“Tremendous opportunity” in food tourism

Scotland is leading the way in promoting itself as a ‘foodie’ tourism destination in the UK while the other British nations lag behind on a global scale, according to the World Food Travel Association (WFTA).

Erik Wolf, executive director of the WFTA told Travel Daily there is a “tremendous opportunity” for tourism and travel businesses to get involved with food and drink tourism, which has become the largest niche travel sector worldwide in recent years.

While Wolf highlighted Scotland’s “great strides” in marketing its food and drink to attract visitors, England, Wales and Northern Ireland did not appear to be doing so well.

“While Scotland specifically has made great strides with regard to food and drink tourism, there is still tremendous opportunity for the rest of the UK trade to get involved in food and drink tourism. Compared to other global destinations, England, Wales and Northern Ireland still have some work to do,” he explained.

The WFTA has proclaimed there is a ‘new wave’ of food tourism ahead of its fourth World Food Travel Summit this year. Sweden is said to be “already riding the wave” and will host the four-day event in Gothenburg next month.

‘New Wave’ means that food tourism is a cutting-edge industry that is extremely popular and poised to help businesses learn new ways to compete more effectively in a crowded global marketplace.explained Wolf

“In the past decade, we’ve seen an enormous growth in the food tourism industry. This is partly due to increased interest in food for health reasons or how buying local supports local economies, but it’s also due to the pervasiveness of food and travel shows on the television networks. Every human being on the planet eats and drinks. Therefore, food has the potential to make a greater impact on both travellers and residents than any other special interest sector of the tourism industry.”

Fruit, veg, fish, pork, beef & PIES! We love Farmers' Markets. Tell us your favourites on our FB: http://t.co/Tb1SnlYwNW #naturalscotland

— VisitScotland (@VisitScotland) July 18, 2013

A typical tweet from VisitScotland promoting food tourism.

Naturally, Wolf hopes the summit will continue to build relationships between suppliers, agents and destinations as food tourism continues to grow, with a new appointments system introduced this year.

The SavorSearch platform will allow delegates to pre-arrange appointments, while the summit will also include an educational programme.