Abstract
In recent years, gastronomy has become a fundamental motivation to travel. Learning how to prepare gastronomic dishes and about the raw materials that compose them has attracted increasing numbers of tourists. In Andalusia (region of southern Spain), there are many quality products endorsed by Protected Designations of Origin, around which gastronomic routes have been created, some visited often (e.g., wine) and others remaining unknown (e.g., ham and oil). This study analyses the profile of gastronomic tourists in Andalusia to understand their motivations and estimates the demand for gastronomic tourism using seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models. The results obtained indicate that the gastronomic tourist in Andalusia is very satisfied with the places he/she visits and the gastronomy he/she savours. However, the demand for this tourist sector is very low and heterogeneous; while wine tourism is well established, tourism focusing on certain products, such as olive oil or ham, is practically non-existent. To obtain a homogeneous demand, synergies or pairings should be created between food products, e.g., wine-ham, oil-ham, etc., to attract a greater number of tourists and distinguish Andalusia as a gastronomic holiday destination.
Highlights
Gastronomy constitutes an element of identity for a territory [1, 2], because of the raw material of the food product, e.g., oil, ham, cheese, wine, etc., in which the product is identified with the place of origin and with the dishes that are created using them, which is a method of establishing a heritage that is inherited from one generation to another [3]
This study aims to analyse the profile of gastronomic tourists in Andalusia to determine what their motivation has been for completing the gastronomic route, what potential demand exists for gastronomic tourists and if demand is observed to be growing, to determine if it be an engine of development, i.e., economic growth, for the region; the growth in demand is small or decreases, this study aims to determine whether promotional marketing campaigns can be used to improve it; the contribution of this research is the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model of demand forecasting
This study highlights that there are gastronomic products, such as olive oil and ham, in Andalusia (Spain) that are part of the rich Mediterranean cuisine and are protected by Protected Designations of Origin (PDOs); these resources are not being valued from the tourist point of view, causing a loss of economic opportunity, mainly in rural inland areas [1]
Summary
Gastronomy constitutes an element of identity for a territory [1, 2], because of the raw material of the food product, e.g., oil, ham, cheese, wine, etc., in which the product is identified with the place of origin and with the dishes that are created using them, which is a method of establishing a heritage that is inherited from one generation to another [3].
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