FOOD TOURISM IN RURAL AREAS:

Títol: Internacionalització de destinacions rurals i de muntanya: idees per al turisme gastronòmic a la vall de Boí a la regió de Canterbury (Nova Zelanda) (DOI: .

Montse Señís per ajudar a accedir a la informació de l'Oficina de Turisme de la Vall de Boí. Turisme gastronòmic al camp: el cas del formatge a la Vall de Boí, Patrimoni de la Humanitat". La Vall de Boí és un municipi de la comarca de l'Alta Ribagorça a la província de Lleida.

El turisme gastronòmic al rural: el cas del formatge a la Vall de Boí, patrimoni de la humanitat». La Vall de Boí és un municipi de la comarca de l'Alta Ribagorça, a la província de Lleida.

Introduction

Food, tourism, and rural areas development: a state of the art

The UNWTO (2012) suggests that gastronomy as part of the tourism experience allows visitors to access the heritage of a destination through tasting, experiencing and purchasing local food products. Food tourism is an important player in regional development because of the close connection between food, land and community. Both the regional origin and the characteristics of the area are important for food production and consumption (Blichfeldt and Halkier, 2014).

Terroir, according to Lee, Wall and Kovacs, is a concept that recognizes a sense of place that brings together the geographical, cultural and economic dimensions of a place's landscape. The key to success is to integrate the natural, local and traditional aspects (MacDonald, 2013), referring to the wishes of visitors who value the consumption of food products related to the identity of a landscape and its authenticity. Food tourism also contributes to the diversification of the supply of destinations and to the reduction of negative impacts arising from the seasonality of demand.

In addition to the fact that local food and dining experiences are an essential part of travel to any destination, food is a source of heritage that takes on increasing importance as a visitor's main motivation to visit a specific place. Food, as one of the components of tourism, is natural for any country and is expected to have a critical role in the dynamics of tourist activity.

Objectives

The third aim of the thesis is to obtain an international perspective – in this case from the region of Canterbury, New Zealand – to generate ideas on best practices that benefit tourism development in Vall de Boí. The first article of the thesis deals with one of the great opportunities for growth and internationalization of destinations. It discusses the existing literature on the phenomenon of food tourism as one of the specialized tourism which is gaining a greater importance today.

As previously outlined, rural tourism does not only mean accommodation in a rural environment, but a combination of products and facilities related to the strengthening and added value of the regions themselves. The article outlines a framework for the study of this phenomenon and a methodological approach for a practical analysis of the impact that cheese tourism has on destinations such as Vall de Boí. Two of the main concerns for tourism managers are innovation in tourism products and services, and the internationalization of destinations.

Examples of the region of Canterbury in New Zealand are used to provide ideas to assist in the process of internationalizing Vall de Boí as a country and mountain destination in the Catalan Pyrenees. The Rhetoric of Lao/French Fusion: Beyond the Representation of the Western Tourist Experience of the Cuisine of the World Heritage City of Luang Prabang, Laos.

El turisme gastronòmic: autenticitat i desenvolupament local en

Concluding remarks

This, together with transport facilities and tourism use of the information and communication technology, makes the Catalan Pyrenees compete not only with their border regions, but also with mountain destinations all over the world. In this context, some issues should therefore be highlighted for the development of rural tourism in Vall de Boí: (a) the need to characterize a varied and unique offer, (b) the improvement of the identity and the authenticity, and (c ) creating alliances not only between businesses in the tourism sector, but also in relation to public administrations and the local community. Gastronomy, which meets the two characteristics, is one of the tourism products that deploys a greater impact in the culture and identity of a destination.

Demand for tourism in rural areas, and more specifically, tourism in mountain areas such as Vall de Boí is usually linked to weekend trips and short breaks in traditional holiday periods; and thanks to its relative proximity to Barcelona, ​​the main market in Catalonia. Fortunately, it is inevitable the domino effect of these landmarks on the heritage that food represents – and is present in any trip to the valley –, the sustainability of the union between primary and tertiary sectors, and the use of local products across a local-based cuisine. The development and promotion of food products certainly contributes to the improvement of natural and cultural attractions of a destination.

And as it happens in the case of Vall de Boí, it is about offering a culinary heritage that is not based on fashion, but on the tradition of cuisine that dates back to ancient times and is deeply rooted in the land. Food tourism in general and cheese tourism in particular contribute to the diversification of supply and lower seasonality of demand, based on the touristic use of local products, while preserving the natural and cultural peculiarities associated with the food landscape. Cheese is a product that is closely tied to the territory, as it is made from the milk of animals that graze and feed on the land itself.

One of the main challenges facing local production is its transformation from a culinary product to a tourist product. While for example wine as a tourist motivation is prominent in terms of trips to the country of production, it is much more difficult that other local products, namely cheese, can successfully enter this district. The food of Vall de Boí has ​​the characteristics of rural and mountain destinations in the Pyrenees, among which there is the local cheese production.

The way to convey this to visitors also affects the perception of authenticity attributes and the added value of gastronomy. They can't wait to taste and buy the product right where it is made and from the hands of the cheese maker himself. Finally, it is also important to remember the importance of each of the elements that make up a destination, since the smallest of them can be transformed into a new and innovative tourist site.

Discussion and implications

Food tourism provides the taste and smell of a place, even when tourists return home. Research contributes to the existing body of food tourism literature by bringing together links between food, rurality, authenticity, place and tourism with other areas such as local development. Theoretical results provide evidence of how the singularity of the food tourism experience becomes very important to face the fierce globalism boosted by the current tourism activity.

In any case, the developed theory adds two questions to the understanding of the phenomenon of gastronomic tourism: first, it shows the connecting process between rural activities, the heritage of a certain place, its landscape and landscapers, and tourism; secondly, the role of gastronomy in the development of rural and mountain areas. Consequently, this thesis shows great potential for the development of new food tourism niches, such as cheese tourism. The best practices of local gastronomic tourism derived from an international example – Canterbury, New Zealand – are expected to offer new insights to stakeholders in the destination.

There are possibilities for better promotion of agricultural activity and local products in the context of hospitality tourism. Stanley and Stanley (2015) argue as follows: “one of the drivers of hospitality tourism is nostalgia and tourists' desire to rediscover the past. One of the areas of gastronomic tourism that will become increasingly important is prehistoric and traditional cooking and food preparation, i.e.

In the future, food tourism will be about the past, but using modern marketing techniques" (Stanley and Stanley. In addition, the in-depth analysis of the motivations and perceptions of visitors represents an opportunity for research that may justify the importance of food tourism of the demand side. It can greatly benefit policy makers and destination managers to develop innovative food tourism strategies based on understanding the needs, expectations and behaviors of visitor experiences related to local food (Chen and Huang, 2016; Okumus, Kock and Scantlebury , 2013).

It is therefore critical for the destination stakeholders to examine the importance of the entire food tourism experience. Finally, food tourism can be used as a way to diversify traditional agricultural and artisanal practices, or as a vehicle to create new ones (Berno, Laurin and Maltezakis, 2014). Further studies in the same direction will help to accelerate the development of food tourism at a specific destination.