or beer. But in Spain, dinner is a social event and going from one tapas bar to another is a perfectly usual routine. Dinner is also a special event for Chinese families. The whole family always eats from a single large bowl and that is meant to represent the closeness between the family members.

You can promote sustainable tourism and local communities by shopping at local markets, on streets or even directly at homes or by ordering lunch at a local establishment. Subsequently, you’re also promoting agriculture that provides food and income for the whole population. Farmers are also guardians of the cultural landscape that often adds an important aesthetic aspect to a tourist destination. If you want to support organic agriculture, simply choose organic farms on your next visit.

Another special kind of adventure is ordering food from a menu you don’t understand. That’s why it’s good to know at least a few basic words related to food, so as to make everything much easier. Of course, you can ask a waiter or people sitting at the table next to you for help, but misunderstandings can quickly arise. Though, you can still, despite understanding all the words on the menu, end up with a plate of weirdly coloured food that tastes strange, or you might get a dish that’s way too spicy for consumption. But it’s sometimes still fun taking the risk and try it all out. Though, you should always know when to call it a day. It’s not really pleasant, if you end up eating tasteless powders and are stuck in bed for the rest of the trip. And it’s difficult walking through the city with every street being filled with a different smell. It’s always obvious you shouldn’t drink polluted water, but then again, you sometimes do forget that the ice cubes in your drink were made using that same water. A solution that can help you avoid polluted water and any trouble that may arise due to it, is filtering it with LifeStraw filters that remove bacteria, parasites and microplastics from the water. They can filter up to 4,000 litres of polluted water directly from a stream, river, lake and even tap. They’re also very easy to clean and store. HI members get 15% off all LifeStraw purchases.

Food tourism attracts people to non-touristy places that don’t exactly have many landmarks to offer. And when you visit an establishment, it doesn’t matter what season it is, which means this type of tourism attracts visitors throughout the whole year, providing locals with constant income. And to top it all off, food tourism also stands side by side with sustainable tourism.