RESEARCH ON CULINARY TOURISM

In early 2007, our Association, in partnership with Gourmet Magazine and the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), released results from the first culinary tourism research ever commissioned in the United States. Premium Association members are give free access to a 20-page Executive Summary of the report in our Association's BrainFood library. If this report is of interest to you, join the Association as a Premium Member to get access to this and other unique information.

Research on culinary tourism is hard to find. The Australian Tourist Commission performed some culinary tourism research in the late 1990s. Then the Canadian Tourism Commission published its landmark Travel Attitude Motivation Survey (TAMS) report in 2002 and then updated it again in 2007. The TAMS report is regarded as the most comprehensive research publicly available on culinary tourism. The research made available by our Association and TIA in 2007 raises the bar of culinary tourism research and expands to our industry's knowledge of culinary tourism. While our research focused on culinary travelers based in the U.S., there are valuable lessons to be learned by destination marketing organizations around the world.


STATE OF THE CULINARY TOURISM INDUSTRY REPORT

The International Culinary Tourism Association (ICTA) conducts annual research on the culinary tourism industry in cooperation with International Culinary Tourism Development(ICTD), and comes out with a report towards the end of each year.  Briefly, the analytical report includes qualitative and quantitative research on product development and marketing efforts in key culinary destinations, as well as an in-depth analysis of the current state of the world’s culinary tourism industry. The report also discusses new culinary traveler behavioral research and implications for the future of culinary tourism industry as a whole. This is the first in depth analysis ever commissioned of the global culinary tourism industry.

Click here to read about this year's State of The Culinary Tourism Industry Report


CONSUMER PSYCHOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

In 2008 and 2009, the International Culinary Tourism Association conducted independent research on culinary traveler behaviors and motivation. The research was conducted entirely online. During the 15 month research project, over 11,000 respondents from 19 countries shared their opinions about culinary experiences. The research led to the understanding that everyday people are motivated to eat by different kinds of anticipation rewards.

To this end, 13 different kinds of culinary traveler psychographic profiles emerged. We refer to these now as PsychoCulinary™ profiles. To illustrate the implications of these findings, consider your own behavior. Has a friend ever suggested you try a new restaurant that he or she just “loved”, only to your dismay when you go? The disconnect is because you and your friend have different kinds of PsychoCulinary profiles (i.e. you anticipate different kind of rewards when you dine). This new research is explained in detail in the report. This research has also been woven into the November 2009 relaunch of the FoodTrekker.com consumer culinary travel website.