Gastronomy: A Major Ally to Tourism

Italian, Greek and Uruguayan gastronomy cases, presented in one of the panels of Destinations2006, showed the importance of partnerships, either with local producers, governments, corporations or the civil society. The panel also showed that gastronomy is not just a tourism component, but rather a major sustainable development tool.

Italian, Greek and Uruguayan gastronomy cases, presented in one of the panels of Destinations2006, showed the importance of partnerships, either with local producers, governments, corporations or the civil society.

The panelist Magda Antonioli, in charge of one of the 131 tourism routes existing in Italy, stressed the importance of caring about the quality of gastronomic products offered to tourists. "We try to promote our region and products by means of our gastronomy," said Antonioli. In her presentation, she underscored that the responsibility for ensuring proper food conditions is not the tourist guide's, but rather the farmer's, who knows how to handle the raw material. In addition to the product quality, highlighted the great importance of ensuring the typical atmosphere, the setting and the climate of the place, thus ensuring the essence of the local gastronomy.

Another point made by Antonioli was the quality of the human resources, viz. those involved in the food production, from the farmer to the chef. Thus, she advocates the need for building the professionals' skills, so that they can play their roles accordingly. Antonioli explains that it's valid to bring together different people to show them what is good, what is worthwhile, to address how important the product quality is, and to help farmers to communicate. However, she said we shouldn’t come up with out-of-the-box rules, but rather show the way, since each individual should optimize the information to his/her reality.
In her presentation, Antonioli also stressed the importance of combining technology tools to tourism and gastronomy, quoting the "palm tours", devices that enable the tourists to design their own routes, as an example.

Flavours of Crete
The case on the Isle of Crete, Greece, was presented by Nikki Rose, responsible for an agritourism program in the region. By proposing the question: "Who should the visitor to Greece really meet?", Nikki suggests introducing to tourists to Crete local people who are self-reliant, who bake their own bread, fish, harvest and, thus, develop a quite peculiar cuisine. At this Greek isle, there are over 3 million olive trees, and 70 percent of the inhabitants still pick olives, which highlights the agricultural essence and the gastronomic potential of Crete.
In addition to olive oil, other typical foods of Crete include honey, wheat bread, wine, and a sort of grape-distilled alcohol. The region is also known by the power of Greek history, by the large number of churches, in addition to caves and beautiful, quiet beaches. According to Rose, all those elements are embedded in Cretan gastronomy.
When addressing the issue of major hotel networks settling in the region, the panellist is critical and assertive: "Major hotel networks don't support local communities. Thousands of people go to Crete, arriving by plane or large buses, board in luxury places, but don't care about knowing the genuine Greek culture." Therefore, this is the big challenge facing Rose's work: showing the importance of the people living in Crete, valuing the farmers, fishers, and leveraging gastronomy as a major tool to this purpose.

Natural Uruguay
A successful marketing strategy was presented by the panelist AlГѓВ­cia Agosto, responsible for the "Natural Uruguay – A Tour through Senses" program, which values the natural beauty, and the meat and wine produced in Uruguay.
Agosto presented a wealth of communication materials used to boost the image of Uruguay as an attractive tourism destination for South-American, North-American and European visitors. The examples quoted include cookbooks, videos on Uruguayan landscapes, cook-offs, and the participation in international tourism and gastronomy trade shows.
According to Agosto, the results achieved by the "Natural Uruguay" program are very expressive, since tourism brings direct and indirect benefits to the local economy. "The number of tourists from the United States and Canada has significantly increased since the implementation of the project. In the past, we received more visitors from Argentina and Brazil, but now we see a marked increase in travels of North-American and European tourists to Uruguay," finished Agosto.
 

December 5, 2006   Posted in: Travel Industry Info