Chapter 11: The Hands-on Food Tourist

This book chapter focuses on The Hands-On Gastronomic Tourist. Hands-on in this context means active involvement of tourists in local food- and beverage-related activities when they travel. The chapter illuminates who these tourists are and elucidates how and why they crave hands-on, immersive, authentic, local food or drink activities, or experiences (beyond eating a meal) when they travel locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. It provides examples, data, and models that explain what these tourists value and desire as well as why they are influential within the tourism industry. By understanding the characteristics and practices of this fast-growing tourist sector, hosts of food/beverage businesses, local community developers, and related stakeholders will know the minimal elements that must be in place if their businesses and communities are to succeed in creating and supporting sustainable gastronomic tourism initiatives that have the potential to elevate a geographic area to a recognised international gastronomic destination status. This chapter explains why co-marketing and ultimately delivering co-branded promises from like-minded businesses that attract these hands-on food tourists is critical to the economic sustainability of one of the fastest growing tourism sectors.