Consumer Awarness of food tourism

In the 1970s the consumer became more aware of the different types of food available and the quality of food they were consuming. Prior to this most consumers relied on the local supermarket or grocery store, which in turn, in order to survive, evolved into out-of-town food halls. At the same time though, another movement started; the development of farmers’ markets and farm retail experiences. This in turn was followed by a surge in food programmes on TV and the arrival of the celebrity chefs who today, in many countries, are as popular as rock stars. In 1945 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations set up World Food Day9 on 16 October each year. The original aim was to help develop further interest in food origins and bring attention to the food dilemma in third-world countries. Each year the event has a different theme and becomes more recognized as an important date in the calendar. Although originally focused on preventing starvation, over the years the day has developed to have a wider appeal and includes sustainability and the origins of food. More and more consumers are now wanting to know not only where their food is coming from, they want to visit the source and experience new foods as they travel. Plus they want to experiment personally in new ways of adding value to food. As a result more small businesses are getting involved in food tourism. For example, in France there are over 246 varieties of cheese being produced and in the UK over 700 varieties of cheese.10 The Global Cheese Awards (www.globalcheeseawards.com) are held in Somerset in the UK. In 2013 they voted for a Canadian cheese as the best cheese in the world; this was a creamy-gouda style Lankaaster cheese from Ontario created by Margaret Peters. In 2010 the International Culinary Tourism Association joined forces with the New Zealand-based International Culinary Tourism Development to produce the ‘State of the Culinary Tourism Industry Report’.11 This identified the most prepared regions of the world for culinary tourism. The top three in order of ranking were Scotland, Louisiana, and Ontario. The least prepared, but the one with the most potential, was South Africa. Peru had its own Facebook page to develop the market in that country, the only one to have done so (www.facebook.com/perumuchogusto). Key Drivers of Culinary Tourism – A Consumer Perspective From a consumer’s perspective the drivers are wide and varied, but can be summarized as follows.
Many consumers are now more health conscious or want to be more health conscious and are therefore prepared to search for healthier food options, whether this be at a food store or farm. Food deserts still exist in many cities, but this is also gaining more public attention and action is starting to take place to improve health standards. This serves to remind more affluent consumers about the importance of health foods. According to the Food Empowerment Project,12 a food desert can be described as ‘A geographic area where residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options (especially fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient travelling distance’. A report prepared for the US Congress by the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture 13 estimated about 2.3 million people in the USA live more than 1 mile away from a supermarket and do not have access to healthy food. Food publicity regarding food deserts has been promoted via urban farmers such as Ron Finley in Los Angeles, California, Will Allen from the US mid-west, who was voted one of the top Time Magazine 100 in 2010, and Robin Emmons, who is one of the CNN 2013 Heroes14 (these are awarded yearly by the CNN TV network in the USA). An increasingly urbanized society More and more people are moving to cities and the urbanization of the world’s population is taking place rapidly. Many more affluent urban dwellers are Fig. 1.2. Apple varieties for sale at a farm shop. Introduction 7 now looking for experiences outside of the city and want to reconnect with rural communities and local foods