Culinary Tourism Experience Development Self-Assessment

The Visitor Appeal Assessment Tool is a standalone TEN self-assessment tool that evaluates the visitor experience of your tourism product.

Food tourists want to try something they can’t get at home, they are curious about local specialties, or local versions of foods they already enjoy. Even if it is something that they can get at home, like beer or blueberries for example, telling them why it is different or unique is important. So if the beer involves a collaboration with a local blueberry producer, or if the blueberries grow particularly well due to clay in your region, showcase this!

Visitors want to try local food and drink products, and they value when you prioritize these at your business. For instance, offering local beers or wines from the region's craft breweries and wineries, or choosing to provide fish caught from a nearby lake.

Culinary tourism is the ONLY form of tourism that incorporates all 5 (five) senses. By providing creative ways of tasting and learning about the products you offer, your visitors will feel more immersed in the experience and the culture of the place.

Collaborating with your local suppliers adds value to the products you serve, but also enriches your story as a business within a destination. By including the names of your suppliers on your menu, posting about your suppliers on social media, etc. you create a connection between the visitor and your community through food.

If you participate in events, associations, routes, activities, etc., highlight these! By including your business in regional tourism routes, or by becoming a member of your regional destination marketing organizations, including Destination Northern Ontario, you're putting yourself on the "map" of things to do and see in your region. Visitors are drawn to a region based on how many experiences they can have during their trip, so be part of those networks.

From ideation to implementation, building memorable experiences for visitors requires time, effort, and resources in order to ensure its viability. 1) There are provincial and regional regulations to follow in order to handle and provide food and drink products to your clients and 2) visitors are seeking unique and immersive experiences that are much broader than just sitting down for a meal, or buying a bottle of local beer or wine. Are you ready to take the leap and commit to the process?

Food tourists are often considered niche markets within cultural tourism, but as we know, everyone needs to eat! And this fact alone dramatically increases the potential target markets. From campers to cottagers to day-trippers, visitors, including those travelling to rural and remote destinations, are curious about local specialties.

Keeping in mind that visitors want unique products and tastes that are tied to a region, do you celebrate a connection to place through the products you offer?

Is your business establishment attractive and unique visually? Are there specific odors or tastes? Can visitors interact with the product, or the process of creating or transforming the product? Can visitors taste or sample the products onsite? All these multi-sensory elements are what makes an experience unique.

Give travellers REASONS and OPPORTUNITIES TO SPEND MORE! Tourists are looking to buy food and drink products and souvenirs (non-food products) to bring back home (often to share with family and friends - something that can inspire visitation and encourage referrals).

You eat with your eyes first. Food tourists (especially those that are strongly motivated by food and drink) are resourceful, they will go online in advance to decide where, and often what, to eat or drink. Including high-quality photos of people enjoying your food tourism experience, tasting the products, and commenting on them, will help visitors understand what you offer and whet their appetites! Photos should be of the food and not only of the space (taking a picture of a barn and posting it isn't as powerful as a picture of a person tasting, or churning their own, farm-made butter, for example.)

We all know that social media is important. The most important aspect of social media is user-generated content. It carries a lot more weight than posts that businesses make themselves because of their candour and honesty. When visitors talk about your business online it’s free advertising...as long as their experience is positive! And don't forget to promote your hashtag and "Instagrammable" spots during a visit.

People rarely travel for just one business, they travel to have a series of experiences. Food tourists in particular, love to get insider tips. Having staff be ambassadors for the region (i.e. the destination) by asking people where they're headed and if they need recommendations. This makes visitors feel like they had a personalized experience and that each business is part of something bigger, and creates memories that are meaningful and worthwhile to chat about with their friends, families.

So whether it’s the fact that you use your family recipes, or that you feature locally foraged ingredients, or showcase the history of the region, have a sustainability ethos – whatever it is, it’s important that everyone in your staff is telling the same story.

This means that there are multiple ways that visitors can hear the pieces of your story and your value proposition – they will encounter it when looking up your business online, checking out your Instagram (including user-generated content) and in person verbally when they are interacting with you and your staff.

This can mean in conversation, surveys, or by monitoring review sites.

Encouraging visitors to leave a review is now common practice in many establishments. Keep in mind that clients will leave reviews online whether you manage your accounts or not! Responding to comments on your Google Reviews and TripAdvisor pages, two of the most commonly used apps by tourists, will ensure continuous and value-added conversations with your current and potential clients."