The great strength of food and wine tourism

Tourism in food and wine continues to grow in Italy.

This is confirmed by the new "Report on Italian food and wine tourism 2019" presented in the last days by the Italian Touring Club. This research was carried out by World Food Travel and the University of Bergamo, under the patronage of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Tourism, of ENIT - National Tourism Agency, Federculture, ISMEA, Qualivita Foundation and Touring Club Italian, in addition to having seen the collaboration of teachers of Italian universities and experts in the field.

Thanks to the intervention of many different subjects, this is currently the most complete study on the sector, able to offer a detailed picture of this tourism segment, outlining the main trends in terms of demand and supply.

A very important piece of research is given by the significant growth of the role of enogastronomy as a "driver" of holidays. In 2016 the data indicated that 21% of Italians traveling were interested in this type of tourism. In 2017 the percentage rose to 30%, and in 2018 even more. In the last three years, even 45% of Italian tourists have made at least one trip with this motivation, an increase of 48% over the previous year.

What has changed in these last years? In reality, very much, both from the point of view of the behavior of tourists, both from the point of view of the offer. Food and wine, in fact, is increasingly a "cross" interest: from the surveys conducted, in fact, it emerges that 98% of Italian tourists, regardless of the type of tourism chosen (seaside, mountain, artistic or business) is still looking of enogastronomic experiences.

The research highlights many positive data, and - despite important growth rates - highlights the presence of additional areas for improvement linked to organizational aspects and usability of the great Italian heritage that represents a lever on tourism, with great potential to be expressed through processes of valorisation of the territorial enogastronomic traditions.

Food, identity, culture, discovery ... these are the new values ​​that stimulate the tourist.

Franco Iseppi, president of the Italian Touring Club explains that "The story of food is often one of the most immediate access to a territory, one of the first experiences with which the contemporary traveler seeks contact with the culture and traditions of the place. This offer therefore means generating value for the territories that are the creative source of our plural identity. Telling it - he concludes - creates a multiplier effect that from agriculture, and therefore from the landscape, from food products, from food and wine traditions, is reflected in the territories, the inhabitants, the guests, the economy and tourism ".