ABSTRACT
Food tourism is a concept that has gained significant attention in recent tourism literature. It is recognised as a vehicle that can enhance a destination’s tourism offering and create backward linkages that generate additional economic opportunities for local residents in tourism destinations (Telfer and Wall 1996). Especially in areas where farming and food production constitute a large economic sector in a region, food tourism provides an avenue to promote and distribute local produce while simultaneously offering the tourist a means by which cultural experimentation can occur (Everett 2009). Governments have also realised the potential of food tourism to enhance the sustainability of tourism development (du Rand et al. 2003) and have created a culturally aware and critically orientated policy research agenda that supports agriculture and tourism partnerships (DEFRA 2002) and has provided an avenue to enhance the provision of tourism product offerings across the country. The result is that food is increasingly becoming part of the sustainability agenda for many communities around the UK and emphasis has been placed on food tourism to supplement the agricultural sector and broaden the scope of regional development schemes in rural areas (Sharples 2003).
