Culinary Tourism in Uncertain Times [part 1]

Part 1 in a five-part series.

The past few years have been a roller-coaster for almost every person on the planet. As if a pandemic were not enough, now we have supply chain shocks, food and fuel shortages, significant inflation, a recession, and to top it all off, the increasing threat of another world war.

In today’s world, the target of what is defined as success keeps moving. Forty years ago you would just sell a tour (or a hotel room, airplane seat, etc.). Today, your “tour” must be sure to accommodate food allergies and special diets, while ensuring that your ground transportation is carbon negative (not just neutral), while employing workers who represent every conceivable facet of diversity, while also ensuring that your product does not culturally appropriate anyone else’s culture. And don’t forget to factor in the UN’s SDGs, lest someone think that you are insensitive to the rest of the world. Oh, and the price must be affordable or people will not buy your tour.

These certainly are all worthwhile goals when aiming for successful business performance. But for some businesses, balancing so much change so fast, is difficult at best. We’re in hospitality. Shouldn’t work just be fun? Well, we are not living in the world of 40 years ago.

While these are not the best of times, we can look back to the lessons we learned from the pandemic to help craft our playbook for the current and coming crises.

An economic downturn is the perfect time to improve one’s own knowledge, plan strategically as an organization, and optimize our work and personal lives. As soon as the pandemic arrived, we published a list of tasks that our industry’s professionals could do in order to “weather the storm.” Now the situation we all find ourselves in appears to be more serious.?

This is the first part in a series of five articles about culinary (or gastronomy, or food & beverage) tourism in uncertain times. But there is definitely room for hope; it is not all doom and gloom. There is still a lot that we can do as professionals to prepare and as humans to evolve. Join us as we publish a new chapter for each of the next five weeks in our “Culinary Tourism in Uncertain Times” playbook.

Part One

We always strive to look for the positive here at the World Food Travel Association. As bad as the pandemic was, there was indeed a silver lining, if we can call it that. With the bleak outlook that started in early 2020, what could our industry do to prepare? And what actually happened in both our culinary tourism industry and among consumers? What we witnessed in 2021 still informs our behaviors today.

More Awareness of Local Agriculture

First, during the pandemic, consumers became acutely aware of the importance of local agriculture. Unable to shop because of lockdowns, store closures and more, and facing shortages of many foods due to sick workers and hoarding, we had to find food closer to home. For some of us, that meant local farmers’ markets or neighboring farms. For others of us, it meant growing our own food. We witnessed supply chain shocks start to happen and consumers realized that it was becoming increasingly doubtful that there would be a nonstop supply of Parmigiano Reggiano or Tiger Beer, just to name two popular products that are exported all around the world. For those for whom it was not already rote behavior, we were forced to learn to shop locally. And because of this, local greengrocers and farms tended to do quite well financially during the pandemic.

What does this mean for you, now?

As this decade progresses with uncertainty, consider growing more food at home if you can. Even if you live in an apartment in a city, you might be able to grow herbs inside, or maintain a fruit tree on your balcony. You could even monetize this activity by teaching others in your area or region your trips and tricks, adjusted appropriately for your climate, area resources and specific circumstances. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

More Awareness of Culinary?Cultures

During the pandemic, there was also a new awareness of culinary cultures, both our own and those of other people. While in lockdown, we were forced to cook most of our meals at home. For some, this meant learning to cook for the first time. For others, it meant remembering to cook since the takeaway option had been taken off the table, so to speak. We contacted our parents, grandparents and friends and traded recipes or exchanged cookbooks. We watched cooking shows on Netflix like Ugly Delicious and food-themed shows like the Best Ever Food Review Show on YouTube. And while many of us were watching these shows, the protracted lockdowns gave rise to a new generation of content creators. The lucky or smart ones figured out how to monetize their content and make a living.

Going forward, you could teach cooking classes that feature dishes from your region. Focus not just on the ingredients and method to prepare recipes. Be sure to also explain the history of your culinary culture, giving due credit to any immigrant, historical or other external influences. You could even resurrect old or old-fashioned recipes like Baked Alaska or Beef Wellington, or underutilized cooking techniques like the Maori hangi which exists in similar forms in other countries around the world.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Next week we’ll look at our current situation — “revenge travel” coming out of the pandemic, which is being thwarted by all the world events we face today, and what that means for you and your business.

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Erik Wolf is the founder of the culinary ?? travel ?? trade industry, and Executive Director of the World Food Travel Association, the world’s leading authority on food and beverage tourism. He is the publisher ?? of Have Fork Will Travel (a practical handbook for our industry), author of Culinary Tourism: The Hidden Harvest, and is also a highly sought strategist ?? and speaker ?? around the world on gastronomy tourism. He has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Forbes, and on CNN, Sky TV, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, PeterGreenberg.com, and other leading media outlets.