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Slow food tourists: An emerging special interest group
Abstract   Peer reviewed

Slow food tourists: An emerging special interest group

Kuan-Huei Lee, Charles Arcodia and Timothy J Lee
Program and Abstrcts for the ANZALS 10th Biennial Conference, p.43
Australian and New Zealand Association of Leisure Studies (ANZALS) Biennial Conference, 10th (Dunedin, New Zealand, 06-Dec-2011–08-Dec-2011)
2011
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https://anzals.org.au/conferences/past-conferencesView
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Abstract

Tourism
Studies of this special interest group of food tourists is now increasing, since special interest tourists are considered to spend more, stay longer, travel with greater frequency and participate in more activities than other tourists (McKercher & Chan, 2005). Tourist food consumption pattern depends on each personal's food culture and lifestyle. With the exchange of food culture internationally, it is not difficult to find Japanese sushi, Italian pasta, or American hamburger in every cosmopolitan city around the world. It is evident that tourists nowadays are more acceptable of novelty food during their visit to different cultural destinations. Moreover, there is a specific group of tourists that their main motivation of travel is food. One significant special interest group which has emerged in recent years is the Slow Food. While Slow Food has over 20 years of history, there is a paucity of literature which documents the experiences of this group. This emerging food movement was officially founded in 1989 and currently there are over 100,000 members in 150 countries worldwide. International members of the Slow Food movement share the same values toward food consumption but live in different countries, speak different languages, have different cultural backgrounds, and furthermore, eat different food. Members share, however, the values of Slow Food which recognise the importance of the pleasure connected to food, the knowledge of traditional producers and the variety of places where food is produced, as well as local recipes and flavours (Slowfood.com, 2010). The basic philosophy of Slow Food is 'good', 'clean', and 'fair' as defined by the founder Carlo Petrini (2003). This emerging food tourist group is still remain unknown in tourism literature, it is important to have a closer look to understand this special interest group in order to better comprehend the behaviour of food tourists.

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