The mean of Enogastronomic

Italy, has a huge background in terms of food and wine culture that’s the why I am inspired to choose  this subject, not only because I am proud to be Italian but also because to study tourism helps me to see my Nation in a different point of view, with managerial issue. In the last session I introduced the term “Enogastronomic”, that is simply food and wine tourism. I think that in a standardized world, where the society today live, people want to escape from the daily routine and from the same products that “economic giant” want to sell us.

In recent years, this kind of tourism is becoming a real fashion because of tasting food-and-wine  it represents an important part of the total tourism experience.

The quality (Grönroos, 2009) of the products is very important, because food and wine travellers are usually lovers and they understand the best quality.

So at this point we need to ask something: How firms could offer quality and a unforgettable experience?

The first answer is Slow Food Presidia, that is a relationship between the small producers and chefs and they guarantee the best quality of the products when tourists go in a restaurant (www.slowfood.com acceded 22/11/2010).

The second one is that some firms understand the tourist needs and the expectations they want to learn the local culture, so they open “their doors” to show them how they produce the products. That’s the case of  Winery Tour in Tuscany (www.drivingguidetours.com, acceded 22/11/2010) where they can  follow  all the phases of wine production and at the end of the tour also taste the wine with local food.

So in a world where multinationals dictate the game rules, they still exist small producers and small firms in Italy that want to offer their guests an irreplaceable product. It is clear that nowadays enogastonomic tourism requires specialized skills and ability, based on a management planning. The combination between the quality of resources, the best food and wine and managerial issues is a source of sustainable advantage for Italy tourism.

It is important to remind that Enogastronomic tourists want not only to find the best quality, typical and guaranteed, but also to taste typical dishes, to meet the producer  and to be treated with courtesy everywhere (Viganò,2003).

References

www.drivingguidetours.com

www.slowfood.com

Grönroos C. 2009 “Service logic and service productivity” Oslo 24th july 2009 (14th biennial world marketing congress).

Viganò G. (2003), Enogastronomy: a path towards the discovery of the local culture, M.E.T, Univerità Bocconi, Milano.

Why do people travel in Italy?

The Italian Enogastronomic tourism is attracting a lot of tourist in the last few years. What are the main reasons?  Before I talked about the four motivator categories. As regard the physical motivators, the push factors refer to refresh their body and mind, to limit the daily stress, to take part in sport activities and last but not least for a sense of well-being. All this elements have to be associated with the experience to taste new food. To eat food, in this context, means to live different actions such as smell, taste and sight.

Secondly, the cultural motivators can be analysed in two different point of view: the first one concerns the servicescape, the music, the food, the dance and the lifestyle; on the other hand we could associate the action to eat in a destination with the sense of adventure to know different culture in terms of cultural activities. As regard this last aspect, Italy is a good example about how the experience of tasting new food could be associated  with the different traditions of each region. In fact tourist could find, in some period of the year (Christmas  or Easter) a special food offer, and each meal implies his history, about how and why this food was cooked in the past.

After, we could find the interpersonal motivators and they show the reason why tourists want to socialize with other people.

The last one are status and prestige motivators and they are referred to the personal desire to communicate other people the level of prestige and richness they have and also their power in the society. This motivators could be associated with the self-actualization needs (Maslow, 1954). From this point of view, Italy is the perfect destination, because of the wide range of proposals.

Indeed, the five-star restaurant in Italy can satisfy a very rich market target with the best quality of food and beverage.

From this point of view, the experience to eating out nice food in a nice place can be recognized as means to be distinguished from others in terms of social status. (Fields, 2002)

References

Fields, K. (2002). Demand for the gastronomy tourism product: Motivational factors. In: AM Hjalager & G. Richards (Eds), Tourism and Gastronomy (pp. 36–50). London: Routledge

Maslow A. (1954).Motivation and personality. Harper and Row New York, New York 1954 pg 92

Italian Food and Beverage

When do you think about Italy destination, what do you come to your mind? The cultural and architectural heritage, Florence the “cradle of the Renaissance”, the Venetian Lagoon, the Neapolitan Riviera, Sicily Island, Lake of Como  and the last but not least the Italian Food. Pizza, Pasta, Pesto, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and so on. The wide range of products and its varieties determine the regional cooking, each region is specialized in its particular dishes in terms of uniqueness and originality and also in beverage. In this space I would like to talk about the Italian cuisine and the connection with  the tourism experience, underlining the necessity to have managerial practice in this field to be competitive in the tourist market as compared with France, the most competitor of Italian cuisine.

The importance of food and eating out on holidays is an essential part of the tourism experience (Hjalager and Richards 2002). Local food and beverages play an important role in introducing tourists new different   traditions at destinations. But what we have to look at is not only the quality of the food but also the managerial issues to develop a successful model for the Italian Food and beverage area.

In Italy, we have the quality of the product but sometimes we need organization skills and capabilities, comparing with the other word competitor.

Compared to the destination tourist proposal Food and Beverage industries represent  an important element  of the overall product, that helps to lead customer satisfaction for the holiday experience.

 In Italy exist a fragmented offer of restaurants, where sometimes they don’t have managerial practice. On the one hand, we have a wide range of restaurant with a family management style, where often the chef is both owner and manager. It is necessary to separate the roles, to develop a managerial model and also to study the marketing strategies.

On the other hand, we could find a wide range of four/five star restaurant with managerial and marketing  strategies. Indeed, they don’t have only the restaurant but they broaden their offer with a farm, wine cellar and kitchen school. .

Another important think is to understand the motivators for consumption of Food and Beverages in a tourist destination like: physical motivators, cultural motivators ,interpersonal motivators and status prestige motivators (McIntosh et al. 1995). I would like to talk about this subject in the next entry.

References

Hjalager , A.,Richards, G., 2002. Tourism and Gastronomy. Routledge, London.

McIntosh, R., Goeldner, C., Ritchie, J., 1995.Tourism Principles, Practices, Philosophiess, 7^th ed. Wiley, New York.