Cultural globalisation and food in urban destination marketing

Abstract

Despite a considerable body of research focusing on food tourism, the academic community has been slow to consider the cultural potential of this highly topical phenomenon. To address the research gap, cultural globalisation is discussed as the theoretical perspective that proves helpful in explaining the application of food in destination marketing and how this, in turn, affects the conceptualisation of the ‘local’, the ‘global’ and the ‘glocal’ in an urban context. Taking the city of York, England, as a case study, through a qualitative content analysis and semi-structured interviews with food tourism stakeholders from public and private sectors, it is considered how the increasing use of food as a cultural artefact in urban destination marketing is influenced by the various forces of cultural globalisation. It is shown how cultural homogenisation, heterogenisation and glocalisation influence both the cultural landscape of York, as well as in how food (global, local and glocal) is presented and marketed to visitors. Knowledge of these specific characteristics and peculiarities of food allows tourism professionals to develop urban destination marketing that is socially and culturally informed which may help to reinforce the destination’s uniqueness and difference.