Everything You Need to Know About Food Tourism

Food tourism is the exploration and discovery of food as the purpose of tourism. You visit different places to enjoy the views, and meanwhile, you also get exposed to the delicious items of that particular place. Food has become a vital component of tour experience because people believe that a person cannot fully experience the journey without tasting the local cuisine.

The public interest in the food has been drastically increasing, thereby making the food tourism a new global trend. Rather than sightseeing and journey, food tourism includes culinary experiences. Currently, the Airblue ticket price is quite low, and so, you should definitely visit the Arab countries to taste their food.

Today, we are going to take the readers to a profound dimension of food tourism, which you must never have experienced before. After reading our piece, you will definitely start considering yourself as a professional food tourist.

Activities of Food Tourism 

Before moving further, we want to enlighten the readers about the activities that can be appropriately described as food tourism. Because food tourism entails various dimensions of food, restaurants, hotels, markets, and hostels, all are amalgamated together. Knowing these things is imperative to experience this mesmerizing yet enigmatic entertainment.

• Taking a tour of street food
• Participating in cooking classes
• Tasting the dishes of your travel destinations
• Sharing the meals with your friends and relatives
• Visiting food exhibitions
• Following the cuisine routes of a particular region

Food Tourism and Economy

Estimating the exact economic impact of food tourism is immensely complicated. As per various experiments, visitors spend more than 25% of their overall travel budget on beverages and food. However, the figures may vary depending upon the nature of the destination. At expensive resorts, the figure can go to 35%, whereas at more affordable destinations, it can get as low as 15%. Similarly, food tourism also provides locals with an opportunity to start earning money from hotels and bars. It gives the local population a fantastic chance for suitable employment.

Food Tourism and Social Media

Currently, food bloggers and the people who run Instagram accounts are disseminating this trend worldwide. While eating something, they make the videos and entice the viewers to come and taste the dishes by themselves. On Instagram, food photography is one of the most popular forms of Instagram posts. Similarly, there are more than 20 million images on Instagram linked to the tags #delicious, #foodie, #foodvibes, and #cuisine. These pictures contribute to expanded brand awareness and recognition. Similarly, various food bloggers who have millions of followers are hired by the food brands to advertise their meals.

Cooking Classes for Food Tourism 

Cooking sessions and classes are quite common in various countries including, Italy, Japan, and France, where the foreign tourists are allowed to visit local villages to assemble the ingredients and later on, cook meals from those essentialities. It is not the same as watching the cooking programs on TV at home; instead, it is genuine experience at a place where the dish originates. 

There are even cooking competitions where the cooks from all across the world take part and show off their cooking skills. The judges evaluate their performance and give the winners huge prices. 

Latest Trends in Food Tourism 

Currently, culinary tourism is defining other forms of tourism. More and more people are now enjoying it, and it seems that in the next 5-6 years, food tourism will replace actual tourism. Even the governments of different countries are paying heed to this potential trend and capitalizing it for the betterment of their public.

Apart from offering magical benefits to the public, it is also proving to be immensely helpful for the farmers. Now, they grow more commodities and vegetables because they know that someone would immediately buy all of their products.

Dividends of Food Tourism 

Food tourism has lots of merits. From sustaining the economy of a country to enticing the tourist, it has the potential to overhaul a country’s image magically. The more people travel to the foodie destinations, the higher will be the worth of those places. Plus, the soft image of a country would also be depicted through its culinary items and dishes. Here are some of the major advantages that food tourism has to offer:

• Food tourism helps to protect the identity and culture of a region.
• It positively shapes the image of your country by highlighting the beautiful places and hotels.
• The rise of food tourism also helps in creating new products e.g., hotels and food utensils, thus creating more job opportunities. 
• It also familiarizes people with the rich culture and the landmark traditions of an area.
• If you are running a hotel at a tourist destination, then your online presence would increase, thereby boosting the fame of your brand. 

Popular Culinary Tourism Destination

The taste of every country is unique, but there are some jewels in the crown that beat the flavor of all other destinations. Each year, millions of people come to these countries and satiate their exploration as well as taste hunger. Moreover, food tourism also supports the economies of the respective countries, thereby enhancing the employment and economic growth. Here are some countries whose taste is amazingly scrumptious.

1. Saudi Arabia 

The Saudi Arabian cuisine has been serving the Arabian people for hundreds of years. The dishes have the influence of traditional Arab culture. Some of the common food items of the kingdom include seafood, lamb, rice, and wheat. The country strictly adheres to Islamic laws, and the drinking of alcoholic beverages and eating of pork is forbidden. The city of Jeddah is immensely famous for the dishes and people of Pakistan book Islamabad to Jeddah flights to reach there.

2. Indonesia

One of the best in Asia, Indonesian cuisine is a mixture of various food traditions. Indonesia is composed of 17,508 islands, so the variety of cuisines and recipes is also wide. All the cuisines have indigenous as well as foreign influences. The country has more than 5,000 recipes, and 30 among them are considered the most delicious. 

3. Mexico 

The cuisine of Mexico began some 9000 years ago when the ancient communities harvested the fields of corn and maize. The cuisine is cooked by using unique methods, including Otomi, Totonac, and Huastec. It is created mostly from the native Mexican ingredients and has been influenced by American culture. The most delicious items of the cuisine include adobada, rancheros, and tostada. 

4. South Africa 

South African cuisine is a collection of both the cookery of locals as well as immigrants. The colonial influence has mainly come from France, Germany, and the Netherlands. The indigenous cookery is generally done with the vegetables and beans, whereas the non-indigenous cookery includes meat and rice. The most famous South African dishes are raw boerewors, chakalaka relish, and potjiekos. 

5. Pakistan

Pakistani cuisine is a mixture of Arabian and Asian cultures. Apart from offering spicy and aromatic dishes, the country is also best known for its dry fruit and juices. The country has four provinces, and each of them has a different taste. Punjab is famous for the savory cuisine, while KPK and Baluchistan are widely known for tribal dishes. Similarly, Sindh province is generally flocked by the biryani lovers. To taste the cuisine of Islamabad, people in Lahore generally visit the city through Lahore to Islamabad flights.

Challenges in the Culinary Tourism 

Everything comes with some complexities, and the same is the case with food tourism. While it gives the people a relentless entertainment, it also faces various challenges that are important to address. If we do not pay heed to these shortcomings, then we might lose the charisma of this activity for good. Here are some of the major challenges in culinary tourism. 

• Obstructions and the hindrances by the governments.
• Expensive rates for most of the restaurants.
• Lack of awareness by the people of rural areas.
• Scarcity of place for tourist venues.

Conclusion 

Traveling to fascinating places will not only give you the chance to experience the breathtaking views but also provide you with amazingly delicious meals. You need to know all the things mentioned here if you want to enjoy this activity to the fullest. If you are planning to hit the taste, then visit faremakers.com and book the online ticket for the best foodie destinations.