The Future of Gastronomic Tourism: The Rise of Foodscape and the Enhancement of Olive Oil

What is food tourism? The definition of Hall and Sharples (2003) provides an important starting point: it is a flow of tourists who also buy and consume food, observe and participate in food production and the food events. The development of this type of tourism has attracted the interest of the scientific community, which initially highlighted how local food could become a new tourist attraction (Cohen and Aveli, 2004) and how new expectations for tourists could be created around it (Kivelä and Crotts, 2006). Considering the cultural, geographical, political and social meaning of food, the publications as well as the studies and approaches on this topic have clearly increased (Ellis et al. 2018). After a review of the most recent literature, the aim of this contribution is focusing on the cultural turning point (Everett, 2012) that has characterized the food tourism studies. We will consider how food, as well as an opportunity for socializing, has become a territorial heritage and a strong element of local identity and culture. Attention to its socio-cultural, political and economic elements is therefore critical for understanding our society (Calzati, de Salvo, 2017).These new orientations also contribute to the importance of the concept of “territorial food” as a tradition and memory factor but also of “foodscape” to represent the complexity of food production and consumption. This proposal will also focus on the debate emerged in the Mediterranean countries, given the importance of this sector in this area, and in particular to the Italian one.