From farm to fork: Is food tourism a sustainable form of economic development?

Megan Star, John Rolfe and Julia Brown

Economic Analysis and Policy, 2020, vol. 66, issue C, 325-334

Abstract: Food tourism events have become a large focus for economic development in rural and regional areas. Tourism has been a key driver of food festivals, where they play a role in attracting visitors and generating expenditure in the local economy. While these types of events are generally badged as enhancing sustainability, the criteria and tests for these claims are rarely specified. In this paper we explore how the sustainability of food tourism festivals can be considered and evaluated in economic terms, using a case study of the Truffle Festival — Canberra Region in Australia. A zonal travel cost analysis was conducted to measure consumer surplus, providing potential inputs into individual economic welfare and public good evaluation tests. The results estimate that the event generated consumer surpluses of $754/person and more than $8 million overall in 2016, highlighting the importance of artisan food experiences for tourism events. To further implement food experiences as an economic development strategy further consideration and linkages with agriculture, environment and community are required to ensure they are sustainable.

Keywords: Food event sustainability; Economic development; Festivals; Food tourism; Artisan agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592620300114
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:66:y:2020:i:c:p:325-334

DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2020.04.009

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Analysis and Policy is currently edited by Clevo Wilson

More articles in Economic Analysis and Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().