Origin and Current Situation of Food and Drink Tourism

Food and drink tourism is considered as the act of travelling by the tourists for having the taste of a place so as to understand the actual sense or value of that particular place. There has been significant changes in the usage of the term ‘food and drink tourism’ or simply, ‘food tourism’ in the last few decades, but it has to be said that this form of tourism has been gaining much importance in recent time. As commented by Boniface (2017), food and drink tourism is cumbersome to say because when we say food tourism, it automatically implies that the tourists will have some drink as well and thus the term, food and drink tourism.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the origin and the current situation of food and drink tourism in general as well as focusing on the context of Ireland. A critical analysis of the current food and drink tourism will be carried on by providing examples of international tourism. Based on the findings, certain future recommendations will be made that would help in enhancing this form of tourism, focusing especially on Ireland.

The beginning and the origin of food and drink tourism cannot be determined but this form of tourism gained most popularity in the year 2001. It was estimated by the World Food Travel Association that around 15% to 35% of all the spending is spent on food and drink by the tourists on their visit to a particular destination (Worldfoodtravel.org 2016). As pointed out by Bussell et al. (2014), there were enough researches and evidences to show that food is a major attraction for the tourists and so the attraction of a place can be easily increased if more attention is given to the special food and the drinks those are available to attract more tourists. Data collected from the world’s largest food and beverage tourism research project, the tourism has showed specific impact on the economic, cultural as well as technological perspectives. In the view point of de Jong (2017), tourism gives the pleasure of leisure to the traveller but tourism activities contribute largely to the economic enhancement of a country. Considering the economic impact, food tourism helps in improving the economy of a country as it benefits by increasing the number of visitors, increased tax revenue of the host country, increase in the sales of the products along with the increased media attention (Jung et al. 2017).

The food and drink tourism contributes equally in shaping the culture and tradition of a country and thus, has cultural impact as well. For instance, India has eventually attracted many tourists from around the world just for the various kinds of food that are available in the different parts of the country (Everett 2016). For example, North-Eastern regions like Lucknow, Delhi, Haryana are famous for the food those are famous as Mughlai food that belongs to the era of Mughals. Kolkata, India is another place renowned for the variety of street foods that it offers at a very cheap price. This also gives a historical evidence of the place and the food that attracts more tourists from the country itself as well as from international forums. Another example of a place that attracts tourists on account of the famous food and drinks is Thailand and its neighbouring places those are famous for the famous sea food and the exotic drinks. These add to the cultural factors of the tourism activities (Everett 2016).

Food and Drink Tourism in Ireland

The food tourism in Ireland has aimed to improve the experience of the visitors by offering them the special and exotic food and drink those are exclusively available at Ireland. The Failte Ireland has supported the objective of food and drink tourism to build up a memorable experience to the one visiting the country. As commented by Boniface (2017), the visitors are considered as the consumers and the country has to make things available so that the consumers can buy those things. This particular platform gives opportunities to the travellers to post their experience and share the same with others. This is another unique way where the advanced technological factors have contributed towards the improvement of tourism of the country (Ireland.com 2018). According to the Food Tourism Development strategy, Ireland has to undertake various approaches in large measures to set strategies that would help to attract more tourists to the place on account of the food availability of the country (Failteireland.ie  2018). Reading Bussell et al. (2014), it has been noted that it has become an important and integral part for Ireland to increase its tourism impact in order to bring economic prosperity of the country. The country keeps a symbol of heritage and in order to maintain the same heritage, the government have to earn that revenue. This can only be gained if the tourism industry sees a bloom. Thus, any effort made to increase the tourism activities of Ireland would benefit the country from various instances.

Food is also considered as a global tangible element that can create the essence of both heritage and culture. As pointed out by de Jong (2017), that Ireland is not famous for nay National or International events like World Cup or the Olympics and thus, it reduces the scope of numbers of visitors in the country. The European culture along with the scenic beauty of nature makers the place ideal for vacations and tourism. However, in order to ensure that the number of tourists increases and the tourism activities go on throughout the year, focusing on food and drink tourism is indeed necessary.

As stated by Carruthers et al. (2015), there has been a boom in the travel and tourism sector and all the countries are focusing on their investment to attract more and more tourists from around the world. People spend around 35% in food and drinks while they travel to a country and if focus is being made towards this particular sector, it would definitely bring better results in the revenue generated from the tourism activities (Worldfoodtravel.org 2016). As pointed out by Baldacchino (2015), that when a traveller is asked about their most satisfactory part of their visit to a particular country or place, it is found that they often respond on the taste of the food and drinks that they have experienced there. To add to this point, Baldacchino (2015) said that of course the location and the tourist spots are of great excitements to the visitors but this excitement is often shadowed because of the increasing population in the place, along with it the degrading condition of the environment and lack of sustainability approach from the government. Again, the places could also viewed from various sources but the food cannot be tasted unless one visits the particular place in person. Thus, the importance of food and drinks automatically increases when it adds to the value of tourism activities.

Critical Analysis of Current Food and Drink Tourism

Arguing on the importance of food and drink tourism compared to the other forms of tourism, Ireland (2016) stated that the international competition in tourism sector has been increasing. Innovative ideas are the only way of improving the condition of an existing platform. There has been wide range of theme parks like Disney land, monuments like Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and others those require great investments as well as longer duration for the completion of the projects. However, if the concept of innovative and exclusive food and drink is introduced in a place, it would definitely help to attract huge numbers of people and at the same time would have the ability to satisfy their hunger and thirst and can leave a longer impact on their memory (Ireland 2016). This in turn would also help in mouth publicity and can enable others to visit this part of the world just for the sake of challenging their taste buds.

Supporting to the point of improvement in the food and beverages offered by Irish, Everett (2016) stated that while Irish food has improved a lot, there is still the scope of making things better as the competition of better food and beverages has been increasing throughout the world. A number of recommendations can be stated as below:

1. Increased availability of the Irish food and beverages with the relevant agencies in order to make the food available across every part of the country and to maintain sustainability in the sector as well.
2. Offering a world class variety of food as it has been found that the tourists to Ireland are from around the world and they would not like to have similar kind of food, but would like to have different types of food.
3. Ireland can adopt strategies where the food items would differ from one part of the country to the other. This way, the tourists would find it more delightful to visit the different parts of the country in order to get the taste of the food.

Tourism in Ireland has opportunities not only in terms of attracting more number of tourists every year but the tourism would highly impact on the economy, job and the career of the people of Ireland. As pointed out by BUssell et al. (2014), food and drink tourism would automatically give more job opportunities to the chef and the restaurateurs as they would focus on preparing new dishes or food items for the visitors. Tourism will eventually help in increasing the revenue of the country. It will open up the door for digital marketing as well as in the presence of the social media sites; the concept of sharing and posting has increased. Thus, the opportunity of technological, social and the cultural impact increase in this respect.

Conclusion:

The study aimed at understanding the importance of food and drink tourism in the recent context of tourism. It has been found that tourism activities add to the economic, social, cultural as well as the technological factors of a country. In fact, tourism activities also generate enough revenue in the form of job offers and thus, help in employment as well. Considering the role of food and drink tourism, it can be said that it is an easy and unique way of attracting more numbers of tourists in a country as enough innovative approaches can be taken in this form of tourism. Ireland has its own heritage and the special food and drinks that can be offered through the tourism activities. It is expected that the country focuses on this perspective and would increase the number of visitors.

References:

Baldacchino, G., 2015. Feeding the rural tourism strategy? Food and notions of place and identity. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 15(1-2), pp.223-238.

Boniface, P., 2017. Tasting tourism: Travelling for food and drink. Routledge.

Bussell, J., Campbell, C., Lange-Faria, W. and McAree, K. eds., 2014. Have fork will travel: A practical handbook for food & drink tourism professionals. World Food Travel Association.

Carruthers, C., Burns, A. and Elliott, G., 2015. Development, sustainability and applications–a case study of County Cork, Republic of Ireland. The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Food and Gastronomy. Abingdon: Routledge, pp.360-9.

de Jong, A., 2017. Food and drink tourism: principles and perspectives. Tourism Planning and Development, 14(4), pp.585-586.

Everett, S., 2016. Food and drink tourism: Principles and practice. Sage.

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Irishtimes.com 2016 Fáilte Ireland wants to make food central draw for tourists Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/f%C3%A1ilte-ireland-wants-to-make-food-central-draw-for-tourists-1.3368742 [Accessed on: 7-12-2018]

Jung, T., Ineson, E.M., Kim, M. and Yap, M.H., 2015. Influence of festival attribute qualities on Slow Food tourists’ experience, satisfaction level and revisit intention: The case of the Mold Food and Drink Festival. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 21(3), pp.277-288.

Mottiar, Z., Quinn, B. and Ryan, T., 2016. Developing Cultural Tourism Through Cross-Sector Co-operation: Evidence from the West of Ireland. 21(3), pp.277-288

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