ABSTRACT
Over time, the role of food has changed from purely functional (nourishment) to cultural, an expression of values and traditions. In the last decades, interest has grown in regional cuisine, both as a reaction to globalisation and to reaffirm local culture and identity. With reference to tourism, the consumption of local dishes is a way of directly connecting with the resident community and experiencing the territory, transforming gastronomy into a tourist attractor. In promoting destination attractiveness and imagery, wine and food tourism has considerable potential. Oeno-gastronomy in Italy is an important driver of domestic and international tourist demand, generating over 1 billion euro per year. Given the positive associations between Italy and gastronomy, the objective of this chapter is to explore whether visitors to Italy perceive new technologies, and particularly social eating platforms, as a tool to experience authentic regional food and wine, as well as the local gastronomic culture through traditional recipes. We review and compare the social dining events promoted in Rome on six different platforms in October 2015 with those offered in May 2017 to assess the size of the phenomenon, trace its evolution, and test our hypotheses.
