The development of gastronomic tourism can effectively boost domestic consumption and promote domestic circulation, which is a realistic choice and long-term consideration for the high-quality development of the tourism industry. The combination of food and tourism is not only an important way to enhance cultural self-confidence, but also an important way to promote the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism. In order to better promote the integrated development of gastronomy and tourism and promote the high-quality development of gastronomy tourism, the author summarizes the development and changes of gastronomy tourism in the past 20 years from the three dimensions of cognition, route and space, in order to inspire the industry.
1. Cognitive changes in gastronomic tourism
Over the past 20 years, China's tourism industry has adapted to the changes in tourism demand and presented stage characteristics. In the early days, the team was the mainstay, and the travel agency was the core industry. At present, individual tourists are the mainstay, and travel agencies, star-rated hotels, and A-level scenic spots are the core industries. In the future, anyone who leaves the usual environment may have the motivation to travel and realize the tourism behavior, the form of demand is more and more diverse, differentiated, and the boundary of supply is becoming wider and more blurred.
Catering is an indispensable basic tourism demand in any country, any region and any era, and food is a new demand for quality in the comprehensive development stage of mass tourism. From visiting a city to taste food to visiting a city for the sake of food, the status and role of food in the construction of the tourism destination system have been continuously improved. Starting from the needs of tourists, when the key of consumption opens the door to the tourism economy, the treasure of resources and the blue ocean of the market will suddenly open up.
From catering to gastronomy, tourists' new demand for a better life in the destination has injected new connotations into tourism resources. According to a special study by the China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), with the increase in the national travel rate, the proportion of food in the tourism consumption structure is also increasing, showing an "S" shaped trend. In the early stage of the development of mass tourism, the average annual travel per capita is less than 3 times, the growth rate of development is relatively slow, most people pursue to eat better at home, travel to the requirements of catering are relatively simple, eat enough, eat safely. Entering the middle stage of mass tourism, the average person travels 3-5 times a year, tourism has become a daily life option for the public, the development of individual tourists, self-help and customized tourism has brought food into the field of vision of tourists, and the status of personalized and local food in the tourism consumption structure has risen. Entering a new stage of comprehensive development of mass tourism, turning to high-quality development and connotative growth, tourists' requirements for catering have undergone fundamental changes, not only to eat well, but also to eat well, and food has even become a key element for some customers to choose destinations.
Second, the route change of gastronomic tourism
The survey of the gastronomic tourism research group of the China Tourism Academy found that 923% of the respondents will do food tips before traveling; 93.1% of respondents cited experiencing local food as one of their main motivations for traveling. 76 percent of respondents travelling for business8% will find time to find local food outside of completing business. According to data from the Chinese Athletics Association, there have been 133 registered marathons nationwide in the first half of 2023, and it is roughly estimated that there are nearly 300 million mass runners in China. Among the mass runners, there are 568% of the respondents believe that "running** is to achieve food freedom", and 78 people go to other places to participate in races4% of respondents will spend as much time as possible after the race to taste local specialties.
More and more data show that the spatial pattern of China's tourism routes is also the spatial pattern of gastronomic tourism. Grasping the pattern characteristics and evolution trend of China's tourism routes as a whole is of great benefit to the development of gastronomic tourism routes and brand promotion.
Since 2010, with the improvement of the high-speed transportation system and the gradual normalization of residents' travel, the spatial pattern of residents' travel routes has basically taken shape and slowly evolved, mainly showing the following characteristics:
First, neighboring provinces are characterized as each other's source and destination destinations. In the domestic tourist flow, the proportion of high-speed rail, civil aviation, and self-driving cars continues to increase, and the proportion of highway passenger traffic shows a continuous downward trend. In 2019, the proportion of domestic tourist flows in the province was 497%, and the proportion of medium and long-distance inter-provincial tourist flows is 503%。The inter-provincial tourist flow is mainly concentrated between neighboring provinces, accounting for about 64%.
Second, the exchange of tourists between urban agglomerations constitutes a network of "trunk lines" and "branch lines" of domestic tourism flows. The top 10 inter-provincial tourism flows in the country account for 16 of all 930 inter-provincial tourism flows5%, constituting the "trunk line" of the national inter-provincial tourism flow. The top 11-100 inter-provincial tourism flows in the country account for 38 of all 930 inter-provincial tourism flows6%, constituting the "branch line" of the national inter-provincial tourism flow.
Third, the tourism flow network has changed from the "central agglomeration" of large areas to the "peripheral divergence" with the core city as the node. In the first 100 of 2010, the 100 inter-provincial tourism flows showed a "diamond-shaped" network spatial pattern with the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Chengdu-Chongqing region as the apex, the central region as the core, and the inter-regional tourism links as the framework. By 2019, the top 100 inter-provincial tourism flows showed a trend of extending to the west and north. The "spillover" effect of inter-regional tourism flows is becoming more and more obvious, forming a divergent spatial pattern with cities as the apex, and comprehensively radiating to the northeast and central and western regions.
Fourth, cities are the core carriers of the reconstruction of tourist source and destination destinations, and the key to the high-quality development of tourism. Tourism flow data shows that Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Chongqing are important nodes of the top 100 tourism flow networks, carrying large-scale tourist flows. Whether it is the changes in tourism flow and direction in the past 10 years before the epidemic, or the changes in tourist behavior during the epidemic, it further shows that cities are not only the most important source markets, but also the most important tourist destinations. Relying on cities and driving supply-side reform with demand-side management is an important path to comprehensively promote the high-quality development of tourism in the new era, and it is also an important strategic support point for planning gastronomic tourism routes at the national level.
3. Spatial changes in gastronomic tourism
Influenced by the early inbound, team, and tourism development models, the local tourism-led departments have an understanding of tourism that means that people go to foreign countries to enjoy different scenery, including strange mountains and rivers, historical sites and landmark buildings. In this context, the pursuit of incremental and extensive development of hardware has become the norm, and the layout of catering facilities is difficult to have the overall thinking of host and guest sharing, resulting in the disconnection between life and leisure space, the disconnection between tourism supply and demand, and the overall development of gastronomic tourism.
With the in-depth development of mass tourism, the public's demand for food continues to increase, and the trend change from the demand side of tourists has prompted the evolution of food tourism in the direction of specialized division of labor and cluster development in space. The relationship between the spatial layout of catering facilities and the spatial layout of cultural, commercial and leisure facilities was comprehensively analyzed, and all of them had a high degree of spatial relevance. More than 90% of Macao's food and beverage layout is spatially related to leisure facilities, and Beijing's food and beverage layout is 73% spatially correlated with cultural and commercial facilities. The spatial distribution of those online celebrity catering check-in points that have been selected for the Michelin, Black Pearl, and Food Forest lists and have strong market attraction is not only not exclusive, but highly related to the cultural, commercial, and leisure atmosphere.
In addition to the urban scale, on the regional scale, gastronomic tourism also presents a certain spatial pattern. Those areas with profound food culture, perfect commercial supporting facilities, and strong residents' travel demand are also relatively concentrated areas of food tourism, and the country has presented four major food tourism clusters around the Bohai Sea, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Chengdu and Chongqing. By comparing the catering income and customer output of each province through spatial fitting, the spatial fitting degree is about 70%. Only by serving the food needs of local residents can we attract tourists from afar through the sharing of hosts and guests.
4. Suggestions for promoting the high-quality development of gastronomic tourism
Catering is one of the core elements of the tourism industry and an important part of people's better life. In recent years, Zhejiang Province's "Beautiful Zhejiang, 100 Counties and 1000 Bowls", Hunan Province's "Taste of Hunan, Go to Xiangdang Delicious Place" and so on have become typical representatives of China's food tourism development, and its systematic approach of coordinating and market forces, resource development and market promotion, destination construction and industrial integration and development is worth promoting and providing reference for the development of food tourism in more regions.
In terms of food culture excavation, we should not only pay attention to the protection and inheritance of traditional cuisine, local characteristics and time-honored brands, but also face the future, pay attention to the pursuit of fashion, novelty and trend by young consumers, and form a diversified catering business system with clear priorities. In terms of the layout of food venues, it is necessary to be compatible with each other and complement each other, especially to pay attention to the planning and layout of food stall-style food blocks based on local specialties, so as to connect with mass tourism with the human fireworks atmosphere that can best reflect food tourism. In terms of gastronomic tourism consumption, it is necessary to take into account the needs of local residents and foreign tourists, and integrate gastronomic experience into the daily life of local residents. In terms of gastronomic tourism atmosphere, it is necessary to integrate the commercial reception system and public service system to form a leisure space with gastronomic experience as the main focus and comprehensive commercial facilities. Through the sharing of hosts and guests, the destination will be built into a new tourism consumption scene that integrates food tasting, cultural experience, sightseeing, entertainment and leisure, which is not only integrated with the local community, but also highly reflects local characteristics. (Author: Wu Fenglin Unit: Planning and Leisure Institute, China Tourism Academy; Editor: Song Yuqiu).
Original title: "The Transformation of Food Tourism in the Era of Mass Tourism".