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RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication,
and it's a great way to help keep track of content from your favorite
websites. RSS feeds are updated almost in real-time, so you don't have
to keep visiting your favorite websites over and over to receive their
latest news.
All you need to do to receive the latest culinary tourism news and
updates through RSS is find a "feed reader" (see some of our
suggestions below) and then subscribe to our RSS feed, very much like
you might subscribe to a newsletter, and then read the updates from the
site.
Before launching this new website, we did extensive research with
our members to investigate the importance of including multilingual
content. Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of our website users
already speak at least good English and in-language content was not a
priority. Building a multilingual website is an extremely complicated
endeavor and expensive (costing hundreds of thousands of dollars at a
very minimum). In the end, we chose to publish the website only using
American English. We are sensitive to the needs of our website users in
other countries, and wish to be clear on the following information to
make your website visit more pleasant and useful for you.
This
website is published in American English. We have attempted to avoid
the use of colloquial and slang terms wherever possible.
If you still need content in your language and/or translation assistance, we recommend using Google Translator
for an approximate translation. Please be aware that we are not
responsible for misunderstandings arising from machine translations.
This
website uses the American date format (e.g.: 3/6/08 = March 6, 2008 NOT
June 3, 2008). In some locations, we were unable to customize the
software code to allow us to use a date format such as "June 3, 2008".
Unless
indicated otherwise, the currency on this website is the US dollar. We
have attempted to place "US" before the dollar symbol wherever possible
to avoid confusion. Nevertheless, some portions of the software code
could not be customized further and in some instances, you may just see
"$".
Multilingual content can be added on posts and comments
including special characters and formatting, and we encourage you to
contribute to our site in the language you prefer. You can also
customize blogs with in-language content, so please tag any posts with
"Deutsch", "Francais", "Espanol" etc. so that your contribution is
indexed properly. While you may be able to type the correct characters
in "Français" and "Español",
we recommend that you also "misspell" these words as "Francais" and
"Espanol" so that people who do not have the appropriate accent marks
can still find your in-language content. The forms are
Unicode-compliant, which means that content can also be contributed in
languages such as Russian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Many of our Association staff speak other languages, so if you need special assistance, please contact us.
We maintain a strict data privacy policy as detailed in our Terms and Conditions.
We also safeguard your data in a password-protected customer
relationship management system with 128-bit secure access. For
membership and event payments, we do not keep any of your credit card
numbers in our internal system. All financial information is held
externally by PayPal and other third party vendors, and maintained by their enterprise data privacy and data protection standards. Return to top of page
The International
Culinary Tourism Association (ICTA) is a non-profit trade organization
comprised of professionals who represent the world's food, beverage and
travel industries. Member businesses include associations, destination
marketing organizations, chambers of commerce, lodging properties,
attractions, tour operators, special events, food/drink service
establishments, food growers, food/beverage manufacturers and
individuals.
Education
events are held to enable members to promote their businesses, stay
current on Culinary Tourism trends throughout the world, learn best
practices in Culinary Tourism product development and marketing, and
network with other professionals. Meetings are held more often by local and regional affiliates.
The Association is governed by a Board of Directors and a President. Members may volunteer for board service or to help with our educational events.
Educational events are produced by the ICTA's education and training
sister organization, the International Culinary Tourism Institute.
It is beneficial for food, beverage and tourism professionals to collaborate for several reasons:
Food and beverage are taken for granted among travelers; cuisine takes last place to other attractions.
Local, regional and national public relations and cooperative marketing opportunities are missed by smaller providers who do not hear about them or cannot afford them.
Chefs are not often marketers: they are generally artists who create in the kitchen.
Wineries, breweries and farmers are generally not marketers: they are food and beverage manufacturers and scientists.
Existing food and beverage events often forget tourism and market generally to locals.
Valuable time and scarce financial resources are wasted through duplicative efforts because there is no clearinghouse of information that relates to the interrelationship of food, beverage and travel.
Collaboration with diverse industries builds stronger partnerships that are more valuable to sponsorship partners.
Association membership is currently comprised of individuals and businesses in dozens of countries. Represented
businesses include associations, destination marketing organizations,
chambers of commerce, lodging properties, attractions, tour companies,
special events, food/drink service establishments, chefs, food growers
and food/beverage manufacturers.
The vision of the International Culinary Tourism Association is to
continue to serve as the world's leading international organization
that promotes food and beverage as an attraction. Return to top of page
The Association engages in education, research, product development and
marketing activities and programs that help to advance the Culinary
Tourism industry and make your business more profitable.
The Association and our related business units are funded through membership dues, publishing, consulting and educational program revenue. Return to top of page
While the International Culinary Tourism Association (ICTA) is
classified as a 501(c)6 nonprofit trade association. The International
Culinary Tourism Institute (ICTI), the ICTA's education and training
arm, is an educational organization exempt from taxation under the s a
501(c)3 code if the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Contributions to
ICTI are tax deductible for U.S. federal income tax purposes to the
extent provided by law. Your contribution may also be tax deductible as
a professional expense in countries other than the U.S. Contributions
from corporations and foundations are appreciated as they help the ICTI
continue to offer its groundbreaking educational training for
professionals as well as the general public. Please contact us if you would like to explore making a charitable gift. Return to top of page
Not at all, and in fact, the ICTA supports and enhances the work of these
organizations. Many restaurant and lodging associations are trade groups
that largely focus on legislative and government relations and promote
the industry for their membership. Agricultural ministries are
government entities that are concerned with only local or regional
farmers, growers, and trade/commerce issues. Commodity marketing
groups, such as wine associations, are often membership organizations
that work to preserve and enhance the vitality of a particular crop at
local or regional levels. Commodity groups may deal with specific
topics such as import, export, taxation and distribution issues. The
ICTA is engaged primarily in education, networking and research. Our
purview overlaps and supports, but does not interfere with, the work
and interests of these other organizations. Return to top of page
No, the Association is not engaged in any political advocacy or
lobbying activity, nor do we expect to engage in this work in the
future. We are primarily concerned with education, research and
networking. Return to top of page
The main difference between the two organizations is that ICTA focuses
exclusively on how travel and tourism are integrated with the food and
beverage industries. The ICTA does not explore issues relating to
nutrition, cooking techniques, cookbooks, culinary anthropology, or the
culinary arts and sciences, which the IACP does an excellent job of
covering for its members and the food and beverage industry. While the
ICTA wholeheartedly endorses of the work of the IACP, the two
organizations are in no way related. Several ICTA members are also
members of IACP, and see the benefit in maintaining membership with
both organizations The primary benefit of maintaining a membership with the ICTA as well as the IACP is that the ICTA publishes unique and different information. The ICTA and the IACP are not related.
Culinary Tourism is literally in his blood. Erik's parents chose to
take their honeymoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, a decision based
solely on the reputation of the city's restaurants. New Orleans is
where Erik was conceived and the rest is history. Erik has had the good
fortune to be able to travel to many countries, tasting the foods
everywhere he went. Friends would look to Erik as a source of
information and advice on all matters relating to food and drink,
almost anywhere on Earth. Then Erik had an epiphany when he moved to
the US State of Oregon in 2001. There he noticed that people tend to
take the quality and variety of their produce for granted, yet they
also took their food very seriously. Great ingredients, great chefs and
great talent were everywhere. At that point Erik realized that few
destinations in the world focused on food and beverage as an integral
part of the travel experience. Finally, it was at a meeting of
Portland's Slow Food convivium, which drew visitors from all over the
western U.S. and Canada, when Erik realized people would travel to a
destination to experience its food. The Italians and French have been
promoting their foods for centuries, as many other destinations do
today. And Asian and other specialized groceries are extremely popular
around the world. The opportunity to formalize the development and
marketing of this niche was born. Erik did not create a new niche,
although he commercialized the marriage, development and marketing of
cuisine and travel, two ingredients that complement each other well for
a successful, rewarding and memorable hospitality experience.
The Association maintains a very lean staff and employment openings are
rare. We regret that we do not currently have any openings in our
office. Please check back every 3 to 6 months. If we have any
employment openings, we will post them here.
We understand that sometimes the nature of certain businesses (usually
governmental or publicly-funded entities) prevents the business from
joining membership-based organization sor paying membership dues. In
such instances, we recommend that your business or
organization work with our Association to develop a product for your
area that your organization would sponsor. For example, your
organization could support a local/regional culinary travel guide, a
local culinary travel map, or a local/regional culinary tourism
symposium. We would be pleased to work with you to arrive at creative
ways how we can extend a membership to your organization without your
having to pay dues.
You should have received a welcome email and, if you are a new premium member, a copy of Culinary Tourism: The Hidden Harvest. However, in an effort to support environmental sustainability
efforts around the world, the Association strives to reduce or
eliminate waste wherever possible. We do not mail out member welcome
letters or membership directories. We try to communicate with members
as much as possible via electronic means. This means faster
communications to you, and it helps keep our membership costs more
affordable. The membership
directory is available using the online community's search function. Of course if there is something we must mail to you, we are
more than happy to do so. Please remember to recycle the wrapping!
We do not issue refunds for membership payments. However, if you leave
your company or organization during your membership term, you may
designate another colleague to assume your membership. We allow one
such membership transfer at no charge per membership cycle.
It varies. Sometimes they just want an interview about culinary tourism
in general. This usually includes citing a number of examples relating
to their questions. Other times, the requests are specific such as menu
trends, tipping etiquette or popular destinations or events.
From time to time, our office will post requests on our MediaMatch
referral system and send out requests for information from journalists
who have contacted our office. You reply to our request with your
information using the instructions posted (either replying to us or
directly to the journalist through our secure directory). Please do not
send more information than is requested. We regret that we cannot
deliver printed media kits or CDs to journalists. Because of the
sensitive nature of many journalists, we regret that we cannot put you
in touch directly with them initially. However, you should include your
contact information in case they choose to get in contact with you for
a follow-up (in which case you can offer to send them your media
kit/CD/etc). Remember, journalist deadlines are tight! If you’ve got
something to share, please reply by the deadline or we may not be able
to include your submission.
Not at all. Media contact us from all over the world. It’s true many of
our requests originate in the US, but we regularly receive calls and
emails from Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan. I have also
answered other media requests from Brazil, Sweden, Germany, Singapore,
Malaysia and Korea. We really have achieved recognition as the go-to
resource for culinary travel information in the world!
The price for seminars and symposia varies. Variables that influence
the price include type of presentation; amount of customization and
research required; whether it is for a private or public audience; the
number of attendees; and distance from speaker's home to presentation
venue. We would be happy to provide you with a quote once we know more
about these variables.
Many presentations are delivered by Association President Erik Wolf.
Mr. Wolf is an accomplished speaker with 20+ years in the
hospitality industry, the last 10 of which he has been professionally
speaking. Additionally, our Board of Directors
are well versed in culinary tourism and may be available to speak on a
suitable topic. We also offer access to speakers from our past
conferences and symposia. Please contact us and tell us the type of topic or presentation you would like and we will tell you if we have a resource that meets your needs.
Annually, the ICTA and ICTI speak at approximately 15 seminars and
produce 5-6 symposia. The Association also offers a culinary tourism
news blog and BrainFood™, a unique members-only online knowledge library, both with customizable visibility opportunities. Please contact us if one or all of these educational formats/member touchpoints is of interest to you, either on a one-time or annual basis.
The ICTA is a "501 (c) 6 designated'' non profit trade association
whereas the ICTI is the "501 (c) 3 designated'' non profit educational
sister arm of the Association. All education and training programs are
produced by the ICTI. All other Association services (membership,
research, partnerships, etc.) are looked after by the ICTA.
The ICTA brings an enormous array of international resources,
experience and examples to symposia. These benefits add unparalleled
value and exposure for your local and regional delegates. When you
partner with ICTA, not only do you have access to the world's best
Culinary Tourism resources, you also benefit from the exposure that
ICTA gives, and the credibility it lends, to your efforts. In most
cases, the ICTA produces the entire symposium, thereby saving you staff
time and resources, i.e. money. We are very careful to solicit your
detailed input but we do all the work for you. If you have ever
produced an event, you know how many little details can add up to quite
a large headache. Also by involving ICTA speakers, your delegates
benefit from best practices Culinary Tourism examples from all over the
world - not just your region. The ICTA also maintains a vast database
of Culinary Tourism contacts around the world - potential delegates
that we can market to for your symposium. Lastly, the ICTA staff has
extensive experience with cross-cultural communication and speaks a
wide variety of languages. We know what it takes to launch an idea
successfully across borders and into different cultures and languages.
We always defer to you as the local expert, but because our staff are
highly experienced with international matters, your job is that much
easier.
It is an online, searchable knowledge management system that indexes
various types of culinary tourism files. The types of files it indexes
include research, reports, marketing plans, marketing collateral, media
coverage, best practices materials, itineraries, product development
guides, destination-specific case studies and much, much more. The
system indexes the information using keywords that we assign to the
content when it is uploaded. This allows users to easily and quickly
search hundreds of files and thousands of keywords in a mere second.
BrainFood™ is the largest online culinary tourism library in the world.
Members may contact us
and we will send you an email to which you can reply with your
attachment. Your submission will be reviewed and if approved, and uploaded
for the rest of the community to read. Non-members may contact us to inquiry about unsolicited submissions.
All ICTA members receive complimentary access when their membership is
approved. Members continue to have access to BrainFood™ as long as
their membership is in good standing. Media are offered free membership
in the Association and often comb through BrainFood™ for story ideas,
photos and interview candidates.
Culinary Tourism: The Hidden Harvest is an easy read. While facts and data are referenced as examples, the
book is written in an approachable, friendly style suitable for
business professionals. The entire book can be read in one business
day. It is a valuable business tool that can be discussed in a staff
meeting or shared with constituents, members or partners. The book also
makes an excellent value-added reference tool gift to your seminars,
conferences and symposia.
The book is published in 4-color and is spiral bound. It has the look
and feel more of a reference manual than a fiction book, for example.
It is digest size (approximately 5" x 7" or 127 mm x 178 mm).
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) from the page of your desired feed.
ICTA Board of Director member since 2004, Harold built his 40 years as travel consultant and busines
Jane Gregg is the owner and president of Epicurean Ways, a leading operator of culinary tours in Spa