Gastronomic Tourism, a new trend for contemporary tourism?

The purpose of this article is to give insight into gastronomic tourism in Europe. The second idea that we develop in this article refer to the values of the gastronomy, precisely: ethical and sustainable values, which are established on local products, culture, lifestyle and landscape. Gastronomy has appeared like an indispensable element in order to get to know the culture and lifestyle of a destination and so embodies all the traditional values associated with the new trends in tourism: respect for culture and tradition, a healthy lifestyle, authenticity, sustainability, experience… etc.. This leading role of gastronomy when choosing a travel destination has resulted in the growth of gastronomic offer based on high quality local products and the consolidation of a separate market for food tourism. Provided that everything mentioned above constitutes the main reason or motivation to travel for visitors to a particular destination or at least on significant motivation. Tourists are more experienced and informed, have more disposable revenue and more leisure time to travel, and thus tourism permit them to escape from the daily routine of their usual working and living environment. Tourists are looking after the origin of the gastronomic food, legends and stories about the food, history, making it an expression of cultural tourism.

Keywords

gastronomic tourism, trends, tourism, tourist, tourism products

JEL Classification

M2, I31, R5

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