Potatoes: Food tourism and beyond

Abstract

Food tourism includes various activities and attractions linked to food. Potatoes can also be also linked to tourism, or food tourism as testified by special Victorian Potato Industry Tour organized in and around Melbourne, Australia or Rural Community Tourism in the Potato Park; a tour around Cusco, Peru; various culinary events dedicated to potatoes in Slovenia and many others. This paper contributes to the knowledge on tourism and specifically food tourism by proposing to “open” a new niche of research based on specific foods or their ingredients, which up to now seems to have touched only a very few specific foods (or drinks) and associated ingredients—for instance, the case of grape/wine is exemplar. However, many other specific foods or ingredients could be singularly one-by-one) researched to examine their role in tourism. This paper discusses the role in tourism/food tourism of a “humble tuber”, the potato. This is a desktop research which draws on previous literature, organizational and institutional documents and information and data, such as the list of museums around the world. The aim is to analyse the knowledge from various disciplines linking the potato to tourism to understand the various ways in which it can directly or indirectly have a role in tourism. The article presents the potato including its (social) history, gastronomy in relation to tourism/food tourism. The article argues that the potato should be promoted given its various uses and universality of application as a food and as an ingredient.