Growing food and wine tourism
Food and wine tourism is growing, and new ways of promoting and communicating destinations that offer this type of offer are making their mark on the tourist's choice and booking decisions.
Food-themed trips and gourmand experiences are becoming increasingly popular and the connection between travel and food is increasingly strong and desired.
Factors linking food, wine, culture and tourism are increasingly becoming the expression of the desired tourist experience.
Italy, the country of tourism at the table
The percentage of tourists who claim to have made at least one food and wine 'type' trip in the last year is increasingly high. The data tells us that the number of food and wine themed experiences is increasing, regardless of whether one is travelling for tourism or business.
This is an important figure that attests to the growing relevance of this 'niche' of tourism among Italian travellers and that focuses attention on the destinations that lend themselves to this, with the aim of stimulating a food and wine tourism offer that is increasingly structured in its ability to accommodate the needs of a growing demand and offer an increasingly adequate proposal.
An interesting aspect concerns the absolutely transversal target of all generations, from the most adult to the youngest, who said they had made wine and food tourism trips, showing appreciation for those destinations in which this offer is wide and diversified and integrates with a context of particular landscape value, as well as with a strong cultural identity.
In short, a concept of 'food and wine landscape', i.e. that ensemble of culture, people, environment, activities and typical products, which the tourist tends to favour more and more when organising the destination of his next trip, is becoming more and more in line with a real experience to be lived.
Italy observed by the foreign traveller
Abroad, the Italian food and wine tourism offer is increasingly sought after and appreciated. More and more foreign tour operators are presenting food and wine-themed packages with Italy as a destination in their offers.
Many German and US travellers are increasingly oriented towards wine and food experiences. Offering a genuine and true proposal on the territory means structuring it with concrete elements collected and thought out on the territory with competence and organised in detail. The degree of satisfaction that an experience must leave in those who choose to live it is fundamental. Today more than ever it is attested that one of the most important dissemination processes in the digital age is still word of mouth. So a satisfied customer is a customer who communicates and promotes with greater force than any other medium.
Visits to wine cellars with tastings and in characteristic food production workshops from cheese to cured meats to typical local products such as the crusco pepper are among the most candidate and popular activities. There are also typical cooking courses with the local ladies who hold culinary traditions and the search for ancient workshops with handed-down craftsmanship, or the collection in nature of typical local products to bring to the kitchen to be processed and tasted together.
A unique heritage
Italy is a true Mecca of taste and traditions with no less than 825 food and wine products with Geographical Indication, 5,056 Traditional Agri-food Products, 4 food and wine assets included in the UNESCO tangible and intangible heritage list, 2 UNESCO Creative Cities of Food and Wine, 334,743 catering enterprises, 875 restaurants of excellence, 23,406 agritourisms offering accommodation, catering and other tourist proposals, 114 museums linked to taste, 173 Wine and Flavour Trails.
A variety of experiences in terms of satisfaction and choice. Visits and tastings in wine cellars, breweries, oil mills, festivals and food and wine festivals, and experiences of various kinds in the field of wine and gastronomy are finding an ever-increasing space in the offerings of traditional and online intermediaries.
A consistent offer that grows continuously and testifies to the richness and variety throughout the Peninsula, in the major cities as well as in peripheral locations.
The development of thematic proposals and itineraries has ample room for organisation and usability, and the food and wine heritage as a whole can indeed represent an enormously valuable tool for the enhancement and growth of tourism in smaller destinations.
