Take advantage of gastronomic tourism

One of the great passions of the world is gastronomy. It is increasingly common to meet people interested in discovering the culinary culture of each country and even travel and do gastronomic tourism to please their palate.

Gastronomic tourism offers diners the possibility of getting to know localities in a country, while tasting a varied menu with the flavors, smells and ingredients that characterize the region.

Thanks to this, many people are encouraged to prepare dishes with the menu they enjoyed during their days of gastronomic tourism.

Stay with us and learn a little more about gastronomic tourism, its benefits and the best destinations for your next trip.

What does gastronomic tourism consist of?

As expressed in its name, gastronomic tourism is a trip that people take to learn and enjoy the culinary culture offered by each country.

Tourists not only want to learn about the culture of a region, but to enjoy its flavors. For this reason, they sign up for the gastronomic routes of the place they are visiting to discover the origin of the typical dishes and learn what makes them different from the rest.

Gastronomic tourism has evolved by leaps and bounds, showing great income that benefits the sector’s economy, since food represents a third of the budget available for travel.

Origin of gastronomic tourism

In Europe, during the 20th century, the best restaurants and inns in the region began to be registered. These guides were written by the privileged classes who were dedicated to visiting and classifying these establishments according to the best or worst service.

One of the most famous people to make this type of guide was Maurice Edmond Sailland, who traveled all over France during 1927. Together with his closest friends, he went out to taste what French cuisine had to offer and, thanks to this feat, he was granted the name of “Prince of Gourmets”.

As a result of this background, various gastronomic routes have been created in every corner of the world to promote their typical dishes and to make their culture known.

Characteristics of gastronomic tourism

The quality of the dishes served is one of the fundamental characteristics for gastronomic tourism to work.

In addition, it requires that the preparation of the menu includes dishes native to that region. The idea is that visitors learn about their origins while enjoying the food.

Tourists are looking for new ingredients, foods, combinations and spices. They also want to understand how the world of gastronomy is handled in each destination they visit.

Not only the restaurants are in charge of receiving and serving the gastronomic tourists, but also the informal traders and the cooks of the restaurants.

On the other hand, it is important to ensure that agricultural, fishing and livestock producers, as well as market vendors, always offer products of excellent quality

The dishes that are served to the visitors must have an excellent presentation, this will be fundamental to attract the diners to your restaurant.

Another important aspect has to do with the decoration of the restaurant, the idea is to offer a comfortable and pleasant place that allows the tourist to enjoy the experience.

If there is a small group of tourists in a restaurant, the chefs can give a tour of the facilities to show the guests how to prepare their star dish.

During this tour around the tables, you can also tell stories of the restaurant and offer a tasting of various times to visitors to your establishment.

Benefits of gastronomic tourism

Gastronomic tourism is a sector that generates great income in the economy of countries, because tourists bring with them enough money to invest in the cheapest and most expensive dishes.

They will do their best to provide a complete gastronomic experience.

In addition to the tourist attractions, restaurants invest a large part of their income in the decoration and the dishes they serve. In this way, they contribute to being an indigenous destination and stay ahead of the competition.

At the same time, the creation of new premises and routes dedicated to gastronomic tourism offer new sources of employment for the inhabitants

Gastronomic tourism promotes the rescue of traditional recipes from each region. It seeks to promote them and to innovate the best known ones, to offer incredible flavors.

Profile of the gastronomic tourist

People interested and passionate about gastronomic tourism are young adults up to the third age. More than 60% are between 36 and 55 years old, and the rest are over 55 years old.

In numbers, 50% of people travel with their partners, 35% travel in the company of friends and 15% take these trips in group tours.

In addition to knowing the age and type of people who visit the gastronomic routes, tourists in this sector are distinguished by

• They have a larger budget than any other tourist, most of which is devoted to gastronomy.
• They look for the best quality and excellent service with prices that represent their stay in the restaurant.
• They want to eat traditional dishes from that country, not something they can eat just anywhere.
• They choose destinations that offer a huge variety of traditional dishes.
• They prefer to eat in restaurants where they solve their doubts about the origin of the ingredients and the preparation methods they use.
• If they feel comfortable and pleased with the experience they had in a destination, they will come back to find out what they could not do on their first visit.
• They prefer gastronomic routes where there is interaction with other people such as visits to wineries, tasting in restaurants, cooking classes, gastronomic festivals or visits to popular markets.

Tips to achieve success in the gastronomic tourism business

The gastronomy of each country has an important position as one of the aspects that are promoted of a nation, to present it as an ideal place to carry out the gastronomic tourism.

If you want to beat the competition, it is important to know the tourist audience you are serving and offer the best experience of your life.

Among some recommendations to make the gastronomic tourism of a country work are

• It is important to acquire the best quality products from local producers to contribute to these economic sectors.
• To promote the whole culture of the country so that the tourists spread it and more people are encouraged to visit the destination.
• Improve traditional dishes, adding new ingredients that accentuate their flavor.
• Inform tourists about the gastronomic history and the most used foods in that country.
• To serve traditional dishes from their country, but with variations in case they receive vegetarian or vegan tourists.
• When offering the menu to tourists, it is important to explain all the ingredients and spices they contain to avoid suffering from food allergy or poisoning.
• Promote your country through a website and social network users dedicated to tourism.