Food Tourism and Regional Development ─ Networks, Products and Trajectories

Food tourism has emerged as a topic of increasing importance for many destinations. Seen as a means to potentially attract tourists and differentiate destinations and attractions by means of the association with particular products and cuisines, food is also regarded as a means to generate added value from tourism through local agricultural systems and supply chains and the local food system.

 From a regional development perspective this book goes beyond culinary tourism to also look at some of the various ways in which the interrelationships between food and tourism contribute to the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of destinations, communities and food producers. It examines the way in which tourism and food can mutually add value for each other from the fork to the plate and beyond. Looking at products, e.g. cheese, craft beer, noodles, wine; attractions, restaurants and events; and regional examples, e.g. Champagne, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Margaret River, southern Sweden, and Tuscany the title highlights how clustering, networking and the cultural economy of food and tourism and foodscapes adds value for regions. Despite the attention given to food, wine and culinary tourism no book has previously directly focused on the contribution of food and tourism in regional development. This international collection of chapters and case studies has contributors and examples from almost every continent and provides a comprehensive account of the various intersections between food tourism and regional development.

This timely and significant volume will inform future food tourism development and will be valuable reading for a range of disciplines including tourism, development studies, geography and environmental studies.

Michael Hall is a Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Docent, Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Finland; and Visiting Professor, Linneaus University, Kalmar, Sweden. Co-editor of Current Issues in Tourism he has wide ranging research interests in tourism, food, and environmental history.

Stefan Gossling is a Professor at the Department of Service Management, Lund University and the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus-University, Kalmar, Sweden, and research coordinator at the Western Norway Research Institute’s Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism. His research interests include tourism and climate change, tourism and development, mobility studies, renewable energy, low-carbon tourism, as well as climate policy and carbon trading.