The recipe: Start with the fact that one-third of a tourist’s spending will be on food and drink. Add the recent surge of interest in sustainability and authentic travel experiences. Stir in countless food blogs and websites, and you have a new culinary creation: gastronomy tourism. More than just a millennial fad, gastronomy tourism can be a significant boost to a region’s economy and an important contributor to the preservation of traditional cultures.
Gastro-Who?
At its most basic, gastro-tourism involves visiting local stores and restaurants, touring breweries, or taking local cooking classes. The next step might be visiting a traditional farm or attending a food-themed event. The most immersive experience may involve multiday escorted tours of regions featuring culinary highlights.
According to the 2016 Food Travel Monitor, 95 percent of American travelers are interested in unique food experiences, and gastronomy ranks third among the reasons to visit a destination, after culture and nature. Millennials are the keenest gastro-tourists, with 69 percent describing themselves as “cuisine-driven travelers,” although baby boomers come second at 63 percent. European tourists are also avid culinary tourists, and Mexico is an increasingly popular choice, especially for Western Europeans.
Will Work for Food
At its best, gastronomy tourism is a tool for job creation and local development and can help to overcome tourism seasonality. In Mexico, gastro-tourism generates 5.5 million direct and indirect jobs and accounts for 13 percent of tourism GDP, or 2 percent of total GDP. Nearly 400 public and private educational institutions have embraced gastronomy, as young people look to the industry for jobs from server to chef. Enrollment in gastronomy programs around the country totals more than 53,000 students.
Beyond educational institutions are national programs and social scientists who see gastro-tourism as a way to stimulate businesses and sustain rural and traditional communities. National development bank NAFIN is considering launching a gastronomy program targeting small to medium-sized businesses, while researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico theorize that food tourism can make farming more sustainable while improving the quality of life of rural families, not to mention preserving historic foodways and ancestral collective practices.
From Atole to Mole
Traditional Mexican cuisine is based on corn, beans, and chilies, augmented with tomatoes, squashes, avocados, cocoa, and vanilla. It involves unique farming practices such as milpas (rotating fields of corn and other crops) and chinampas (manmade islets in lake areas). Despite many common ingredients, however, one area’s food can vary widely from the next. To help gastro-tourists find their way, Mexico’s National Agreement on Tourism established 18 Gastronomic Routes that span all 31 states plus México City, visit 25 ethnic groups, and sample more than 500,000 dishes and drinks.
Travelers to Oaxaca can discover The Thousand Flavors of Mole while partaking of locally distilled mezcal or the warm corn-based drink called atole. México City offers Taste of Today, a dazzling display of the nation’s best chefs, while a visit to Veracruz will include samples of coffee and the soothing scent of vanilla. The Yucatán reveals The Mysteries and Origins of the Maya, and scenic Chiapas sends travelers on The Cacao Route.
In 2015, President Enrique Peña Nieto announced the formation of the National Policy to Foster Gastronomy, noting that “the gastronomy industry is one of the main sources of income for Mexican households countrywide and one of our main tourist attractions.” But more important than the economy, more important than tourism, is that, as many a philosopher has said, “Friendships develop over food and wine.” Go make some friends in Mexico.
