ABSTRACT
The Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, like many other food festivals taking place all over the world, is a relatively new festival, intended to generate income from tourism. Food festivals bring together different elements of gastronomic tourism such as tastings, cooking shows, demonstrations, and local produce markets in entertaining, friendly environments where visitors can relax, socialize, and escape from the daily routine. While some food festivals have been running for centuries, their roots based on humble food fairs or harvest festivals, with over a third of tourist spending devoted to gastronomy, food tourism is now big business and food festivals are a growing trend. The juxtaposition of live animals slaughtered alongside diners at Yulin is very likely a key pull for festivalgoers. The focus on the welfare of the dogs at Yulin has shone a light on the poor state of animal welfare in China generally in terms of both widespread cruelty and a dearth of animal protection laws.
