The changing tourist

Once there was a time when tourists would go to their travel agent, book a ‘package’ holiday and spend 2 weeks in the sun at a coastal resort. Those tourists looked for food that was familiar to them from what they ate back home. Over time, tourists have become more adventurous and now plan their own vacations on the Internet and have numerous ‘mini’ breaks through the year that may last a few days. This is ideal for the culinary tourism industry as it allows tourists to spend time in their own local farmbased tourist areas. The modern tourist is more demanding, less predictable and more empowered than the tourist of the past. This is partially due to the power of social media. The development of the ‘package’ holiday in the 1960s and 1970s was actually one of the early drivers of food tourism. Prior to the advent of the overseas vacation, consumers were only exposed to foods made available in their daily life, which came from the local supermarket and grocery store and occasionally, if they were lucky, a local food market. Populations in many countries were also less cosmopolitan than they are today and hence exposed to a lesser variety of foods in their lives. The retailers needed to provide produce they could sell quickly as ‘turnover’ of food was critical as shelf life, due to the lack of developed refrigeration, was short. As a result, the food offer provided was considered ‘safe’. Exotic foods were rarely on offer as the customer simply did not understand how to prepare or cook them and often feared what they would taste like.
Once tourists started venturing overseas they were exposed to strange and exotic foods. Initially tourists wanted to take their familiar food with them and visitors can still see English ‘fish and chip’ shops across the Mediterranean beach resorts that serve traditional British travellers. Slowly tourists started to experiment with local dishes and as a result gained confidence in developing their own culinary adventures. Tourists are now travelling to more obscure places and eating more obscure foods, many of them local dishes they had never tried before. This also meant consumers wanted to explore and discover more of what was in their own back yard and as a result local food tourism has grown dramatically over recent years. Within most western societies, the majority of consumers today have become more removed from the farmer and from nature. This is a trend that is accelerating as urban living becomes more popular. There are many city people today who have no idea where their food comes from and assume that it is manufactured rather than grown or raised. At the same time there are an increasing number of urban dwellers who want to reconnect with the farm and the farmer and want to know more about the journey their food takes before it reaches them. They have become suspicious of the ‘long food chain’ and want to have more control over their own food journey. The start of this century saw the rapid evolution of the culinary tourist. These culinary-minded tourists evolved because of a number of reasons: • A curiosity to discover new foods due to their exposure to new and exotic foods and cooking techniques when on vacation or watching TV programmes. • A more health-aware consumer due to a concern with what is happening to food production within the ‘long food chain’ and how that may affect their health. Many consumers have strong opinions on GM (genetically modified) food and the long-term effect it could potentially have on their health. • An innate need to connect more closely with the rural community due to the increasing need to escape an urban environment that in many cities is getting more crowded and more polluted. • The emergence of farmers’ markets, farm shops and culinary tourist attractions as a new offer to tourists, mainly in rural areas close to the consumer’s home. • Awareness of ‘big’ retailers dominating the marketplace and controlling farming along with a clearer understanding of ‘factory’ farming practices and consumers questioning whether this is the right way forward for society. • Food has become fashionable and trendy for all generations. A study of the local bookshop and the amount of space dedicated to food-related books will indicate the strength of this trend. • The emergence of celebrity chefs on cooking programmes on television.