Potential Impacts

  Potential Impacts for Gastronomic Tourism

In order to conduct an analysis of the potential impacts or contentious issues that relate specifically to gastronomic tourism, it is necessary to divide the analysis into the following three categories; 1) economic impacts, 2) social and cultural impacts, and finally, 3) environmental impacts.

As suggested by Jafari (2001), it is necessary to alert researchers who are associated with tourism that the economic benefits of tourism are often outweighed by the existence of economic impacts, otherwise known as the ‘cautionary platform on tourism consequences’ Jafari (2001, p. 30).  Based on Jafaris’ (2001), cautionary platform there are a number of economic impacts that occur in relation to gastronomic tourism and they include; 1) high leakage costs occurring due to the importation of externally manufactured materials, such as food and wine labels, and packaging, 2) seasonality causing fluctuations in the unemployment rate, especially in the non-peak season of winter in both Piedmont and Chianti, and finally, 3) increased business costs through the necessity of purchasing capital, such as restaurant extensions and the building of particular areas for wine tasting (Italian Tourism) (Jafari 2001).

Continuing with theme of Jafaris’ (2001), model for tourism research and its’ cautionary platform, it is appropriate to introduce the second category, social and cultural impacts and their connection with the potential impacts and contentious issues of gastronomic tourism.  The most prominent social and cultural impact linked to gastronomic tourism in both Piedmont and Chianti is involved with the characteristics of the guest-host relationships and how these interactions can become detrimental to both the tourist and the locals of the destination. The guest-host relationship is often damaged due to the following characteristics; 1) the transitory nature of the food and wine tours, leading to brief encounter resulting in short and lasting relationships are generally not formed, 2) an unbalanced relationship occurs whilst a tourist is focussed upon leisure and a locals is more focussed upon their work, and finally, 3) misunderstandings occur due to the cultural and behavioural differences between the guests and the hosts (Jafari 2001) (Leiper 2004) (Wilson 2012).