How To Develop Food Tourism? Culinary Tourism Alliance Interview

How To Develop Food Tourism? Culinary Tourism Alliance Interview

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I love to see the potential that food tourism  has in creating meaningful connection and   also having a positive impact on the  destination and the people that live   there itself so i think there's a lot of power  and potential in helping develop food tourism. Let's start with the the hardest question can you  introduce yourself and share what it is that you   do with the culinary tourism alliance. Thank  you very much Alex. Hello, My name is valerie Keast. I'm with the culinary tourism alliance  and our mission is to ensure that food tourism   is a meaningful and sustainable contributor  to local economies in destinations worldwide. Great I know so you've got tourism in the title  how is the culinary tourism alliance positioned   in the tourism industry in terms of working  with dust administration management companies   consulting locally or internationally how do you  find yourselves working with other tourism organizations well so the culinary tourism  alliance we were actually established in 2006   to implement the 2005-2015 ontario culinary  tourism strategy and action plan on behalf of   the provincial uh ministry here we are located  in ontario canada for those who are joining us   internationally and so at the time there were very  few people doing dedicated work around culinary   tours and strategies so it was very unique and  implementing it successfully really positioned   us as an organizations as thought leaders in the  space globally and so food fits into the broader   tourism strategies as you know and we soon became go-to experts on how to do that essentially in a lot of different ways so that bit of history and  context explains why in 2011 we dropped our *O* in our name ontario culinary and just became the  culinary tourism alliance and became - began   sharing our knowledge with other destinations  through our professional services work consulting   work so through our membership our brand and  our programs we're still very much rooted here   in ontario canada but we consult with destinations  across the country and internationally in places   like british columbia on the other side of  canada in the unite in the us as well as in some   destinations in europe very cool one of the things  about tourism and all the subparts of tourism that   I find mostly charming is how many different names that there are for different kinds of tourism   and i think that in our previous conversations we  touched on a few of them that kind of fit together   like i have more of a background in agritourism  but there's also gastrotourism or tourism related   to gastronomy culinary tourism food tourism  with all of these overlapping terms how do you   find a place to start with your with clients or  partners who are looking to get into this specific field. Well Alex, that's a great question & a good place to start actually so thanks for asking us. For us it's less about which term you  want to use because we often see that in different  parts of the world certain terms are used more  or less frequently but it is important that at   the dmo level or at the municipality there is some  sort of formal definition for what is food tourism   or agritourism at that destination the reason for  that is that it makes it challenging to develop   if there isn't a common language or understanding  on what's involved who's part of it and what we're   trying to do through those activities  so having that common definition or   name whatever you want to call it is a good place  to start in for any destination that's looking to   develop food tourism or agritourism. Along the lines of finding a common place to start  

I'd like to chat about expectations I think one  thing that I noticed as I've traveled is you have   people who are really established in tourism  who have an idea of how having tourists come   will impact an area versus somebody who  might just be getting started in tourism   might just be getting ready to welcome somebody  to their say to their farm or uh to an activity   and the idea of having a tourist come is  really exciting and i think this could   change my life forever and i'm gonna like so and  then slowly they kind of understand the realities   so i'm curious what is the cta's approach to  bringing people into the fall talking about maybe   the number of visitors or what they can expect in  terms of of revenue or impact on their lives with   tourism um well there's two ways i guess we could  talk about managing expectations or impacts one   is the visitor expectation and what they expect  to get when they visit your your destination and   that's the whole other side of it is making sure  that your marketing and your message is cohesive   but really on the planning side of it we get asked  a lot you know how are we going to measure the   return on investment to invest in food tourism  development or food within our tourism strategy   um and again i've got to say it depends on the  destination and the project that we're working on   itself really like to route things into specific  project outcomes and what we're trying to achieve   with each one of them but you know we view all  of our destination clients really as partners   because they're really experts in their own right  in destination management and so they've got   benchmarks that they're trying to compare against  specific things that they're aiming for in terms   of you know number of visitors uh you know  visitation stats revenue and they've got past   years to measure that again so it might be trying  to you know increase uh spend or increase length   of stay within the destination or finding ways  to have a deeper impact so that when people are   dining in their restaurants it's also supporting  local producers so promoting those restaurants who   are losing using local food for example at that  stage that's when we like to help our partners   also think beyond traditional economic metrics  of course and to think of things like social and   environmental impacts within their strategies and  then you know that way we can take a very clear   process approach working back from some of those  objectives so we manage expectations first by   asking and getting a clear understanding on where  we're trying to head and then we work back from   there yeah i like the idea that you could propose  additional metrics i think the popular ones would   be kind of length of stay or visitor spend but  those can be a little bit restrictive especially   when you're trying to develop something that  might have like you said deeper roots uh in   the community that's supporting it exactly so with  these projects that you're developing what would a   guess what would a traditional timeline kind of  be say if you're working with somebody or maybe   a tourism entrepreneur a farmer who didn't have  any experience with tourism to bring them up to a   point where you think that they could be included  in a in a route or proposed as a stop and a tour   what would you have somewhat of a timeline  or a rule of thumb for how they can think   about their kind of development process uh  yes absolutely so when we're thinking of   promoting someone we often think of the term  readiness or market readiness and a way to think   about this is that it's not one set thing we do  have criteria and we make recommendations on what   it can look like and a checklist that  operators can go through to see where they are   but we like to think about it more as a spectrum  so on one side you have business ready and on the   other side you have market ready and at business  ready basically it means are you open for business   do you have a visitors facing experience  that you're offering can somebody   look you up online and do you have regular posted  hours and you're actually open at those hours   and then on the other side we have market ready  which uh means uh which can mean everything like   being ready to be marketed through travel trade  for example so a really unique experience strong   marketing strong message working closely with the  dmo and finding ways to make it easier for them to   promote you your product and your business so it's  really a spectrum and then when we're thinking of   timeline projects can get off the ground really  quickly it depends on what you're working with   and you don't need to feel that you need  to start and aim straight for being travel   trade market ready right a lot of the time we  encourage businesses to try new experiences   and iterate so it can take only a few months to  get started but in the cycle or the seasonality of   your particular experience it could take up to a  year depending on you and your business got it uh   i'm curious you mentioned uh having regular  business hours posted and also following   those hours uh has that something is that one  that you come across that takes a bit of uh   practice to to get right for uh make people who  are not used to having maybe a storefront or uh an   office well it is something that we run in a lot  and we like to underscore it because when visitors   are planning their trips they're doing a lot  of research online beforehand and so they'll be   trying to plan their itinerary and getting a sense  on when they can stop through your business so   it we understand too that it can be challenging  especially over the past couple years through the   pandemic um when they're short stuff or there's  a lot of things going on if you're a small   owner operator to maintain those regular hours  but it is one crucial thing to helping make it   easier for a visitor to stop by a lot of times  i think businesses could be overlooked if   the visitor when they're planning doesn't have  confidence that you will be open they might look   to a different business to stop that instead got  it so they passed conversation with the tourism   authority of grenada and they had mentioned you  know to have uh organizations um presented on   their volunteerism website they needed to have a  set of hours listed and to to abide by those hours   because again you have tours who are coming maybe  for a day but they're looking to plan their trip   for months out so they want to know that that  will be offered at that point and it was maybe   an adjustment for let's say uh somebody who's  offering offering fishing or scuba diving to know   that they had to be always available uh not always  available but consistently available and not just   when the mood struck exactly and that's what  we talk about on that spectrum right is uh   if you're open for business uh but then or if  you're market ready so if you are advertising   your hours and you're committed to being open  to those times maybe a year in advance it makes   it a lot easier for tour operators for example  to include you in one of their packages got it   so one thing i've been curious about is how  we see the difference between maybe individual   businesses or entrepreneurs tourism stakeholders  and the kind of collection collective bodies   associations the government and sort of dividing  responsibility for some of these uh regional   efforts and i think what you've been doing  with with food tourism seems kind of inherently   regional it's connected to the area and often  there are multiple players involved if you're   eating dinner at a restaurant that came but  that was sourced from a farmer there's multiple   people who are participating so i'm curious what  you how do you see that balance between sort of   the the individual projects and they're what they  should be expected to kind of contribute to the   region and maybe the group that's organizing or  groups that are organizing from the area um that   that's another great question so think about  it thinking yeah think about it this way um   when a visitor plans a trip do they consider a  destination because of one business that's there   or are they more likely to go if there's a cluster  of businesses or experiences within a region   right basically it involves effort on both sides  so at the business level and at the destination   level and especially how they work together so at  the operator level things that you can be doing   are innovating creating unique experiences  things that complement your neighbors you   know there's there is competition at the regional  level among businesses on what they're offering   but it's about offering a lot of different types  of tastes or experiences for the visitor so we   like to call it friendly coopetition a lot of  the time that's nice yeah we really like to i   encourage the idea of businesses getting to  know their neighbors creating partnerships with   others cross-promoting um and that type of thing  and being authentic to themselves their story   you know presenting their story in a really  dynamic light sharing that story and that   message succinctly and clearly throughout their  experience when they welcome visitors on site   but also through their online presence their  marketing and things like that and also to   find ways to tie it into the grander narrative or  marketing efforts that the destination marketing   organization is doing at the destination level  some of their responsibilities usually fall around   making investments capacity building supporting  businesses to create new experiences to have   that cluster of dynamic things to experience and  then finding ways to either fill some gaps tied   into other tourism or economic development efforts  making infrastructure investments it goes that far   and then also of course like developing tourism  products marketing products and things like that   but the thing i'd say to take away from is  that it's a collective effort and at the   businesses the best thing that they can do is  get to know your local dmo who's in the office   become comfortable reaching out to them  letting them know what you're doing at the   operator level and vice versa dmos exist  to promote businesses in their region so   the best thing that they can do is build community  bring stakeholders together and really get   involved excellent i've heard too from at least  the operators who might be a little bit more   reluctant or new to these kinds of experiences  and they don't know that they can necessarily   introduce themselves or kind of be proactive  about drawing attention and they're saying   like why hasn't anybody come to visit me or  why i haven't they tried out our experience   they would know it's great and sometimes to take  that step too to meet them where they are and   uh to become a part of the network exactly and you  know i know it's not easy uh when you're a small   business owner you've got a million things on your  mind all the time and um so it might seem like one   extra thing that you have to do but that's why dm  destination management or destination marketing   organizations exist is to sort of alleviate some  of that work in marketing your business um so   simply reaching out can actually save you  a lot of effort in the long run i have just   to show a bit of my bias uh because i grew up  in an area or near an area called apple hill   in northern california and my grandmother taught  me how to bake apple pies and so when i saw that   part of the cta's member network is something  called the apple pie trail i wanted to pick your   brain and to see kind of what was ct's involvement  in that's in its development uh and then probably   a few other things before bragging about how  much better our apples are than candidates   well uh i am also biased and i'm glad you picked  this uh you know this project to talk about   um because i my family's actually from that  region um i'm going there today later today   and i'm actually wearing my little apple necklace  um i have nothing i i wholeheartedly think that we   have some of the world's best apples if not the  best apples and so the apple pie trail was pro   originally developed as a marketing  campaign and the way that we supported   it the culinary tourism alliance is after it  was launched we supported the initiative by   helping them further develop their criteria uh  for inclusion along the trail because of course   over the years it evolves and it's it's  nice to have a clear set of criteria   for businesses to know and strive for and stick to  as well as those operating it we also helped with   industry education and stakeholder engagement and  what i mean by that is working with stakeholders   who are featured on it to understand how they  can make the most of it and leverage this type of   opportunity and product because like i mentioned  before the success of these types of trails   depends equally on the engagement from businesses  as with the planning uh from the organization   that did it so i'm also curious about these  trails the other part of apple hill is that   there's also a wine festival uh that happens  called passport and people can navigate the   region to taste different wines and uh it's a  lot of fun and wine trails are also seemingly   quite popular and so it seems that this kind of  trail type partnership it fits very naturally with   food tourism especially and seems like there  could be potential in countries that do have   such a great deal of agriculture organic produce  interesting local foods that tourists might not   have been able to have the opportunity to try  themselves um i guess just kind of briefly what   do you see as the advantages to these kinds of  trails and what might be some of the the risks for   um taking on a bigger project like this well there  are a lot of advantages to developing a trail like   this and that's why i suppose you you see so many  of them around it's something concrete and helpful   that allows visitors not only to get inspired by  what they're going to find at your destination   but also to practically plan their trip and  drive business directly to certain operators   where they will be spending their money so we  often see when they're developed they're developed   in two different ways to inspire or to drive  a visitation through really practical products   apps and that type of thing sorry what was  the second half of your question uh the the   realistic part uh are there any struggles that  organization organizations or destinations have to   manage to execute one of these trails well um  are there i guess any sorts of problems they   should be aware of ahead of time knowing that  this is a bigger project it's an undertaking   it doesn't just happen overnight according to  your experience are they all just a great idea i do have a good answer um so some of  the risks are challenges associated   yeah so some of the risks associated  with developing trails like this are um   both on the planning side and on the  implementation side so on the planning   side a lot of the time we think of these as simple  marketing campaigns that need a bit of branding   and some money behind promotion and things  like that but as i mentioned before it's   really a collective effort and the message that's  being pushed out through the marketing campaign   needs to project the experience that visitors are  going to find when they arrive on site so when we   work with destinations to develop these types of  tours trails products things like that we try and   have them think a little bit more holistically  from the visitor journey from start to finish and   that it often involves more investments of time  and stakeholder engagement and capacity building   beyond just the marketing campaign itself  which we never encourage anyone to develop   without consulting the stakeholders  they're going to be promoting basically   um the other thing i'd say is that these are  alive they're ongoing they're year over year   so they change over time and businesses change  over time the experiences change over time   so one of the risks is thinking of it as a one  project you launch it and the job is done i need   to think of it as an ongoing project or program  that needs dedicated attention and revision every   year but that creates other opportunities and  advantages keeping it fresh dynamic revamping it   and building those connections on that community  year over year really helps strengthen the product   great hey um i'm curious so if you were speaking  to maybe a dmo that recognized that they had some   of these ingredients they had an active kind of  agriculture base and some interesting restaurants   and a growing kind of tourism awareness what would  you recommend be the next step to develop a more   cohesive food tourism uh offering in their region  um well we always like to start with um you know   anchoring your product and your stories in  the destinations unique selling propositions   um which really come from the unique  history heritage and culture of the place   so in anything we do we like to start by doing  that research understanding the local food waste   the stories and the champions of that and working  with those assets and those strengths first taken   up a lot of your time so just wanted to ask one  last question curious for you personally what   drives you to support uh and to engage with food  tourism um well personally old apple pies well   no it's all about the apple pies personally uh i  am that consumer when i travel uh it's the food   stories or the experiences that really enhance  my my travels uh and help me feel connected and   understand the local culture and the place a lot  better so from a consumer standpoint i want to see   more of these experience experiences being brought  to life and then also it's very much linked to   my values i love to see the potential that food  tourism has in creating meaningful connections and   also having a positive impact on the destination  and the people that live there itself so i think   there's a lot of power and potential in  helping develop food tourism excellent.

2022-05-30 21:46

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