Multi-day food tours: A profile of food tours and traveler preferences

Food has always played an important role in creating tourist experiences, yet the concept of food tours is still in its early development stages. While more and more tourists look for specific gastronomy experiences and the interest in culinary tourism is continually growing, research on food tours is limited, especially for multi-day food tours. First, this thesis identifies existing multi-day food tours and analyzes their characteristics. Second, this thesis surveyed international travelers from the USA (N=517) about their experiences with multi-day food tours. Lastly, the survey sought attributes travelers look for in multi-day food tours. The search for multi-day food tours revealed limited availability and marketing of such offerings on major travel platforms, with most tours being offered by small travel agencies. However, travelers’ demand for such tours is rapidly growing as over 57% of travelers were interested in taking a multi-day tour focused on food and drink. Travelers were interested in a diverse range of experiences on these tours. Overall, tourists want authentic, genuine, and unique experiences where they can meet locals and learn about the local heritage. They want participatory activities and are willing to pay more for these experiences. By providing insights into travelers’ preferences and expectations, tour operators and travel agencies can better design and tailor itineraries of food tours. Moreover, this research benefits local food businesses by highlighting opportunities for collaboration, potentially increasing their visibility and revenue. Lastly, this research benefits academic and research communities by addressing the literature gap and inspiring further research in related topics.