Protected Food & Wine Products as a Driving Force for Creativity and Innovation of Gastronomy Tourism Development

Abstract

According to world tourism statistics more than third of tourist spending is devoted to food. Over and above the high quality local food &wine have been becoming a special driving force of tourism development. Tourists have growing interests to attend gastronomic food & wine events, festivals, fairs, farmers’ markets and tasting quality food products. Gastronomy tourism is being developed as a new tourism product. Previous researches proved that a number of traditional food and wine products protected by EU or national designation have not been successfully promoted and obtained recognitions in the domestic or foreign markets. This paper aims to justify that the typical, traditional local food & wine products, as relevant gastronomy tourism attractions, need to be scientifically re-examined before promotion. It suggests new ways of gastronomy tourism promotion based on improved territorial marketing portfolio, which can create evident value added for small and medium enterprises in the sector providing an advance to move from quality to excellence. Zaščitena živila in vina kot gonilna sila kreativnosti in inovativnosti razvoja gastronomskega turizma: primer Slovenije in Madžarske. Svetovne turistične statistike kažejo, da je več kot tretjina turistične porabe namenjena hrani. Visokokakovostna lokalna hranain vino postajajo posebna gonilna sila razvoja turizma tako v mestih kot na podeželju. Turiste vse bolj zanima udeležba nagastronomskih prireditvah s hrano, vini in drugimi gastronomskimi posebnostmi, sejmi, tržnice z lokalnimi kmetijskimi proizvodi in degustacije kakovostnih prehrambenih izdelkov. Gastronomski turizem se razvija kot nov turistični produkt. Dosedanje raziskave so pokazale, da številni tradicionalni zaščiteni kmetijski pridelki, živila, jedi in vina, zaščiteni znotraj evropskih shem kakovosti ali z nacionalnimi označbami, niso bili uspešno promovirani in prepoznani na domačem ali tujem trgu. V članku želimo izpostaviti, da je potrebno tipične, tradicionalne kmetijske pridelke, živila, jedi in vina, kot pomembne gastronomsko turistične atrakcije, pred promocijo najprej znanstveno raziskati. Predlagamo nove načine gastronomsko turistične promocije, ki temeljijo na izboljšanem portfelju teritorialnega trženja, ki ustvarja dodano vrednost za mala in srednja podjetja, kar zagotavlja napredek za prehod od kakovosti k odličnosti.