Street Food Tourism. Current Trends and Envisaged Trajectories

Abstract

The aim of this article is to unpack the current trends and trajectories of street food in the tourism sector. It postulates two key trajectories of luxury/gourmet street food tourism versus the traditional form of street food tourism. It is a conceptual paper based largely on previous research and documents found in extant literature. As such, document analysis was used to understand practices and experience of street food tourism that enabled the drawing of new trajectories and conclusions. It posits that street food will become more differentiated by food type given the vast potential to imagine and re-imagine among people. Street food presents a unique experience away from home that is available to both locals and tourists as shown in the street food trajectory framework presented in this paper. Street food tourism has been growing because of increasing demands of the populations for food due to urbanisation, the lack of time to prepare food at home, the accessibility of street food and rising incomes. The street food sector involves many players from ice-cream vendors to pastry makers, from fish sellers to confectioners, from bakers to French fry vendors. It is a sector with vast potential to create jobs and requires basic cooking skills to start a venture. It can be practised anywhere and anytime where there is human traffic. It is a sector that requires care with respect to food hygiene, safety, sanitation, and/or the nutritional value. To a large extent, its prospects rely heavily on urban planning, special and commercial policies, and actions of local governments.