On the Trail of Food and Wine: The tourist search for meaningful experience

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify important factors in the development of food and wine trails within the context of culinary tourism and, second, to propose methods by which trail businesses can further build on the tourism potential of food and wine. The trail development factors identified are the trail as a tourist product, the relevance of alternative food networks, and the identity of the culinary tourist. The research to date suggests that a difficulty facing trail developers is the problem of incorporating a tourism product into what is essentially a cooperative marketing mechanism. This signals a need to develop mechanisms by which the food and wine tourism product of a trail can be better presented. The paper thus concludes with suggestions for ways in which trail businesses can construct narratives in order to improve 'meaningful experiences' for contemporary culinary tourists.