Food and Wine Festivals and Their Contribution to Destination Tourism - Literature review Example

Tourism: Food, Wine & Festival Tour 2004 Assessment 3 Case Study Analytical Report Table of Contents Introduction 3 Role of Rituals in Festivals and Cultural Impact 3 Example of Edinburgh Hogmanay Festival 4 Food and Wine Festivals and Community Involvement 5 Community Involvement and Example of Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 6 Food and Wine Festivals and Industry Involvement 7 Industry Involvement and Example of Niagra Wine Trail Route 8 Food and Wine Festival and Economic Impacts of Destination Marketing 9 Destination Marketing and Example of Food and Wine Festivals in Tuscany 10 Challenges of Food, Wine and Festival Tourism and Sustainability 11 Sustainable Gastronomical Tourism and Example of Eat Real Festival 12 Conclusion 13 Food and Wine Festivals And Their Contribution Towards Destination Tourism Introduction Festivals can effect the perception of a place amongst the people thus creating an image for destination tourism. Various festivals are discussed as cases that highlight towards the social wellbeing, economic impact, industry involvement and gastronomic tourism sustainability. Role of Rituals in Festivals and Cultural Impact One of the main issues regarding ritual based and cultural festivals is determining the factors for visitor motivation attractiveness and the local community motivation for participation in the festival. Rituals are intrinsic to people and create a sense of place and belonging. Thematic festivals that find their roots in traditions and historic rituals can create a sense of belonging for a community (Haven-Tanga and Jonesa, 2005). Such festivals can be useful in establishing an aspect for national identity for the residents of the region, while making way for preservation of the cultural heritage. Rituals and traditions in a culture when integrated in festivals can also aid in enhancing cultural memory (Assmann and Livingstone, 2006). Through their study Chhabra et al. (2003), determined that heritage and cultural tourism makes use of recreating the cultural traditions through festivals to provide a proposition for attracting tourists. Similarly Robinson et al. (2004) also highlighted that marking cultural events with festivals can be economically as well as socially productive as they can provide motivational factors for the participation of residents due to their affiliation and history with such heritage events. Example of Edinburgh Hogmanay Festival The Hogmanay festival is one of the most significant and elaborately celebrated events in Scotland on December 31st as part of its winter festivals. Scotland’s Hogmanay festival has its routes in Middle Ages and pagan religions when feasts were partaken and gifts were shared in the shortest days of the year. However after the reformation of Scotland, and the ban on celebration of Christmas, the tradition of Hogmanay was established on the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged. The Hogmanay traditions of sharing gifts, celebrations around banks of fire, and singing of Robert Burns’ poem create an atmosphere that is appealing for not just the local residents of the region but the tourists visiting the time of the year as well. The motivation that the local residents have for participating in the festival pertain to nostalgic odes, remembrance of their heritage, and continued survival of their Scottish customs. Meanwhile the tourists are attracted to the celebratory atmosphere and due to the curiosity of experiencing the blend of inherent Scottish cultural with the predominantly pagan customs. Food and Wine Festivals and Community Involvement Events such as festivals tend to bring together large groups of people usually from an external source or region which can have both positive as well as negative effects on the local community. Some of the issues that can arise for local inhabitants of the region pertain to security issues, overcrowding, and disruption of routine. The Melbourne Food and Wine festival has also dealt with such problems for the local community of the region. The following section highlights how the management of the Melbourne Food and Wine festival has tried to dispel these issues. The nature of festivals is such that they tend to be rigorous affairs with a significant number of people coming together to share and experience activities. Specific to food and wine festivals the local community as well as the destination of the tourists of the festival is put on display for the audience. This can lead to problems of overcrowding, congestion, and general disturbance in the normal routines of the local community (Getz, 1997; Delamere et al, 2001). Extrapolation of such issues can further create crime related problems like vandalism and public drunken behavior which can imbibe a sense of insecurity, and mistrust in the members of the local community (Delamere et al, 2001). As a result while festivals and events can help in strengthening the cultures of a region, the negative social impacts of the same festivals can also disturbance the moral values of the people visiting as well as residing in the destination region therefore weakening the cultural influence and heritage (Douglas et al, 2001). The perceptions of the members of the local community are also deeply effected by the level of interaction that they have with the tourists attending the festival. The residents of a region can suffer from negative perceptions as well as positive perceptions with the increased level of interactions with the tourists (Pizam 1928; Rotham 1978). These contradicting studies by Pizam and Rotham however aid in highlighting that increasing the level of involvement that the local community has with the tourists can help in increasing perceptions of achievement and community pride amongst the local residents. Community Involvement and Example of Melbourne Food and Wine Festival The Melbourne Food and Wine festival was initially started in 1993 with the proposition of 12 programs. The festival has however gone through significant changes since then and in 2012 the festival was host to 300 plus events spread over 20 days in 2012, and 250 events spread over 11 days in 2011. The festival seeks to create a positive social impact by creating jobs for the people while encouraging promotion of local culture, food and wine. The festival has a formal group of board members and management committee as direct stakeholders that are comprised of significant critics, chefs, wineries, public relations firms, and hoteliers that are inherently local to the region. Aside from this, the festival also encourages volunteers from the general public to join the management team along with the local media, financial institutions, and business partners thus involving the local community into the project. This provides a two way community support whereby the festivals aids in supporting the development of the community while imbibing a sense of community pride and bonding with the festival. In addition resources are gathered for providing security of the tourists, local residents and business and planning for congestion management. The extensive level of local community involvement also helps in creating a unique image and proposition for the festival attendees. Moreover, celebrity and acclaimed chefs from Australia as well as distinguished chefs and critics from around the world are invited to participate in the festival. This increases the attractiveness of the festival for the tourists while creating a unique gastronomic proposition for the festival attendees. Food and Wine Festivals and Industry Involvement The issue with the food and wine tourism industry is that it started of on a small scale with many vendors competing in the same market. Specific to the wine industry the level of decentralization, and the management quality of establishments has greatly effected the perceptions of a particular region to wine and related products. The main issue that arises in such circumstances is the lack of information of wine and related products in correlation with the festival destination due to the lack of inter industry collaborations. Tourists visiting a region for a typical food and wine festival tend to do so in order to have wine related experiences which are generally outside their life style experiences (Alant and Bruwer, 2004). Wine tourism can present the benefit of creating the region as a significant destination for experiencing wine while also providing an opportunity for the appreciation of quality product along with the education regarding its production, storing qualities (Dodd, 1995). Moreover as the wine industry is primarily a small scaled cottage industry, it is often not possible for producers to have large distribution networks for their product. Wine tourism however can aid in bringing business closer to the producers (Hall et al, 2000) whereby reducing their need to expand their distribution networks to a large extent. Beames (2003) in his paper highlighted that the wine trade and wine tourism industry in Australia is inherently suffering problems due to the cottage industry mentality of the producers in the region. The lack of inter industry collaborations between the wine industry, and the tourism industry for the region tend to hamper the potential of growth of the region as a main wine touring destination. Some other issues that Beames (2001) highlighted pertained to unavailability for funds for ventures, and problems in getting planning consents. Studies of wine production and sale in Australia (Roberts and Enright, 2004) have revealed that there are regional clusters present which create a segmented market for the customers of wine. As a result clustering approach for the produce of the region can be productive economically beneficial for trade. Industry Involvement and Example of Niagra Wine Trail Route The government in the Niagra region of Canada has established collaboration between the local tourism industry and the local wineries to come up with a proposition of the Niagra Wine Trail Route. This is a product of strategic alliances working for mutual economic benefits and marketing of the region as a premier wine country. The strategic alliance made up formal as well as informal agreements between the local wineries, the tour operators, the local hospitality industry and local food industry to create business in the region as well as to aggressively market the local produce. Each winery has its own unique marketing proposition and wine experiencing environment for the visitors thus using a differentiation strategy. The small scale nature of the business make individual growth limited, however the creation of Wine Trails has helped in bringing the festival attendees closer to the wine and food businesses in the Niagra region, making centralization of management possible for decentralized food and wine businesses. This also helps in involving the local businesses in the region to generate economic growth through increase in business for them with the inflow of large number of possible customers with expendable incomes. Food and Wine Festival and Economic Impacts of Destination Marketing The efforts of destination marketing and the management of a food and wine festival are ultimately based on the economic returns for the stake holders. The stakeholders of for the event include the local community, the government, the producers as well as the tourists being attracted. In order to be economically beneficial the strategies of destination marketing have to be aligned with those of the stakeholders. As the wine industry and the tourism industry can work cohesively towards a mutual goal, similarly the food industry can also work in cohesion with the local, regional or the national tourism industry to increase business in the destination region as well as provide for mutual economic benefits making way for formal destination marketing. The tourism industry can use food festivals to increase the attractiveness of the region to create an inflow for tourists with expendable budgets (Hall and Mitchel, 2002), while the food and wine industry can benefit from the increase in the number of patrons for their products and establishments. Food and Wine Festivals can be beneficial for a number of reasons. Such festivals can help in increasing the export of locally produced wine and food while reducing the need for exporting such item (Hall and Sharples, 2008). Similarly, they can also increase a favorable image of the destination as a tourist hot spot for the festival while also making way for improvements in the skills and the technologies available in the local hospitality industry (Hall and Sharples, 2008). Du Rand and Heath (2006) have gone as far as to extrapolate the concept and stated that food tourism is a form of destination marketing strategy on its own. Branding and image marketing strategies that focus on highlighting a region for its food and wine can aid in pulling tourists for the destination (Fields, 2002). Hall et al (2003) depict in their work that the use of destination marketing via food and wine festivals can help in regenerating the place, while also promoting local products and creating new tastes. Destination Marketing and Example of Food and Wine Festivals in Tuscany Tuscany has been marketed as an ultimate destination for wine and food tourism. The local food and wine festivals are joint collaborations between the government of Tuscany, Italy, the food and wine business in the region, the hospitality businesses in the region as well as the marketing & public relation firms and the local community. The strategy used in this case is a regionalized one. The local produce of the region in terms of the food and the wine are promoted through the events, while the festival attendees are encouraged to share gastronomical experiences over multiple tourist, heritage and culinary specific locations across Tuscany. The unique proposition put forward combines traditional Tuscan food experience with that of the local wines and cheese, the landscapes of the region as well as the cultural and architectural aspect of towns like Lucca, Florence, and Pisa The combination of wine and cheese has also been exploited as a marketing proposition using the complimentary nature of the foods making the name Tuscany synonymous with wine tasting. Some examples of the festivals include Rassegna del Chianti Classico in Greve, Festa della Bistecca in Cortona and the Truffle Festival of San Miniato. Challenges of Food, Wine and Festival Tourism and Sustainability The issue of sustainability regarding food and wine festivals is of significant importance. Resources and investment are put in establishing and running food and wine festivals. As a result and it is required, that the efforts of the stakeholders are rewarded in terms of long term sustainability of the festival. The sustainability in question pertains to economic feasibility, continuity and preservation of local culture and environment. Poitras and Getz (2006) provided a comprehensive framework that depicts how sustainability can be achieved by working towards safeguarding the environment, and strengthening the economy, while also protecting and enhancing the culture of the local community. The local culture and the local community can become subject to overexploitation resulting in alteration in the social values of the local residents (Handszuh, 2000; Nield et al., 2000). This overexploitation can also lead to falling standards of quality in the food and wine produce thus threatening the sustainability of such festivals (Hall et al., 2005). When deliberating on a strategy for developing sustainable destination tourism through food and wine festivals, the use of local produce and foods can be important as a marketing strategy (Elmont, 1995). Using and promoting locally produced food and wine in such festivals can directly stimulate sustainability and development by strengthening the agriculture sector of the region, increasing the allure of the destination, and by providing jobs whereby providing economic support as well (Tefler and Wall, 1996). Aside from being economically viable, such use of locally produced food and wine can also help in creating a niche in the market, and increase competitiveness of the region as a destination for tourists seeking food and wine experience through the establishment of a brand identity. This creates an avenue for sustainable gastronomical tourism that can lead to encouraging the health and the welfare of people, protecting the physical environment while promoting equity for small businesses (Hall & Wilson, 2009). Sustainable Gastronomical Tourism and Example of Eat Real Festival The Eat Real festival is an initiative launched in 2008 that proposes a unique combination of a fair, a food festival and a type of a party to encourage the consumption and sharing of good and healthy food. The experience provided to the attendees is an educational as well as a gastronomical one, where they are informed of how the food is prepared and how it reaches the end consumers. The focus is on regionally sourced foods that are produced using sustainability initiatives. The festival seeks to encourage the development of American food entrepreneurism with focus on protecting and sustaining the regional food systems. The festival has provided considerable economic growth to the region in the form of increased revenue from tourist expenditures, and development of small local business in the field of hospitality. Contributions have also been made to the economic growth of the region through the increase in visitor traffic to the region during festival periods. The benefit of this program is also that it enables the local community and culture to thrive by promoting it to the tourists as a unique proposition. Conclusion Various strategies can be employed to establish a region as a destination for tourism of food and wine. These can be based on using culture and traditions to base the festival, establishing a unique product proposition, or making use of sustainability initiatives to create long term viability and differentiation. The analysis has depicted that while the different festivals are unique in terms of their nature, culture, event and geographical locations, the aim of the festivals are similar, that is to provide for economic growth and welfare, establishment of social customs and norms, opportunities for new businesses, and the branding and promotion of the regions as a competitive and attractive destination for tourism. References Alant, K., Bruwer, J., 2004, Wine Tourism Behaviour in the Context of a Motivational Framework for Wine Regions and Cellar Doors, Journal of Wine Research, 15(1), pp 27-37 Assmann, J., Livingstone, R., 2006. 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