Gastronomic Tourism
“Using Rahn’s article Laying a Place at the Table: Creating Public Foodways Models from Scratch as a guide, evaluate the suitability (cultural, financial, and otherwise) of gastronomic tourism initiatives in New Zealand community. Begin by outlining Rahn’s approach, and then present GENERAL LINES of a custom-made proposal, through a well-developed argument based on ideas from scholarly articles. “
Gastronomic tourism is also known as culinary or food tourism is the process by which the food of a certain country, a region or an area is experienced and also how it is viewed as a component that is very vital in the experience of tourism (Long, 2013). The practice of dinning out by the tourists is viewed as a very vital and at the same time food is often associated with the climatic conditions of a place, accommodation that is available as well as the scenery. The world food travel association as defined this form of tourism as the pursuit of a unique as well as an eating and drinking experience that is memorable to the tourists.
This form of tourism differs from the agritourism in the perspective that culinary tourism is always viewed as a branch of the cultural tourism where the cuisine is always considered as a culture manifestation while the agritourism is seen as a rural form of rural tourism subset. These two are however linked inextricably since those seeds that are found in the cuisine can also be found in the agriculture sector of business. Ancient times proverbs tries to explain that what we eat is what makes up what we are but this proverb can be seen in a totally different way which is the complete opposite of this proverb that what we eat is actually what we are (Cai, 2009). The topic about food and ways is one of the hottest topics in today’s modern world same way tourism is one of the hottest topics today. The floodways projects are nowadays being seen as the one of the big things that is going to save the economies locally as well as promoting the sense of place. The driving force that is behind all this is the fact that everybody takes food and the fact that there is nobody who does not have an association with food either through the determination on how they perceive food as well as how they work with food on a landscape that is culturally centered (Long, 2013).
New Zealand cuisine is driven mainly the presence of ingredients that are locally available as well as the variations that occur seasonally. New Zealand in an island nation that relies heavily on the agricultural sector, therefore the country relies heavily on the yields it gets from the sea which is similar to that of Australia and is considered to be one of the most diverse cuisines that is British-based which has both the Mediterranean as well as the pacific which has resulted to the country becoming one of the most cosmopolitan countries in the world.
The historical influences in the country comes from the Māori culture and became one of the most popular cuisines in the country since the beginning of the 1970s. In this country most households, dinner which is in most of the times known as the tea is considered the most important meal of the day which is characterized by families gathering in the evening and share a meal. In such scenarios restaurants as well as fast food outlets are known to provide the largest proportion of food at such times (Hal, 2013). When the indigenous people of New Zealand who were known as the Maori arrived in New Zealand for the first time from the tropics of the Polynesia, they along with themselves which involved different and numerous food plants which included the sweet potatoes, the taro and the ti plant. These plants are known to have grown in the interior parts of the northern parts of the island and could not be grown on the southern parts since it is known to be cold. Native plants such as the fern root within no time gained fame and were quickly become an important part of the diet (Wolf, 2006). The Māori people just like other Polynesian people used to cook their food, which was done over ovens that were made of earth which were in New Zealand known as the hangi. Here in this country is not in any way related to religion, which means that food could not be in contact with religious places.
In today the world is facing a big threat of falling to the problem of presence of many fast food outlets such as the McDonalds as ell s the fear of succumbing to the problem of cultural homogenization. Despite all these, there is hope in the fact that there is emergence of culinary tourism where the tourists have the chance to enjoy the cultural food of the host country. This practice has always be seen as and accepted as a tourism model. This practice has implications that are far much important as well as implications that are far reaching for the development of regional economy, which also accompanied by the fact that it preserves the culture locally and regionally. Through the promotion of the local cuisines as well as those cultures that are responsible for their creation, tourism that is practiced regionally in the markets can be used to bolster the revenues of this communities as well as aid in the preservation of their customs locally as well as the local heritage which helps in provision to the increasing demands and the desires of the tourists who fall under the culinary tourism sector (Wolf, 2006).
The role that is always played by food is always a big one which varies from the role of procurement to that that of preparation of the food and lastly to role of consumption of that food that has been prepared. However the relationship that exists between these three roles has changed gradually over time. Food has now become a source of entertainment while others view it as a hobby and to some cultures it is viewed as a cultural artifact. Culinary tourism over time has been known to have many different impacts that are of positive use to the community especially in New Zealand especially to the culture of the host people of this country. This is mainly because tourists who visit this country have food experiences that are unique which leads to the creation of an experience that is authentic and that is completely different from the experience that they are used to back home in their cultures.
Tourists of these type normally provides motivation to the specific culture that is involved and they help in the celebration of the local cuisine that is used to showcase the different and the diverse heritage of the local people in new Zealand. Many people and scholars have expressed their fears of a situation arising where there is cultural homogenization and also high probability rates of loss of cultural diversity among the modern day society. However we cannot fully say this has not already occurred in some place this has been met by a counter trend, which has been on the rise in the recent past. Some of these trends that hinder the development of the gastronomy tourism include the fact that most of the local communities have no appreciation for the tourism industry.
These communities in most of the cases view tourism as a detriment in the perspective of the cultural heritage that is already in existence when those tourists come and carry out investigations regarding their cultural practices and their heritage in general. To counter this on the other hand, the government of the country came up with educative measures that educate the people on how this form of tourism can also help in the reviving of some of the cultures that were long forgotten in the society.
Lastly this type of tourism has another type of positive impact on the country’s economic sector with more positive developments being experienced on the rural areas of the country. As the tourists try to be more adventurous, the people and the authorities that are located in the rural areas have the opportunity to make capital gains from the tourists. Promotion of food tourism in those remote areas has led to local farmers get bigger markets of their produce and has also helped the owners of small businesses. In conclusion the practice of food tourism is one of the business ventures that is greatly up coming and is of great importance to both the tourist market industry as well as on the academic researchers. The need for high quality food has increased and has also gained massive appreciation and interest from the academic researchers who are keen on the legacy that has been left behind by this type of tourism. Many more people are becoming more interested in travelling far as well as widely to have a taste of this new type of experience. There I s also new opportunities for the regional markets to grab the opportunity of this new type of tourism whose advantages surpasses the disadvantages by a big margin. As we have noticed The driving force that is behind all this is the fact that everybody takes food and the fact that there is nobody who does not have an association with food either through the determination on how they perceive food as well as how they work with food on a landscape that is culturally centered (Rubin, 2008).
References
Cai, L. A. (2009). Tourism Branding. Emerald Group Publishing.
Hal, M. ( 2013). Sustainable Culinary Systems. Routledge.
Wolf, E. (2006). Culinary tourism: The hidden harvest: a dozen hot and fresh reasons how culinary tourism creates economic and community development. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt.
Long, L. M. (2013 ). Culinary Tourism. University Press of Kentucky.
Rubin, L. C. ( 2008). Food for Thought. Rozelle, N.S.W: Spinney Press.
