Gastronomic tourism: development, sustainability and applications - A Case Study of Cork, Republic of Ireland

Gastronomic tourism has the capacity to brand/re-brand a destination or region through its food and drink tourism offering, leading to increased visitation and thus visitor spend, while also supporting local food companies, outlets, suppliers, producers, manufacturers, agri-food and sustainable localised food initiatives, such as the Slow Food Movement and Eat/Shop Local initiatives etc. The sustainability aspects of gastronomic tourism have largely gone ignored in the extant literature and this chapter proposes to examine the potential of this phenomenon as it applies to County Cork in the Republic of Ireland. The chapter contextualises the development of gastronomic tourism and its link with sustainability and in doing so identifies key market trends in relation to the growing links between tourism, gastronomy and sustainability. It then presents a case study of the development of gastronomic tourism in County Cork, Republic of Ireland, examining its growth, development, key features and links with sustainable development. It examines the well-recognised Cork “model” and makes recommendations as to how it might be considered for application to other destinations as a development option for sustainable gastronomic tourism.