Relevance of Gastronomy in the Tourism of a World Heritage Site: The Case of Sucre (Bolivia)

Medina-Viruel Medina-Viruel,Casero Casero,González Santa Cruz González Santa Cruz,Jiménez Jiménez

doi:10.3390/socsci8120319

Medina-Viruel Medina-Viruel, Casero Casero + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8120319

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Abstract

Recently, gastronomy has become one of the most important tourist attractions for cities as well as for rural areas. In this respect, tourists look for authenticity in the gastronomy heritage of these destinations, making it, thusly, a motivation for visiting the place. This research presents a segmentation of the tourists who visit Sucre (Bolivia), on the basis of a higher or lower interest in the gastronomy of the city. The results extracted from the research highlight the existence of three tourist segments with different attitudes regarding gastronomic experiences. Additionally, it notes the importance that a specific type of tourist places on discovering and better understanding the gastronomy of a city as part of its cultural heritage.

Highlights

The level of demand from tourists has increased, especially so in relation to aspects such as the search for experiences on their travels
In order to obtain the definitive survey, it began with an initial ensemble of items and underwent a refinement process divided into four phases: First, a researcher specialised in gastronomy analysed the items proposed; second, the resulting questionnaire was revised by various people responsible for tourist activity in the city: third, the questionnaire was revised by various people responsible for culinary establishments located in the city of Sucre; and fourth, a pre-test was conducted on 50 tourists who were visiting Sucre
This research is based on the segmentation of the tourists according to the interest the tourists have in the local gastronomy

Summary

Introduction

The level of demand from tourists has increased, especially so in relation to aspects such as the search for experiences on their travels. New types of tourism have appeared with the aim of satisfying the search for experiences, such as enotourism, olive oil tourism, and culinary tourism With this in mind, culinary tourism goes far beyond the simple matter of satisfying the physiological need that travellers have to feed themselves as, occasionally, it is an opportunity to discover the local culture, traditions, customs, or social relationships of this community by means of its gastronomy itself (Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen 2016; Okumus et al 2018; Privitera et al 2018). Culinary tourism goes far beyond the simple matter of satisfying the physiological need that travellers have to feed themselves as, occasionally, it is an opportunity to discover the local culture, traditions, customs, or social relationships of this community by means of its gastronomy itself (Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen 2016; Okumus et al 2018; Privitera et al 2018) As a result, this leads to a different way of understanding the cultural legacy of a specific destination. A clear example of gastronomic heritage is found in Latin America, whose cuisine is recognised more and more and is in higher demand due to the origins of its recipes as well as its continuing innovation

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