Thesis supervisor: Mihály László Vörös
Location of studies (in Hungarian): SZIU Abbreviation of location of studies: SZIE
Description of the research topic:
According to world tourism statistics more than third of tourist spending is devoted to food. Over and above the high quality origin or local food & wine products have been becoming a special driving force of tourism development in all over the world. Tourists have growing interests to attend different quality food & wine tasting events, gastronomic festivals, fairs, local farmers markets etc. Gastronomy tourism is an alternative tourism form, out of the mass tourism, developing and spreading rapidly in all over the world. It aims pastime of appealing, authentic, memorable culinary experiences of all kinds for tourists travelling internationally, regionally or even locally. In addition it is an important marketing instrument from at least two sides: firstly marketing of food and gastronomic products in certain rural regions as tourism destinations, and secondly it helps to avoid tourism seasonality because it can be operated continuously along the whole year. Therefore, it can provide important economic and social advantages at country, regional and local level as well by improving the fortune of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) involved in food and tourism businesses. According to recent research findings a number of traditional food and wine products protected by EU (PDO, PGI,TSG) or national (TTR, Hungarikum etc.) brands have not been successfully promoted and obtained recognitions by the domestic or foreign consumers. Therefore, desirable characteristics and quality requirements of food products should be scientifically re-examined before promotion. On the other hand advanced food and gastronomy tourism packages could also be initiated and implemented in the region by identifying and integrating food culture and gastronomic heritage with typical, local, traditional quality food & wine products, as marketable rural values and attractions. For this the development of innovative territorial marketing portfolios should also be designed, developed and applied based on utilizing the most modern digital and web-marketing communication tools. Gastronomy tourism creates an ideal medium for domestic and international recognition and promotion of rural destinations which significantly contribute to the sustainable regional development.