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| © 2019 World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. § Subject Page 1 Welcome 4 2 Executive Summary: What You Can Expect 5 3 Importance of the Food Tourism Industry Today 9 4 Assessing the Performance of Food Tourism Providers 15 “Food tourism is no longer a SEGMENT in 5 Considerations for Improving the Food Tourism Experience 21 tourism, it is the core of 6 Key Food Tourism Issues 27 travel experience and a 7 Areas for Improvement in the Food Tourism Industry 33 MUST in all destination marketing. 8 Spotlight on Preserving Culinary Authenticity 37 9 Educating Visitors with Food & Drink 41 Food is well accepted as 10 Nurturing the Development of Food and Drink Activities 44 part of the 'Must do' when traveling, not an 11 Key Takeaways 50 experience kept solely 12 About the Expert Panelists 53 for Foodies.” 13 About the Research & Research Team 57 Udi Goldschmidt 14 2019 Industry Calendar 61 © 2019 by World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. Readers may use excerpts from this work as long as credit is published with the extract and attributed as follows: “Credit: World Food Travel Association”. Authored by Matthew J. Stone PhD, Steven Migacz PhD, Roberta Garibaldi PhD, & Erik Wolf, MA, MCTP N.B.: Both US and UK English are used throughout this report because we include content from respondents from dozens of countries. © 2019 World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. © 2019 World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. Dear Reader, With this 2019 State of the Food Travel Industry report, we are pleased to present our new, annual bellwether of the food and beverage tourism industry. The purpose of this report is literally to present the state of our industry – what we’re doing well, our challenges, and some expert suggestions about how we can improve. This report does not cover food travelers, demographics, psychographics, segmentation and so on. Readers interested in that type of research are better off with one of our Food Travel Monitor reports. Consumers today are more obsessed than ever with quality food and drink products and experiences. Perhaps because of this, it stands to reason, and most consumers and trade will agree, that food and “Our industry has never beverage now make a profound impact on the experience that most travelers have today. After all, it is our had a resource like this experience with food and beverage that contribute so significantly to our impression of a destination. Report - a consistent beacon of progress, and For this report, we assembled some of the world’s most knowledgeable luminaries on food and beverage that is exactly our intent tourism to provide insight on the most important issues facing our industry today. by bringing this report to you on an annual I would like to personally thank our panel of industry experts who gave freely of their time and knowledge to basis.” help us craft a common understanding of the state of our industry right now. You can meet our esteemed panel of experts at the end of the report. World Food Travel We hope that you find this report of use. If you want to know more about creating better experiences for Association food- or drink-loving travelers, or if you have comments or suggestions for future reports, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Remember – Eat Well, and Travel Better, Erik Wolf, Executive Director World Food Travel Association (WFTA) © 2019 World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. The World Food Travel Association enlisted experts in tourism and food tourism from over 20 countries to provide insight on the current and projected state of the food tourism industry. This 2019 State of the Industry Report is intended to help industry stakeholders better understand the current food tourism industry; devise food tourism plans and strategies; and develop better food/beverage tourism products. SUBSTANTIAL BENEFITS ARE NOT FULLY REALIZED Food and drink experiences are certainly entertaining and enjoyable for travelers, but these experiences can provide additional substantial benefits, positively impacting everyone, from visitors to local businesses and residents. Besides the obvious economic impact, food tourism can benefit us by creating cross-cultural connections, preserving heritage and traditions, and contributing to the “There was a major gap sustainability of destinations and their culture. in how satisfied the experts were with how MAIN AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT well food tourism Specific areas for improvement in food tourism include opportunities for stakeholders to work together providers were actually and align plans and strategies to ensure that authentic and local experiences are offered sustainably to achieving important maintain local heritage and educate all locals. goals.” Food tourism contributes to economic sustainability, sociocultural sustainability, and environmental World Food Travel sustainability. It is therefore important for food and drink experiences to generate positive economic Association impact and also protect local heritage. While food tourism is often seen as providing experiences and benefits to tourists, it has important outcomes for residents. PERFORMANCE GAPS WERE IDENTIFIED However, there was a major gap in how well food tourism providers were actually achieving important goals. For 13 important goals that were identified, there was a major gap between importance and performance, indicating major opportunities for food and drink providers to improve, notably in: • protecting local heritage through food and drink; • generating positive economic impact; and • using food and drink to provide a sense of local pride to residents. © 2019 World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. KEY POSITIVE & NEGATIVE FACTORS There are many factors which are projected to impact food tourism in the next two years. The factors predicted to have the greatest positive impact (excluding overall growth in food tourism) focused on availability of information. The three most positive factors are the impact of social media; travelers having sufficient information about food and drink before travelling; and the role of food and travel programs (including TV and internet) in motivating travelers. Negative impacts varied from global to local, but focused on the difficulty of maintaining authentic and local offerings. The three largest negative factors are difficulty of maintaining the viability of small businesses and farms; oversaturation of food/drink offerings; and the growth in globally standardized experiences. IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY It is important for food tourism to provide an authentic experience to visitors. A solid, well-crafted strategy “A solid, well-crafted appears to be most important tool for destinations to wield. That includes: strategy appears to be the most important tool • developing a local gastronomy/food tourism strategy or plan; for destinations to • easing regulations for home-based and small craft businesses; and wield.” • aligning various food tourism and tourism providers to the same goals. World Food Travel STAKEHOLDERS NEED TO TAKE IN A 360-DEGREE VIEW Association The roles of many different kinds of stakeholders were considered. Governments should fund programs to preserve and publicize local food and drink traditions. Residents and hospitality/tourism employees both need to know more about local food and drink traditions. We also need to involve younger residents in understanding their food cultures. And we need to educate visitors about the food and drink products and experiences they are enjoying. GREATEST GROWTH Looking into the near future, we expect to see the most growth in active combination experiences (like culinary bike tours), street food, in-home experiences, and multi-day tours focusing on food and drink. Without further ado, now let’s get into the “meat” of the report. © 2019 World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. Many of our readers are seasoned food tourism professionals and may believe they fully understand what food tourism means. Therefore they may find a definition of “food tourism” unnecessary. That said, we continue to find a wide variance in understanding among consumers and trade alike. Also, our industry continues to change. It is important to remind all of our readers how we define food tourism, today. Professionals, academics and others continue to put forward their own definitions of food tourism, culinary tourism and gastronomy tourism. To us, these phrases are all equivalent to describe the same phenomenon. There are certainly nuances in meaning among the differing terms that describe our industry. While “Food tourism is the act some may wish to get quite specific and offer lengthy definitions, we find that simple is best. Therefore, of traveling for a taste of in 2018, we introduced the following new and overarching definition of our food tourism: place in order to get a sense of place.” “Food tourism is the act of traveling for a taste of place in order to get a sense of place.” World Food Travel Briefly, our definition includes beverage-loving travelers as much as food-loving travelers. It includes Association Definition farm visitors, as well as gourmet aficionados, It encompasses nearly 20 different industry sectors and nearly two dozen types of activities. We also now see that locals can be considered food “travelers” right where they live. For a longer discussion of “food tourism” and how the term evolved, please visit: © 2019 World Food Travel Association. All rights reserved. | Get the recognition your business or destination deserves. Apply for the world’s largest food and beverage tourism awards, recognizing innovation & excellence in our industry. Winners get a beautiful crystal display plaque and free admission to FoodTreX London (where the Awards ceremony takes place). Applications Open March 15, 2019 Applications Close May 31, 2019 Who better to recognize excellence in food Awards Ceremony in London Nov. 3, 2019 and beverage tourism than the World Food Travel Association? We pioneered our industry's first awards and are behind our industry's most innovative programming. www.FoodTrekkingAwards.org © 2019 World Food Travel Association.