Culinary Tourism: Does Your Destination Have Potential?

By Dennis A. Marzella

As a coordinator of leisure activities for well-heeled lodgers in Northern California's wine country, Liza Graves has seen the appetite for elite culinary adventures evolve firsthand.

"In the beginning it was simply 'Make me a restaurant reservation' or 'I want to go to a well-known winery,' " says Graves, who co-founded the villa rental company BeautifulPlaces in Sonoma, Calif., five years ago.  “But in the past two or three years, the requests for special, authentic experiences have doubled or tripled."

• Local restaurants offering unique and memorable experiences
  
  

• The nature of your local or regional cuisine
  
  

• Farmers markets
  
  

• Traditional artisan products and locally made wines/beers
  
  

• Culinary festivals

• One of the main philosophies driving culinary tourism is the idea that tourists can get something at one of your destination’s restaurants (or in your town) that they can’t get back home. A restaurant should capitalize on this idea by identifying a local or regional specialty, then create its own version of it.
  
  

• Chef demonstrations or in-the-kitchen chef training are two exciting ways to create an unforgettable dining experience for guests.  Enhance these approaches further by showcasing a famous chef or locally-grown/manufactured ingredients.
  
  

• Enlist locals as culinary tourism ambassadors. One of the top questions tourists ask locals is, “Where’s a good place to eat around here?”  If a restaurant has gained the loyalty of locals, chances are those locals will direct tourists to that restaurant.
  
  

• Make it easy for visitors to get though the front door by providing plenty of parking, whether through complimentary valet service or by advertising a place where parking is available. Limited parking discourages culinary tourism. Out-of-towners are likely to choose another restaurant if they can’t find a convenient place to park.
  
  

• When it comes to culinary tourism, encourage local players to not view other restaurants as competition. Aligning with other local restaurants to create a culinary event will benefit a city’s entire dining scene. Collectively, restaurants working together make a larger impact than one restaurant can individually.
  
  To generate community spirit, consider holding a “restaurant week”.  This approach creates a critical mass to promote through public relations or other forms of marketing communication.  In addition to attracting tourists to a city, a restaurant week brings local epicureans into restaurants they may have never visited or have not recently visited.
  
  Restaurant weeks also generate awareness for the city’s restaurant scene. For example, Sarasota, Florida launched their first restaurant week event in 2006. The twenty-five participating restaurants offered prix fixe meals for lunch and dinner. The event sparked articles in local, regional, and even national publications which helped build credibility for Sarasota’s restaurants, a culinary scene largely overlooked by tourists and underappreciated by locals.  Based on the success of the inaugural event, the city has continued hosting the restaurant week.
  
  In doing so, Sarasota joins New York, Chicago, Boston, Denver, San Diego, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia-- more than twenty-six major cities nationwide, plus a growing number of smaller communities-- as cities hosting restaurant weeks.
  
  To encourage widespread participation, destination marketing organizations should take the lead in marketing efforts, including the creation of appropriate collateral. It is reasonable to charge participating restaurants a nominal participation fee to cover promotional efforts and advertising costs. 
  
  

• 85% of culinary travelers enjoy learning about the local culture and cuisines of different travel destinations
  
  
• 66% of these travelers say they want their travel always to be “experiential” so they make an effort to try regional cuisines, culinary specialties, local wines/spirits, etc.