Prelims

The Food Tourist

THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE

Series Editor: Richard Sharpley

The Tourist Experience series addresses a notable gap in the literature on Tourism Studies by foregrounding the tourist experience in a cohesive and thematically structured manner.

Taking a novel approach by presenting both short form publications and longer form monographs exploring issues in the tourist experience, the series will seek to build a comprehensive set of texts that collectively contribute to critical discourse and understanding of the contemporary tourist experience. Short form publications will review specific types of tourist by focusing primarily on the influences and nature and significance of their experiences within a socio-cultural framework while longer titles will embrace contemporary empirical and conceptual perspectives and debates as a means of understanding experiences.

Recent Volumes:

• Un-ravelling Travelling: Uncovering Tourist Emotions Through Autoethnography

  Sue Beeton

• The Adventure Tourist: Being, Knowing, Becoming

  Jelena Farkic and Maria Gebbels

• The Backpacker Tourist: A Contemporary Perspective

  Márcio Ribeiro Martins and Rui Augusto da Costa

• The Mindful Tourist: The Power of Presence in Tourism

  Uglješa Stankov, Ulrike Gretzel and Viachaslau Filimonau

• The Youth Tourist: Motives, Experiences and Travel Behaviour

  Anna Irimiás

• The Creative Tourist: A Eudaimonic Perspective

  Xavier Matteucci and Melanie Kay Smith

• The Dis/abled Tourist: Navigating an Ableist Tourism World

  Brielle Gillovic, Alison McIntosh and Simon Darcy

Forthcoming Volumes:

• The Sport Tourist

  Sean James Gammon

• The Responsible Tourist: Conceptualizations, Expectations and Dilemmas

  Dirk Reiser and Volker Rundshagen

• The ‘Dark Tourist’: Difficult Heritage and Dark Tourism Experiences

  Philip Stone

• The Business Tourist

  Bernd Eisenstein, Julian Reif and Manon Krüger

The Food Tourist

EDITED BY

FRANCESC FUSTÉ-FORNÉ

University of Girona, Spain

AND

ERIK WOLF

World Food Travel Association, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21–23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL.

First edition 2025

Editorial matter and selection © 2025 Francesc Fusté-Forné and Erik Wolf.

Individual chapters © 2025 The authors.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: www.copyright.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licencing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83549-086-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-085-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-087-7 (Epub)

Francesc Fusté-Forné is Associate Professor Serra Húnter at the Department of Business, University of Girona. He holds a PhD in Tourism (University of Girona) and a PhD in Communication (Ramon Llull University). His research is focused on food and rural marketing and tourism. Particularly, he has studied the connections between authenticity, food heritages and identities, landscapes and landscapers, regional development, rural activities, street food and tourist experiences. He also conducts applied research on the role of gastronomy in relation to mass media and as a driver of social changes. He has extensively published about these topics. (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3800-9284).

Erik Wolf is the Founder of the culinary travel trade industry, and Executive Director of the World Food Travel Association, the world’s leading authority on food and beverage tourism. He is the Publisher of Have Fork Will Travel (a practical handbook for our industry – find it on Amazon), author of Culinary Tourism: The Hidden Harvest, and is also a highly sought strategist and speaker around the world on gastronomy tourism. He has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Forbes and on CNN, Sky TV, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, PeterGreenberg.com, and other leading media outlets. (ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0056-6077)

Giovanna Bertella is Professor at the School of Business and Economics, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø. Her research interests are management, entrepreneurship/innovation, marketing, tourism and leisure studies (nature- and animal-based experiences, rural tourism, food tourism, events), and food studies (plant-based) (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5530-8588).

Alessio Cavicchi is Professor at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Italy. His research interests are rural development and branding strategies, marketing of local food and sustainability of food systems, innovation in agriculture and rural areas, university–business collaboration and quadruple helix of innovation, and sustainable tourism (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7793-865X).

Chantal Cooke is an award-winning Radio Presenter and Travel Writer, Co-founder of PASSION for the PLANET, the UK’s first ethically focused radio station launched in 2002, and Vice Chair of the World Food Travel Association. She is particularly passionate about the impact of food on our environment, nature, and health and regularly speaks to global audiences about how tourist destinations can cater to a wider range of dietary needs, increasing footfall, income, and satisfaction, while, at the same time, improving their own sustainability credentials (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4861-7943).

Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona is Researcher and Associate Professor at the Business Department of the University of Barcelona (UB), Catalunya. She is Member of the Business Research Group (UB). She is Head of Studies of International Business Degree and Director of the Master’s Program in Digital Business Administration. In addition, she is Researcher at different Investigation Projects (I+D). As a result, the impact of tourism on economic, social, cultural, and urban structures of the territory is analysed. Governance, gentrification, sustainability are the key words. Many articles, books, and book chapters have been published: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=q_Wrk4sAAAAJ&hl=ca (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8267-4786).

Darko Dimitrovski is Full Professor in the Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism, University of Kragujevac, Serbia. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Belgrade and has been involved in post-doctoral research fellowship at UTAD, Portugal. He has authored several articles in the leading peer-reviewed tourism journals. He is Editor of Hotel and Tourism Management journal and Member of several other tourism and hospitality journal editorial boards. His research interest is largely focused on event experiences, niche tourism, and transformative tourism (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7930-1716).

Roberta Garibaldi is a University Professor. She conducts training and research activities to enhance territories, gastronomy, and cultural tourism. She is responsible for many applied projects at the international level and has worked for many Ministries of Tourism and international agencies (including the World Tourism Organization and FAO). She was the CEO of the Italian National Tourism Board-ENIT during the Draghi government and Vice President of the OECD-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Tourism Committee. She is a Keynote Speaker at major worldwide conferences on tourism. She holds numerous roles, including President of the Italian Association on Gastronomy Tourism. She authored 23 books and over 60 scientific publications. The number of editions of the Report on Gastronomy Tourism in Italy is 14 (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9007-6698).

Szilvia Gyimóthy is Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Her primary research area is within consumer culture and hedonic consumption, which she approaches through an interdisciplinary lens of strategic market communication, tourism geography, and consumer studies. In her previous projects, she explored the commodification of places and local cultures along popular consumption trends, including the Nordic terroir, adventure sports, Bollywood films, and contemporary pilgrimage (ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-5632).

Jonatan Leer is a Professor of culinary arts and meal sciences at the University of Örebro, Sweden. His research explores food culture from a variety of perspectives, including food and gender, sustainability, food experience design, new Nordic cuisine, food media, and gourmet burgers. He is currently involved in the research project Masculinities in Green Transition and writing a book on food porn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9068-8835).

Eric Lipp founded the Open Doors Organization (ODO) after personally experiencing the restrictions that people with disabilities face in their everyday life. Right before his 30th birthday, he was diagnosed with Von Hippel Lindau disease which had caused a tumour to grow from his spinal cord. Removing the tumour meant slightly severing his spinal cord leaving him as a T4 incomplete paraplegic. He has limited mobility, uses a brace and cane to walk and a small scooter for long distances. Since then, he has been on a mission to make goods and services accessible to people with disabilities in travel, tourism, and transportation. He has worked with over 70 airports globally, 65 air carriers globally, dozens of hotels, cruise lines, Uber, Lyft, and destinations across the world. He frequently speaks at travel, tourism, and transportation events internationally and sits on a number of advisory boards (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6011-6236).

Patita Paban Mohanty is an Academic Researcher with two decades of experience in university education, research, training, and consultation. He holds a hospitality and tourism doctoral degree from Siksha O Anusandhan Deemed to be a University, Odisha, India. He is an Indian professor with a distinctive array of research papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals indexed in Scopus and other eminent databases. His research focuses on tourism destination marketing, gastronomy and culinary experience, food tourism, eco-tourism, and sustainability (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3318-5377).

Alicia Orea-Giner is a Social Technologist for Regenerative and Intersectional Tourism. Her aim is to empower regenerative practices in tourism by integrating anthropological insights and cutting-edge technology. She is Associate Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University. She holds multiple degrees, including a PhD in Tourism and Geography, and master’s degrees in Sustainable Tourism and ICT, and Management and Leadership of Cultural Projects. She is also a graduate in social anthropology, tourism, and history (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8198-8169).

Andrea Pozzi is Visiting Professor of Marketing and Tourism Hospitability Economics at the University of Bergamo and works as Consultant for the Italian Association of Gastronomy Tourism. His main areas are research lie in gastronomy tourism, creative tourism, and tourism marketing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5729-0094).

Hiran Roy is a Senior Lecturer of International School of Hospitality, Sports, and Tourism Management at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver, Canada. He holds a PhD in Management from University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Prior to joining to academia, he worked extensively (over 26 years) with hospitality business industry as an Executive Chef in different continents. He is also a Recipient of a New Zealand Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan Awardee. His research interests include sustainable local food systems, local food marketing, city branding, consumer behaviour, and sustainability. His work has been published in prestigious top-tier academic journals and book chapters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6924-7090).

Cristina Santini is a Professor of Business Strategy at the University Guglielmo Marconi in Rome, Italy, and the director of the Laboratory for Rural Studies Sismondi in Pisa, Italy. Her research interests are entrepreneurship, small business, strategic marketing and management, ecopreneurship, sustainability and agrifood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6703-7823).

Faruk Seyitoğlu is a Researcher at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and an Associate Professor at Mardin Artuklu University, Türkiye. His research interests include tourist behaviour and experience, technology and robots in tourism and hospitality, destination management and marketing, tourism planning and development, and gastronomy and food studies. (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7859-6006).

Helena A. Williams is Associate Professor in the School of Hospitality Business and Management at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco. Her research interests focus on Sustainable Gastro-Destination Development through gastro-tourism, including emerging market economic development, grass roots co-branding, wine and beverage tourism, and memorable tourist experiences. Her nearly 30 years of experience in both academia and industry, including training at Paris’ le Cordon Bleu, provides her with a practical and theoretical view (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9498-1177).

Robert L. Williams, Jr. has over 20 years of academic teaching experience after a management career in Fortune 500 companies. He is currently a Partner and co-founder of Mar-Kadam Associates, a firm specialising in branding and destination marketing with locations in the USA and Morocco. Research interests include wine marketing, destination branding, and gastro-tourism development (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9250-4764).

We all eat when we travel. We eat to discover, to enjoy, and to share. We eat because we want to fuel our body and also our souls. We would like to thank all the food-loving travellers because you explore the world looking for the stories behind each food experience, not just through the aromas and flavours but also through the cultural and environmental aspects of cuisine. Your journeys are guided not only by maps and reviews but also by the connections between yourself and others, the dialogue between tradition and innovation, and both that which is near and far. You celebrate heritage through food. Your food journeys are diverse and remind us all that there are different ways to get to know places, people, and practices.

The editors would like to thank all the authors who have contributed to the book, who accepted to participate in the journey and who generously offered their knowledge about food-loving travellers. We appreciate your commitment to the project. We also thank the Emerald editorial support received during every step of the way and especially from Madison and Nick, and Richard, who trusted in our vision of the project.