Definitions

All travel involves eating. For most of us, trying traditional dishes or local fare is an important part of our travel experience , whether at home or abroad. It is often an excellent doorway into another culture.

Today culinary tourism is among the fastest growing and most popular niche areas of the tourism industry.

How do we define Culinary Tourism?

• “The pursuit of unique and memorable culinary experiences of all kinds, often while travelling, but one can also be a culinary tourist at home” is one definition offered by the US-based, International Culinary Tourism Association (ICTA). Classifying higher-end experiences as “gourmet tourism”, ICTA considers wine tourism, beer tourism and spa cuisine as subsets of culinary tourism. And, for them, culinary tourism is not a subset of agro tourism, but of cultural tourism, as “cuisine is a manifestation of culture”. [link to ICTA website}

• Dr. Lucy Wong of Bowling Green University in Ohio, USA has been credited with the term “culinary tourism”. She is now a well recognized authority in the field. Culinary tourism is “… about food as a subject and medium, destination and vehicle, for tourism. It is about individuals exploring foods (and wines) new to them as well as using food to explore new cultures and ways of being. It is about groups using food to ‘sell’ their histories and to construct marketable and publicly attractive identities, and it is about individuals satisfying curiosity,” states Wong. “Finally, it is about experiencing food (and wine) in a mode that is out of the ordinary, that steps outside of the normal routine to notice differences and the power of food to represent and negotiate that difference”.

• The Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Recreation and the Wine Council of Ontario define wine/culinary tourism as “tourism in which the opportunity for wine and/or culinary related experiences contributes significantly to the reason for travel to the destination or to itinerary planning while at the destination”.

Caribbean description:

Here in the Caribbean, culinary tourism has been described as “a subset of agro tourism that focuses specifically on the search for, and enjoyment of , prepared food and drink. According to IICA Consultant, Roxanne Waithe, our culinary tourism would mean:

• Dinner and theatre packages

• Culinary schools and workshops

• Food Festivals

• Tasting/buying packaged local products

• Farmer’s markets

• Tour a food/wine/beer factory”

Roxanne Waithe – Barbados Agrotourism Inventory Report  (PDF - 4.9mb).

 Our rum could be seen as the equivalent of the wine experiences mentioned in the earlier definitions .