5 Recent Developments in Research and Future Directions of Culinary Tourism : A Review

People interested in travelling for gastronomic motivations were increasing gradually (Bessiere, 1998). “Culinary Tourism” was a term first suggested in 1998 (Long, 2003). It expressed the idea of tourists’ experiencing the culture of a destination through food. Tourism was a vehicle for the communication of official visions which reflected favourably on the regime and could be harnessed to a hegemonic agenda (Hall & Oehlers, 2000). And, it also conveyed images such as those of racial harmony and outstanding economic progress (Henderson, 2004). From this viewpoint, culinary tourism is a very good tool and method.


Introduction
People interested in travelling for gastronomic motivations were increasing gradually (Bessiere, 1998). "Culinary Tourism" was a term first suggested in 1998 (Long, 2003). It expressed the idea of tourists' experiencing the culture of a destination through food. Tourism was a vehicle for the communication of official visions which reflected favourably on the regime and could be harnessed to a hegemonic agenda (Hall & Oehlers, 2000). And, it also conveyed images such as those of racial harmony and outstanding economic progress (Henderson, 2004). From this viewpoint, culinary tourism is a very good tool and method.
Food tourism was one constituent of a tourism strategy dedicated to making the best use of scarce resources in an approach for its creativity and adaptability, made necessary by the lack of conventional natural and cultural tourism assets (Teo & Chang, 2000). Namely, it became a viable alternative for new destinations that cannot benefit from "sun, sea, and sand," or natural or cultural resources, or a valid addition to more established destinations. Unlike many other travel activities and attractions, destination's gastronomy was usually available year-round, any time of day and in any weather (Richards, 2002). Gastronomy tourism was a meaningful and possibly a highly loyal market segment, and could also be hypothesized that gastronomy experiences were powerful tools for marketing the destination (Kivela & Crotts, 2005). Food consumption could turn to be a peak touristic experience and could be demonstrated by a newly emerging form of tourism, in which the major, sometimes even sole, motivation to tourism was the tastes of foods that were much more various, with longer range of choices, and different from their daily reservoirs of foods. Such a form of tourism included gastronomic tourism, food festivals, wine tourism, and other food-related events (Quan & Wang, 2004). For this perspective, Hjalager and Corigliano (2000) proposed that Italy had been far more successful in developing the cultural role of gastronomy. Gastronomic tourism had grown significantly in the last few years, thus improving the economic and social growth of weaker areas. Kivela and Crotts (2005) identified that gastronomy was inextricably linked to the destination and the destination's image; maybe multidimensional forms which were www.intechopen.com Visions for Global Tourism Industry -Creating and Sustaining Competitive Strategies 92 clearly understood as yet. Food and beverage could be itself an attraction in a destination, such as Chilli Festival in Singapore food festival, Taste of Chicago, Wine tour in Europe, and Chocolate festival in Suffern, New York, and so on. In these cases, foods either constitute an event attraction or act as the gastronomic part of the attractions in destinations. In other words, the gastronomic experience could become a major, or one of major motivations, for travel (Quan & Wang, 2004). As it can be seen, for some areas, gastronomy has become an important attraction and is influential to their development. Therefore, the issues related to culinary tourism are worth of more attention and contribution in the future.
This study aims to review the researches of culinary and gastronomy tourism since 2000 to explore the significant developments and trends in culinary tourism and gastronomy tourism recently. The results of the review are presented by study subjects involved, research countries involved and research methods employed. Several significant research trends are identified for additional discussions in later sections. It's expected to make much contribution to the future researches and important directions of development.

Topical review
After reviewing recent researches of culinary tourism, according to the research topics, it mainly can be classified to six subjects: the relationship of food and tourism, the attraction and impediment of cuisine to the tourists, market segment of culinary tourists, the draft of culinary tourism developing strategies, exploration of promotion and marketing tools, and the application of theories in culinary tourism development. In the following, it'll be discussed in these six topics.

The relationship of food and tourism
The relationship of food and tourism is one of the concerned issues in culinary tourism recently. However, it was explored from different perspectives which include culture, the authenticity of cuisines, strategy, participation and supporting of communities in destinations, and so on. As it can be seen, the relationship of food and tourism contains many dimensions.
Food, as it's well known, is primarily a cultural category. In today's increasingly globalized world, food remained one of the most prominent points of cultural difference among regions and communities, as well as an important cornerstone of cultural identity (Delamont, 1994). Every culture was marked by a characteristic choice of foodstuffs, dishes, and menus, habitually consumed and in popular imagination tied to that culture as spaghetti were tied to Italian, wurst to German, and quiche to French culture. During their holiday, tourists naturally desired to undergo a process of (re)socialization which, among their things, was manifested in their choice of food (usually a preference for local dishes), in a change of cultural practices (participation in local rituals), and emergence of new beliefs (the acceptance of local symbolism) (Fox, 2007). Moreover, "local food" has the potential to enhance the visitor experience by connecting consumers to the region and its perceived culture and heritage (Sims, 2009). Everett and Aitchison (2008) proposed its role of food tourism in sustaining regional identity. Therefore, culinary tourism conveys the culture of destination to tourists, it's an essential element for experiencing local culture.
For the perspective of authenticity, there were two myths brought out by Fox (2007). One such myth was the belief in gastronomic authenticity as based on the juxtaposition of "good old food" and "bad new food". In truth, what was popularly believed to be "old food" seemed not to be old at all. Another common myth was the idea of gastronomic tradition. Throughout history, trade, travel, transport and technology had been affecting the gastronomic identities of regions and countries, continually changing what was generally perceived as customary. These two myths ind u c e u s t o r e f l e c t o n t h e t r a d i t i o n a n d innovation of local cuisine, and emphasize the importance of local cuisine identity.
Except from the perspective of authenticity, another viewpoint was from strategies and regulations. Hjalager and Corigliano (2000) argued that national economic, agricultural and food policies, rather than tourism policies, determined the standards and development of food for tourists. And, it was proposed that high concentrations of decrease rather than an increase in food standards in restaurants. Being a highly unstable factor, tourists did not have the opportunity to put more permanent consumer pressure on restaurants; this role was reserved for local residents. It revealed that the strategies played an important role for regional culinary tourism development.
Besides, Quan and Wang (2004) suggested that food festivals or gastronomic tourism were one of sources that helped enhance the local identity of a destination community, and hence bring about more community participations. Such community participations and supports were one of social conditions for food-related tourism to be sustainable. Thus, there is no reason why local and traditional foods are seen as trivial and should be ignored in tourism development.

The attraction and impediment of cuisine to the tourists
The attraction of gastronomy was proposed by previous research (Hjalager, 2002). It mainly comes from enjoyable, unique, and high-quality food and services, better participation in indigenous culture through food, opportunity to purchase and sample unique products that are not readily available in their own country, unique opportunities for discovering new taste sensations, and access to well-coordinated gastronomy-related experiences (Kivela & Crotts, 2006). It was found that experiencing local culture and getting new experience were the main source of attraction. Therefore, McKercher, Okumus and Okumus (2008) suggested that consuming food may be a ubiquitous activity for most visitors. Furthermore, a followup qualitative study was undertaken to determine whether the destination's gastronomy contributed to the quality of visitors' experience, whether visitors would return to the destination because of its gastronomy, and whether culinary travelers represent a distinct market segment of an overall visitor market. Regarding the model of local food consumption, a model constituted of three categories: motivational factors, demographic factors and physiological factors was proposed (Kim, Eves, & Scarles, 2009). And, the attributes that influence the evaluation of travel dining experience were identified: tourists' own food culture, the contextual factor of the dining experience, variety and diversity of food, perception of the destination, service encounter, and tour guide's performance (Chang, Kivela, & Mak, 2011 (2004) argued that the tourists met some impediments in experiencing local cuisine even when attracted to local cuisine; including hygiene standards, health considerations, communication gaps, and limited knowledge of tourists concerning the local cuisine. It's a good reminding for the development of culinary tourism; and, it's also an un-neglectful factor.

Market segment of culinary tourists
Market segmentation was broadly applied and discussed in marketing. The researches focused on culinary tourist segmentation were explored from different perspectives. It included the influential factors of culinary experience (Tse & Crotts, 2005), the satisfaction in restaurants and cuisines (Kivela & Crotts, 2005), and the general classification of culinary tourists (Ignatov & Smith, 2006). Tse and Crotts (2005) proposed that culinary experience was influenced by national culture, length of stay, age, and repeat visitation. Specifically, respondents from low uncertainty avoidance countries patronized a greater number and diversity of culinary offers when compared to respondents from high uncertainty avoidance countries. Crotts and Pizam (2003) revealed that visitors of different nationalities evaluate identical services in a differential manner, where visitors from large power-distance high-masculinity cosieties (e.g., Japan and Taiwan) reported more critical satisfaction measures than visitors from small power-distance low-masculinity societies (e.g., Australian, Canadian, U.S.A., Europe). Kivela and Crotts (2005) argued that the self-described gastronomy visitors were more involved and purposeful in their restaurant and cuisine choices than the typical visitors and would therefore search out destination's unique and more satisfying gastronomy. And, these gastronomy tourists were more discerning customers as compared to typical leisure visitors. In addition, these self-described gastronomy tourists were more likely to be from Asian countries instead of the West, such evaluations may also have been influenced by national culture.
Moreover, the classification of culinary tourists was segmented clearly; they were food tourists, wine tourists, and food and wine tourists (Ignatov & Smith, 2006). The differences were displayed on gender, educational level, income, the way of experiencing food and the acquirement of travel information. Tikkanen (2007) introduced five sectors of food tourism where the needs and motivations are linked with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Ryu and Jang (2006) stressed that past behavior had strong influence on tourists' intention of experiencing local cuisine. Focused on culinary events, culinary event attendees were clustered into two segments: food focusers and event seekers (Smith, & Costello, 2009). The presentation of market segmentation was very important to the restaurateurs who would like to attract tourists willing to experience local cuisine.

The draft of culinary tourism development strategies
The issues regarding to the relationship of culinary tourism development and national or local strategies were proposed by many researches. It showed that a close relationship existed between both of them. Destinations that already had the advantageous ingredients to support a gastronomy tourism strategy, such resources included unique and/or multiethnic cuisine, creative chefs, unique marine and agricultural products, unique culinary heritage, and so on (Kivela & Crotts, 2006). It provided a practical suggestion for drafting culinary tourism development by employing SWOT analysis to explore culinary tourism development. Richards (2003) argued that tourists often placed considerable emphasis on how they feel at a destination, and how they experience what the destination offered, by carefully selecting that special restaurant and/or food that might fulfill a particular personal desire. Stewart, Bramble and Ziraldo (2008) argued that in order to attract one-time visitors back to the region of wine and culinary tourism, it's important to enhance service through increased service training.
Besides, there are many researches regarding the role of governments or official organizations. Kivela and Crotts (2006) suggested that developing the gastronomy tourism niche for tourists, it wasn't enough to simply offer a gastronomy experience visiting a destination. It was more desirable to make the tourists feel good about the destination. It required an effort on the part of the destination's DMO (Destination Marketing Organization) and gastronomy provided to educate tourists about why the local cuisine and its associated culture were unique to the city. The capacity of government websites to introduce and advertise traditional and local foods, restaurants, gastronomic tours, recipes and culinary cultures was exploreed (Horng & Tsai, 2010). And, du Rand, Heath and Alberts (2003) suggested that nearly half of the DMOs were not applying any specific strategies to promote food tourism, which clearly underlined the need for a product potential and attractiveness audit instrument, appropriate guidelines and a framework to enable DMOs to put in a more concerted effort regarding the marketing and promotion of food tourism.

Exploration of promotion and marketing tools
It could influence tourists' choices of destinations through diversified marketing tools (Baloglu, 2000;Gursoy & McCleary, 2004). The pictures and information in marketing medias and marketing tools could facilitate in promoting positive images of destinations. Now the communication tools used in food marketing were diversified, including brochures, pamphlets, internet, advertising initiatives, radio, TV and printed material (du Rand, Heath & Alberts, 2003).
Regarding the effectiveness of each marketing tools, brochures were used as opposed to other promotional tools since they had been recognized as the most popular medium used by travel and tourism advertisers, and was the key image-creating tool in tourism (Morgan & Pritchard, 2000). The internet had developed rapidly during recent years and could be used as an effective advertising and promotional tool, not least in the tourism and hospitality industry (Wan, 2002). Therefore, recently the researches regarding advertisements and marketing tools which were applied to culinary tourism development mainly contained the exploration of brochures and web-sites.
Focused on the research of brochures, Frochot (2003) took France as an example and proposed that regional food and cuisine were extremely important and very diversified across France and it had been a tool used by French regions to differentiate themselves on the global market place. However, if the "French uniqueness" was probably not debatable in terms of food traditions, the study of the brochures within France didn't show a strong disparity among the regions themselves. For the application of web-sites in culinary tourism, Boyne, Hall and Williams (2003) noted that while initiatives to promote local and regional food were often being developed with an emphasis on the tourism market, and in some cases had developed high-quality web sites. These web sites were less readily accessible to information-seeking consumers than they might otherwise be. It could be found that brochures and web-sites couldn't convey the characteristics of local cuisine efficiently.
For other researches, Tussyadiah (2005) reported that there were three main references used by travelers in Japan, beside travel brochures: travel magazines, television programs, and the internet. And, the media played a very strong role in the direction of Japanese culinary tourism. So, if the media could be well applied to the marketing of culinary tourism, it's very important to the promotion of culinary tourism. As it can be seen, to well apply each kind of marketing tools is very important to culinary tourism promotion of a destination. Bourdieu (1984) operated with a model of four basic lifestyles in his work "Distinction". Hjalager (2004) proposed this model as sociology of tourism and gastronomy to be applied to tourism research in the future through empirical research; such as which lifestyle segment could be attracted by destinations. Based on this theory, it could infer its implication of tourism and gastronomy. Similarly, by utilizing the theory of social psychology, Ryu and Jang (2006) employed Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to explore tourists' intention of experiencing local cuisine. In their research, modified TRA model was examined if it could predict tourists' intention of experiencing local cuisine after past behavior was put into TRA model under a simulation context. The results revealed that modified TRA model could predict tourists' intention of experiencing local cuisine; moreover, attitude and past behavior also influenced tourists' behavioral intention. Furthermore, Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) which was developed from Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) could be applied to explore culinary tourists' behavioral intention (Ajzen & Driver, 1992). And, Maslow's hierarchy of needs was utilized to explore the needs and motivations of food tourism, five sectors were introduced (Tikkanen, 2007).

The application of theories in culinary tourism development
Additionally, by employing marketing physiology or consumer theory (Boyne et al., 2003;Boyne & Hall, 2004), it could facilitate to understand culinary tourists further. It proves that the application of theories of other principles can make much contribution to more deep exploration in culinary tourism.

Review of the countries involved
For the review of the countries which were involved in the researches, it included Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Turkey in Asia. For Europe, United Kingdom, Croatia, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden were included. Additionally, it also included Canada and the United States in North America and South Africa in Africa. It was found that the way of culinary tourism development of each area was significantly different as a result of its geography, climate, history and culture, and so on.

Asia
Unlike many other travel activities and attractions, destination's gastronomy was usually available year-round, any time of day and in any weather (Richards, 2002). Especially in Asia, some areas such as Hong Kong, Singapore, if gastronomy tourists can be shown to satisfy all the conventional requirements of a unique market segment, it becomes a viable alternative for new destinations that cannot benefit from "sun, sea and sand", or natural or cultural resources, or a valid addition to more established destinations. Here, the discussion will be focused on the three main areas: Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Hong Kong
Hong Kong's cuisine is renowned for its exotic fusion of Eastern and Western flavours along with a wide variety of culinary delights. Its cultural blend, proximity to mainland China and reputation for quality have made Hong Kong a Gourmet Paradise. It was indicated that Hong Kong's gastronomy was a significant factor that positively contributed to the respondents' desire to return to Hong Kong (Kivela & Crotts, 2005;2009). Hong Kong's gastronomy plays a major contributing role in the creation of a high-quality travelling experience and return behavior. Namely, gastronomy is increasingly vital to a whole range of tourism products and services that are offered in Hong Kong (Kivela & Crotts, 2005.

Singapore
Singaporeans is a cosmopolitan and multicultural city and passionate about food and eating. It's not just East-meets-West when it comes to feasting in Singapore-it is a tasty tale about a country's unique cultural tapestry woven in with its distinct influences to capture the essence of Singapore's multicultural heritage. And, it uniquely distinguishes Singapore as a food capital of Asia.
Singapore Tourism Board established Food and Beverage Division for the development and marketing of culinary tourism. It takes charge of the market of Singapore cuisine, the development of product and industry, channel management and investment to form it as a destination with a "combining local cuisine, international cuisine, dining experience and nightlife entertainment". Furthermore, Singapore introduced ten "must try" dishes and expected to become the representatives of Singapore cuisine. Additionally, the quality of tourists' dining experience could be improved. Henderson (2004) identified some of the critical connections between food and tourism with specific reference to Singapore where food and eating out is a tourism promotion theme of growing prominence, and policies were shaped within the framework of the country's distinctive features. Singapore is moving towards becoming a higher order food destination (Hjalager, 2002); and, developing a distinctive form of food tourism adapted to the conditions which prevail there (Henderson, 2004).

Japan
Ashkenazi and Jacob (2000) argued that major factors affecting Japanese food culture were geography, history, climate, religion, and external influences. For Japan, in addition to the tradition of visiting onsen (hot springs), one of the major purposes of travel for leisure in Japan concerned the enjoyment of different cuisines. Such culinary tourism also involved the exploration and enjoyment of the variety found in food in relation to regional cultural variations in Japan. And, in Japan, culinary tourism had been a major factor in the development of some regions (Tussyadiah, 2005).
Besides, in Asia, Turkey was also a country involved in previous researches. Turkey made little reference to marketing strategy, even though its indigenous cuisine was unique and rich (Okumus, Okumus & McKercher, 2007). It's believed that some practical suggestions will be provided for the country with rich gastronomic heritage but not promoting local cuisine, like Turkey.

North America
For the countries in North America, the countries explored were Canada and the United States. In Canada, Canadian tourism has an established image of "natural" attraction and outdoor activities and is known for its agri-and aquacultural products. More and more destination marketing organizations started to treat culinary tourism as part of the whole marketing strategies. Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) had been aware that many tourists took food as part of travel experience (Ignatov & Smith, 2006). CTC (2002) has begun developing cuisine as a new tourism product showcasing Canadian diverse cultures and communities (Hashimoto & Telfer, 2006;Ignatov & Smith, 2006), even though it's challenging to compete against well-established gourmet destinations.
For the United States, Donovan and Debres (2006) focused on Juneteenth which originated in Texas as an African-American celebration of the end of slavery and argued that food, and barbecue in particular, was a major attraction of Juneteenth. And, it is proposed that Juneteenth also functions as a culinary tourist event, with barbecue being the major draw. Additionally, Stewart, Bramble and Ziraldo (2008) assist practitioners to continue the forward momentum of wine and culinary sectors in Niagara to present recommendations for future growth and continued success of wine and culinary tourism in the Niagara region.

Europe
In European countries, the image of France has always been related to food and wine. The images of food products, vineyards and restaurants have traditionally dominated national and regional marketing strategies. No matter in domestic or international markets, food has become a topic in tourism strategies in France. And, regional food and cuisine is extremely important and very diversified and has been a tool used by French regions to differentiate themselves on the global market place. However, most French regions use images of raw products, country products and market scenes to position themselves on the traditional/rural/authentic theme (Frochot, 2003). Additionally, the images of popular Michelin starred restaurants and chefs were seldom presented.
For other countries in Europe, the government departments in the United Kingdom have recognized the linkage between tourism and food, so too have the agencies responsible for the promotion of regional food-related economic sectors. In England and Wales, the government-supported Food From Britain (FFB) organization includes as part of its mission a remit to foster the development of Britain's specialty food and drink sector (Boyne et al., 2003). Further, Hjalager and Corigliano (2000) provided a comparison between Denmark and Italy and illustrated core elements in food cultures. Particularly in Denmark, food production is a major economic activity, and the power of the agricultural and food processing industries has in many cases compromised the quality image. In Italy, on the other hand, food policies and traditions, which give a high priority to freshness, intrinsically allow consumers to stay in control of food to a much larger extent than in Denmark.
Croatia was also a country involved in Europe. The tourism organization of Croatia started to develop strategies and tourism rules and treated traditional cuisine as unique products for the tourists. The tourism marketing strategies from 2001 to 2005 introduced gastronomic heritage to be a multiple role in tourism. Fox (2007) provided an approach towards the reinvention of the gastronomic identity of Croatian tourist destinations, an identity which will be founded on local gastronomic heritage rather than international cuisine.

Other areas
For Africa, South Africa was the only one country involved in previous researches. Through a pilot study, du Rand et al. (2003) suggested how food tourism can be marketed successfully and the indicators for future development in South Africa. It revealed that the countries in North America and Europe have stressed to treat food as one of tourism attractions.
To be summed up, gastronomy has played an important role for tourism development in some Asian countries. Some Asian countries own rich gastronomy, it's not only a main attraction for tourism, but also becomes a main factor of development in some areas.

Methodological review 4.1 Qualitative research
In recent culinary tourism researches, qualitative approach was utilized more frequently than quantitative approach. The methods included literature review, content analysis, indepth interview and semi-structural interview and field study. Literature review was mainly applied in exploring the relationship of food and tourism (Hashimoto & Telfer, 2006;Henderson, 2004;Meler & Cerovic, 2003;Quan & Wang, 2004), gastronomic identity of destinations, cultural elements or the types of culinary tourism (Fox, 2007;Hjalager & Corigliano, 2000;Tussyadiah, 2005). Content analysis was mainly applied in exploring marketing tools, such as the internet applied in culinary tourism promotion (Boyne et al., 2003;Boyne & Hall, 2004), content analysis of brochures (Frochot, 2003), gastronomy applied in marketing activities (Okumus et al., 2007), and government tourism websites (Horng & Tsai, 2010).
Additionally, Cohen and Avieli (2004) utilized observation, field study and interview to explore the attractions and impediments of food in tourism. Meanwhile, observation and interview were employed by Donovan and Debres (2006) to explore the attraction of barbecue in a festival ---Juneteenth. Tellstom et al. (2006) utilized semi-structured interviews to explore the branding of food products. Molz (2007) combined the analysis of web-sites with interviews to explore the implication of food for travelers. Kim, Eves, and Scarles (2009) employed grounded theory and in-depth interviews to examine the factors influencing consumption of local food and beverages in destinations. By applying qualitative interview, the contribution of the destination's gastronomy to the quality of the travelers' experiences was explored (Kivela & Crotts, 2009), the key challenges in wine and culinary tourism with practical recommendations were addressed (Stewart, Bramble, & Ziraldo, 2008), the role of food tourism in developing and sustaining regional identities was examined (Everett & Aitchison, 2008). And, on-site participant observation and focus group interviews were conducted to identify the attributes that influence the evaluation of travel dining experience (Chang, Kivela, & Mak, 2011).

Survey research
For quantitative researches, most were questionnaire survey. It was focused on tourists' dining experience and perception in destinations. It was expected to understand the role of gastronomy from tourists' perspective (Kivela & Crotts, 2005Tse & Crotts, 2005). Ignatov and Smith (2006) utilized telephone surveys and in-depth mail survey to explore culinary tourists' market segmentation. A factor-cluster approach was utilized to segment culinary event attendees into two groups to make contribution to the area of consumer behavior research in culinary tourism (Smith & Costello, 2009). By applying empirical data consisting both of the secondary data and an interview, Tikkanen (2007) explored the sectors of food tourism by using Maslow's hierarchy of needs in the classification.
Additionally, Ryu and Jang (2006) added past behavior into the model of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). It tried to examine modified TRA to predict tourists' behavioral intention of experiencing local cuisine and was expected to understand the influential factors.

Significant trends and comments
To synthesize the above, in this research, the following discussion will be proceeded as the issues of topical review. Further, to be combined with the review of countries involved, the trends and comments of culinary tourism will be proposed.

The relationship of food and tourism
For the relationship of food and tourism, firstly, Hjalager and Corigliano (2000) suggested that food was related to the image of tourist destinations in the following ways.

Complementary
The inclusion of food in tourist marketing and management seemed to have increased considerably over the past few decades. Food is used as appealing eye-catchers in brochures, videos and television programs.

Inventory
Much of the creation of new tourist products and experiences was based on the heritage resource, for example the opening of historic food factories and visitor centers. Food became the focal point of festivals and special events that attract tourists as well as local residents (Getz, 1991).

Superficial
Travelling and local products means sharing the local culture. Tourism was synonymous with amusement and entertainment, but it was also a cultural act, a cognitive and participatory moment related to the environmental context concerned.

Disconnected
All over the world, hamburgers and pizzas could be consumed under the same brands. The products and the eating styles were globalized. The emerging fast-food sector did little to connect local cultures and images with the act of eating.
This perspective conformed to the concept of supporting consumer experiences and peak touristic experiences proposed by Quan and Wang (2004). The process of making gastronomy be peak touristic experiences from supporting consumer experiences can have the relationship with destinations become complementary or inventory from disconnected or superficial. However, perhaps it can start from viewing gastronomic resources itself while exploring the relationship of food and image of a destination. Ignatov and Smith (2006)  Note. From "Segmenting Canadian culinary tourists," by E. Ignatov & S. Smith, 2006, Current Issues in Tourism, 9 (3), 240. Table 1. General typology of culinary tourism resources Through the reviewing of countries which promote culinary tourism, as for Asia, activities and events occupied more percentage because dining at restaurants and food festivals are the main attraction in Hong Kong and Singapore. Food has become a focus of media and activities; with the image of destinations, it has formed a relationship of complementary and inventory. It's also peak touristic experiences. Hence, if gastronomy would like to become main attraction of a destination, it has to make its resource and image become the relationship of complementary or inventory. It's the same as France and Japan.
However, if we reviewed the countries which gastronomy hasn't been the main attraction, such as Canada, Croatia and South Africa, the relationship of gastronomy and destination image is still supporting experiences. It's also disconnected or superficial. But it was found from researches that the government, like Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), it has begun to create the types of culinary tourism, such as food festival or wine festival. It was expected to gradually change the image and the relationship with gastronomy. From the research in Croatia, South Africa, it was found that the suggestion and strategy of developing gastronomy to be an attraction of tourism had been proposed (Fox, 2007;du Rand et al., 2003). It transformed food consumption to be peak touristic experience to promote the relationship of food and destination image.
The reason why some countries placed importance on food as an attraction of tourism could be explored from the benefits brought by key stakeholders---the tourists, gastronomy providers, residents and community, and travel industry sector (please refer to table 2). For key stakeholders benefits tourists Enjoyable, unique, and high-quality food and services Better participation in indigenous culture through food Opportunity to purchase and sample unique products (e.g., Chinese foods such as teas) that are not readily available in their own country Unique opportunities for discovering new taste sensations Access to well-coordinated gastronomy-related experiences

gastronomy providers
Helps to crystallize the idea that Hong Kong is a premier gastronomy destination as well Provides potential to increase sales, leading to better returns Provides cooperative marketing and cross-marketing opportunities, offering more potential impact than businesses can afford individually Helps raise the quality of business products and services Capitalizes on future dining-out/gastronomy trends Provides potential for new and additional business opportunities

residents and community
Creates new jobs in rural areas Promotes cross-cultural awareness and understanding Helps local residents to see and understand the economic impact of tourism Promotes new business ideas and opportunities vis-à-vis gastronomy-related support services

travel industry sector
Takes advantages of regional gastronomy tourist travel Explores new gastronomy tourist markets beyond the region Offers an alternatives selling point for convention and meeting business Offers additional support for the DMO from the new gastronomyrelated partners Note. From "Tourism and gastronomy: gastronomy's influence on how tourists experience a destination," by J. Kivela & J. C. Crotts, 2006, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 30 (3), 375. tourists, they could experience local culture through food and get better experience. It will facilitate the gastronomy providers to promote the quality of product and service. For travel industries, surely they could benefit from business development and opportunities.
From the relationship of gastronomy and tourism, we understand that we can examine gastronomic resources and types of a destination if we'd like to develop culinary tourism. Moreover, it's important to analyze what benefits or disadvantages it can bring out for the destination; thus, it can develop the suitable types for the destination.

The attraction and impediment of cuisine to the tourists
It could be found that most countries tended to promote the attraction of food in tourism and treat it as an important resource. As what Henderson (2006) argued, enjoyment of and experimentation with food is seen to be a motive underlying much tourist decision making and its marketing and development is considered a route towards attaining a commercial competitive advantage while stimulating rural and urban economies.
However, Cohen and Avieli (2004) argued that overemphasizing the attraction of food and ignoring its impediments for developing areas in past literatures. Except for hygiene, communication and limited knowledge of local cuisine, in order to make tourists accept local cuisine more easily, the transformation of local cuisine has become a more important issue. Focused on this issue, the previous researches concerned on authenticity, commercialization of local cuisine, and proposed the missing of traditional cuisine authenticity due to conforming to tourists' dining habits and flavors (Henderson, 2006;du Rand et al., 2003). Cohen and Avieli (2004) argued that for a local cuisine to become a popular attraction in its own right, it has to be filtered through tourism-oriented culinary establishments; only after they are in some ways, and to some degree, transformed. However, the manner of their transformation can not be simply represented on some unidirectional and unidimensional scale. Local foods are transformed on different dimensions and in various ways to suit tourists, and foreign dishes are introduced by tourism into the local cuisine and transformed to suit local tastes. Some may undergo a degree of transformation in order to make the food more acceptable to the tourists without impairing its authenticity. The tourists may be indifferent to other aspects of the product. Not all aspects of the local cuisine are equally relevant to the "authenticity" of the food offered by a tourism-oriented establishment, such as to substitute some ingredients more acceptable to tourists, and, to use modern technologies instead of traditional cooking methods to improve the sanitary conditions. However, for example, the Peking duck of Quan Ju De which is very popular was cooked by electric oven instead of traditional oven. It encountered most consumers' opposition because they couldn't experience the traditional cooking way. On the other side, it could be a transformation to improve the hygiene condition and product standardization.
So, in the developing process of culinary tourism, the authenticity and commercialization of local cuisine still need more exploration. The way of transformation is multidirectional and multidimensional (Cohen & Avieli, 2004). Therefore, what's the direction of transformation, how to be transformed, the level of transformation and its relationship with authenticity and commercialization, these issues need to be more concerned.

Market segment of culinary tourists
Regarding the segmentation of culinary tourists, firstly, it can be explored from the types of culinary tourists. Hjalager (2004) proposed the model of culinary tourism experiences to predict tourists' attitude and preference from gastronomy-tourism lifestyle. It can be classified into four types of culinary tourists to be recreational, existential, diversionary and experimental. Among them, existential and experimental tourists of rich gastronomy knowledge are the groups with highest possibility to revisit the same destination. The reason is that the destination with unique gastronomy can satisfy their gastronomic experiences.
However, in the recent researches, this classification didn't combine with other segmentation, such as culture, the length of staying, age and revisiting (Tse & Crotts, 2005). Regarding culinary tourist segmentation, Ignatov and Smith (2006) proposed market segments based on three categories of culinary activities: food tourists, wine tourists, and food and wine tourists. If this classification could be combined with other segmentation and proceed further exploration, it's believed that there will be more understanding on culinary tourist segmentation including gastronomic experience seeking, communication method utilized, and product development strategy, and so on.

The draft of culinary tourism developing strategies
Creating a local cuisine and making it a pull factor for a particular location can be one effective strategy for tourism development (Tussyadiah, 2005). Regarding the draft of culinary tourism development strategy, the importance of government or destination marketing organization (DMO) has been proposed by many researches (Hjalager & Corigliano, 2000;du Rand et al., 2003;Kivela & Crotts, 2005Hashimoto & Telfer, 2006;Henderson, 2006). It contains supporting for culinary tourism development strategy, figuring out beneficial elements and uniqueness of developing culinary tourism and relevant regulations, and so on. However, it's not enough to simply offer a gastronomy experience; gastronomy tourism is also making tourists feel good as a result of their visit to a destination. In order to make tourists feel good about being in a destination, it requires an effort on the part of the destination's DMO and gastronomy providers to educate tourists about why the local cuisine and its associated culture are unique to the destination (Kivela & Crotts, 2006). The first priority is to examine its conditions of developing culinary tourism including verifying its own resources, listing gastronomy assets and analyzing its advantages and disadvantages.
For those countries involved in recent researches, culinary tourism development of each area is belonged to different type and relationship. However, no matter which type or relationship, the gastronomy tourism initiatives proposed by Hjalager (2002) could be utilized to examine the developing period.
First-order gastronomy tourism development: the indigenous  Including gastronomic aspects in promotional materials of the region / country  Campaigns for particular products, connected to a region or season  Introducing food trade marks with regional features / names, etc  Creating tourism appeal for existing food fairs and events

Exploration of promotion and marketing tools
The application of internet and brochure was proposed by many researches. For the application of internet, some countries and areas devoted themselves on the operation of tourism information web-sites. These web-sites also provided relevant information for the consumers who are leaving for the destination. Even so, it was found that initiatives are often not suitably represented on the web sites of their respectively official local tourist boards. These web sites can either lack the appropriate hyperlinks, or have these "buried" deep within their site where they may not be discovered (Boyne et al., 2003). As it shows, how to apply brochures and internet to create a local cuisine and make it a pull factor for a particular location will be an issue needed to be explored in the future.
Additionally, Tussyadiah (2005) argued that the media play a very strong role in the direction of Japanese culinary tourism. Travelers refer to the media listings when choosing destinations and food. And, the promotional campaigns of many gourmet spots and travel packages in the media reflect the fact that regional variations in cuisine strongly affect the direction of domestic tourism in Japan. There are many food-related programs shown on television, as well as dining and food trip guides on the internet and in travel magazines. Hence, to understand the application and influence of the media is very important to the development of culinary tourism.

The application of theories in culinary tourism development
Owing to culinary tourism is multidimensional, the application of theories will be helpful to clarify each dimension of culinary tourism; such as the theories of consumer behavior. Boyne et al. (2003) proposed a four-fold taxonomy describing types of consumers according to the level of importance of food and gastronomy in their destination decisionmaking processes.
1. Type I consumers: Gastronomy is an important element of their holiday experience and they actively seek information relating to an area's gastronomic heritage and/or the nature of the supply of locally-produced or quality food in the area. 2. Type II consumers: Gastronomy is also important; however, they require exposure to the food-related tourism information as a precedent to acting upon this-that is, Type II consumers would not actively seek gastronomy-related information in a tourism context but welcome it. 3. Type III consumers: Consumers do not attach importance to gastronomy as part of the holiday experience but may do so in the future if they have an enjoyable gastronomic experience. 4. Type IV consumers: Consumers have no interest in gastronomy and will continue to have no interest in gastronomy regardless of the quality or ubiquitousness of gastronomy-tourism promotional material.
For the types of culinary tourists, some researchers utilized sociology to do further exploration; such as the lifestyle by Bourdieu (1984) ---recreational, existential, diversionary and experimental (Hjalager, 2004). If Bourdieu's (1984) lifestyle could be combined with the four types of culinary tourists by Boyne et al. (2003), it's believed that it will make much contribution to the classification and understanding of culinary tourists.
For the application social psychology, Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is to predict an individual's attitude and behavioral intention (Ajzen &Fishbein, 1980). Ryu and Jang (2006) employed TRA to further understand culinary tourists' behavior model, and added variables to modify the model. It can help understanding culinary tourists' behaviors.
Additionally, tourists differ characteristically in their concepts of value for money. In their cognitions of satisfaction, and in their evaluation frameworks, including in all cases in relation to food and dining (Nield, Kozak & LeGrys, 2000). Therefore, the theories of customer satisfaction, service quality or consuming perception will be applied in exploring tourists' consuming perception in restaurants.

Summary and general directions for future research
Through reviewing recent researches of culinary tourism, it can be found that some suggestions had been proposed. However, it revealed that some perspectives needed more deep explorations to be clarified in future researches. Additionally, it showed that some dimensions were not involved in previous researches. In this research, the trend and direction will be explicitly proposed to be referred for future research.
The development of culinary tourism really played an important role for a country or a region. In the developing process, realizing the relationship of gastronomy and a destination and the classification of culinary tourism are the first priority. Some destinations own unique gastronomy, popular restaurants, coffee shops or creative chefs; some areas own characteristic seafood and fresh produce. So, linking the gastronomic resources of each destination with the types of culinary tourism is the crucial factors of successful strategies. Furthermore, utilizing marketing tools efficiently to form the image of culinary tourism for destinations, like brochure, internet and media, can convey the information. Meanwhile, the information of infusing culture and reducing impediments of experiencing local cuisine is very important to the draft of marketing strategy. Here, after reviewing recent researches, some explorations which were insufficient in recent researches will be suggested in the followings: The reason is that culinary tourism is quite different from the simple consumption of food and drink during a tourism experience. This term refers to the experience that regionally produced food and drink can provide when they are used to tell a story or to convey some aspect of the culture of the region being visited. Culinary tourism implies transference of knowledge or information about the people, culture, traditions and identity of the place visited. It conveys something that is indigenous, perhaps even unique, to a specific destination (Ignatov & Smith, 2006). Like Japan, what attracts people to search for food in a particular place can be that of the attraction of the food itself: ingredients, presentations, healthiness, freshness and the association of the food with a place of culture. In Japan, there are two factors that have a strong role in determining the culinary tourism pattern: the meibutsu* culture and the seasonal variations (Tussyadiah, 2005). As for Canada, Canada started to join international activities and adopted indigenous or local ingredients to develop local cuisine to showcase its diverse cultures. Moreover, it attracted tourists by food festivals or events, and culinary tourism package through the arrangement of travel agencies (Ignatov & Smith, 2006). To focus on Japan and Canada, both of them display totally different characteristics in dietary culture, and present distinct attraction for culinary tourists. This attraction formed by cultural elements need further exploration and expect to be combined with marketing strategy. Namely, to explore how to utilize brochure, internet and media and infuse cultural elements into these tools is with crucial influence on culinary tourism promotion in the future.
* Meibutsu is a Japanese term for famous products associated with particular regions. Meibutsu are usually items of Japanese regional cuisine, although the category includes local handicrafts. Meibutsu typically have a traditional character, although contemporary products may qualify as meibutsu if they are distinctive and popular. They are often purchased as omiyage (souvenirs) to be given as gifts.
3. More empirical researches will be expected to explore the issues regarding culinary tourism.
The presence of tourists might negatively impact the local culture when developing the food potential of a particular area was argued in previous research (du Rand et al., 2003). That is to say, in order to make tourists accept local cuisine, it's usually changed in the ingredients, cooking ways or presentations; in other word, its transformation (or commercialization). So far, more empirical researches will be expected to explore the issues regarding authenticity and commercialization of local cuisine in culinary tourism; especially for tourists' perception and local residents' perceptions (positive and negative). It's of concern for sustainable development of culinary tourism. 4. Fewer researches explored culinary tourists' consuming perceptions.
The relevant researches regarding tourists' consuming perception of gastronomic experience seem to be insufficient. It can combine consumer perception, service quality with the characteristics of culinary tourism to proceed the researches of culinary tourists. Thus, it will contribute to the improvement of service quality, the quality of the dishes and the dining environment.
In addition, for methodology, there's still much room for qualitative research; especially for the survey of tourists. Perhaps it's a research limitation that it's hard to obtain the tourists as samples; moreover, it's more difficult to survey the tourists with gastronomic experience. There're many dimensions for tourists to experience gastronomy in a destination, such as dining at restaurants, tasting local delicacies or local fresh produce, food festivals or indigenous meals, and so on. It can be focused on each type to proceed more deep exploration and obtain more specific findings.
For the countries involved in recent researches, France which was popular as French cuisine, its brochure conveys gastronomic images which mostly were related to unprepared, natural products, rural products or country life. What the famous fine dining restaurants, delicacy and chefs were not emphasized. Even the Michelin starred restaurants of Michelin Red Guide didn't become the emphasis of tourism marketing neither. However, in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Tourism Board introduced the restaurants with Best of the Best Culinary Award or Quality Tourism Services to the tourists for the reference of choosing the restaurant. Here, an issue induced was what role the restaurant guide should play? If the restaurant guide provide objective reference for tourists? Is the information necessary for tourists? Does it can reduce the impediments for tourists to experience local cuisine according to the restaurant guide? And, how to develop an objective restaurant rating system to offer the guide for culinary tourists, especially in Asia? It's worth of following research in the future.
Finally, since most of recent researches were still focused on exploring one country, crossnational comparison and cross-national populations could be applied in exploring all dimensions of culinary tourism. For cross-national comparison, the strategies of culinary tourism development and the images that the marketing tools convey could be compared. For cross-national populations, it could be employed to compare culinary experience or consumers' behaviors among the tourists of different nationalities in a destination.
Furthermore, some solid theories of other fields such as Social Psychology can be applied to explore culinary tourists' behavioral model. It'll make much contribution to future research.
Nowadays, the countries which pay much attention to culinary tourism are increasing gradually. Nevertheless, there are still some unclear questions and under-explored issues. For this specific type of tourism, it will need more efforts to be devoted to and more practical suggestions to be proposed in the future.