ABSTRACT
Food tourism is the fastest growing area of twenty-first century travel, promoted by governments, industry groups, and NGOs. More than just eating excursions, food tourism has grown from the offerings described by early restaurant guides to encompass a full spectrum of food-related activities, from observing to direct engagement with cultures, landscapes, and their diverse produce. Food tourism exploits opportunities for distinct experiences of both food and place. Eating and travel, produce and place, have long been intertwined. They both offer cultural immersion, with encounters that may target any consumer group. They are also both enmeshed in paradoxical conundrums where the local is promoted globally, fads of simple ingredients are subject to sophisticated marketing, the most accessible itineraries are the most highly packaged, and the popularity of food and travel shows exists at a time when fewer people cook. The dynamic conditions of food tourism mirror core challenges for contemporary society.
