Creating tourism experiences combining food and culture: an analysis among Italian
producers

Purpose
This paper aims to understand how food and drink producers have combined food
and culture into the tourism experience through an explorative analysis on a sample
of Italian enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper opted for a two-stage analysis. An explorative study has been carried out
to identify producers with this offering and assess their main characteristics. A direct
survey has been carried out to acquire detailed information about the profile of the
enterprises as well as to assess motivations, results achieved and satisfaction
concerning the experience offered.

Findings
Food can be alternatively the main subject (e.g. food museums) or be combined with
other cultural expression (e.g. music festivals inside wineries), and the choice
appears to mainly depend on personal interest of entrepreneurs. The production of
the food tourism experience not only increases the tourist attractiveness but also
generates other benefits, such as improving brand visibility and relationship with
local stakeholders.

Research limitations/implications
Because of the sample chosen, the research results may lack generalizability.
Furthermore, it may be important to deeply investigate some issues that remain
partly unanswered.

Practical implications
The paper sheds lights on characteristics of tourism experiences combining food and
culture and hopefully aims at increasing awareness among producers about their
current attractiveness.

Originality/value
This paper tries to contribute to improve the knowledge on a topic of current interest
such as tourism experiences combining food and culture.

Garibaldi, R. Pozzi, A. (2018). “Creating tourism experiences combining food and
culture: an analysis among Italian producers”, Tourism Review, 73(4), pp.230-241 –
ISSN:1660-5373

For more information
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/tr-06-2017-0097/full/html