Gastronomic Tourism

Gastronomy tourism presents an opportunity to upgrade the tourist experience and create connections with local communities. Gastro tourism is increasingly becoming the core of local and regional travel and many destinations are using their cuisine as a key product to engage new visitors. Travelers are seeking more meaningful experiences with local cultures through food. Gastro-tourism represents a very relevant sector for the tourist industry and it is key to understanding what are the main implications of this recent trend on local communities. Food tourism can be beneficial to empower local economies but there are important downsides to food tourism that can destroy its cultural heritage.

In this course, we will explore how gastro-tourism can help promote sustainable social development and explore the best ways to create value for communities. We will deep-dive into perspectives from practitioners in the field from Colombia to Thailand to see what are the best practices in the destination. We will discuss how stakeholders can create a profitable and sustainable environment for these initiatives to thrive. And we will explore the main drawbacks of over-tourism for local communities from a global perspective.

This course is designed for students and professionals working in the food industry or Culinary Students interested in how gastro-tourism can promote sustainable development and use food as a vehicle to create opportunities in the destination.