Agri-Culinary Tourism
What tourists and visitors want today is an authentic experience. Agri-culinary tourism is such an experience - a combination of farm and culinary activities that highlight the unique enjoyment of place, natural resources, people and history, culminating in food - the tie that binds us together in a cultural mosaic.
What is Agri-Culinary Tourism? Agri-culinary tourism is
… about food as a subject and medium, destination and vehicle, for tourism. It is about individuals exploring food… new to them as well as using food to explore new cultures and ways of being… It is about individuals satisfying curiosity. Finally, it is about experiencing food (and wine) in a mode that is out of the ordinary that steps outside of the normal routine.
Dr. Lucy M Long - Culinary Tourism (2003)
We live in an increasingly technology-driven world where people yearn to experience earthly delights such as gardening, cooking and visiting farms to see how food is grown. An example of this interest is reflected in the meteoric increase in farmers' markets across the United States. In Washington State alone, there are nearly 100 such markets.
Agri-culinary tourism is more than, say, visiting a vineyard and tasting wines. This high-return tourism involves, for example, combining a vineyard and farm tour with local nature attractions and then concluding the tour with a dinner prepared by you or a local chef, using seasonal, local ingredients that exemplify place and history.
Professionals involved with this evolving concept of Agri-Culinary Tourism make a point of including wine, artisan agriculture and artisan-produced food products, arts and culture, and the physical environment, as integral parts of an experience that is out of the ordinary.
Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company, Picton, Canada
In February 2008, Heidi moderated an agri-culinary tourism session at the Farmer-Chef Connection conference in Seattle. This robust, energetic group of over 200 people met over the course of the day to explore the economic links between growers (called "producers") and buyers. These people are the backbone and the future of agri-culinary tourism in Washington.
Our consulting services extend to developing agri-culinary tourism.