Tourisme and more

There can be little doubt that food is a major part of the tourism experience. If tourism is about seeing new sights and having new and unique experiences then the culinary world is a major part of the tourism experience. Because eating is an essential part of living, food or culinary tourism has a broad base of appeal. In fact, often when visitors return home, one of the first questions that people ask is ‘how is the food ?” The interaction between tourism and food is often called culinary tourism. In reality this is a broad term that often means different things to different people. Often scholars define culinary tourism along the lines of : visitors having the opportunity of partaking in unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences. Culinary tourism tries to provide authentic local cuisines that represent both the tastes and smells of a nation as a part of that locale’s cultural offerings and heritage. This definition, however, may speak more to a locale’s “haute cuisine” than to the eating experience of the average local resident.