Sea food tourism and events

Sea food tourism and events EXTENDED ABSTRACT Lucia Pizzichini a Tommy D. Andersson b a Polytechnic University of Marche, Department of Management, Italy, l.pizzichini@staff.univpm.it b University of Gothenburg, Department of Marketing, Sweden, tommy.andersson@handels.gu.se Corresponding Author Lucia Pizzichini Piazzale R. Martelli 8, 60121 Ancona l.pizzichini@staff.univpm.it + 39 3394019791 + 46 767851171

Sea food tourism and events EXTENDED ABSTRACT Objective/Background Food tourism is an important element that could contribute strengthening the gastronomic identity of a destination. One way to enhance the visibility of tourist destinations is through the organization of events dedicated to food, especially those able to leverage on the local culture and its specificity. Food festivals aim to promote local gastronomy through the exploration and tasting of typical food products of the local area. Moreover, food events could help developing tourism by improving the relationship between guest and host, and introducing tourists to local flavors and traditions during their vacation. Generally, existing research on food events concentrate mainly on rural areas. The aim of the study is to contribute to the food events literature by focusing on the maritime and coastal areas. In particular, the purpose is to analyze the role of sea food festivals as potential tourist attractions for local development. Qualitative research and case studies on sea food festivals in Italy and Sweden have been performed to understand how different approaches related to tradition and marketing can influence the process leading to the creation of sea food festivals. Theoretical Review Framework/Literature The coastal tourism sector in Europe is undergoing far-reaching changes, due to changing needs of visitors and increasing competition. The previous "3S" (sun, sea and sand) model is no longer sufficient, and tourists ask for higher quality at a lower price. They expect more than some decades ago and demand a wide variety of associated leisure activities and experiences within food events, including sports, cuisine, culture and natural attractions. Researchers have demonstrated that culinary tourism is able to increase the value of the tourist experience (Green & Dougherty, 2009; Sims, 2009); therefore, it is becoming a new market niche that can contribute to economic and social development of areas (Yun, Hennessey, and MacDonald, 2011). Food and wine festivals are part of culinary tourism, as they help to promote the territory and create loyalty to local food and wine (Mason & Paggiaro, 2010; Simeon & Buonincontri, 2011). The purpose of food events is to promote local food through the exploration and tasting. Operators involved in destination marketing activities use gastronomic festivals as a tool to attract tourists and promote the area (Getz, 1991). The presence of a gastronomic event can increase tourism expense (Everett & Aitchison, 2008; Kim, Kim, and Goh, 2011a) contributing to create a distinctive image, essential to generate satisfaction and influencing the choice of destination. Therefore, the organizations managing these events and other stakeholders have to identify the main elements that influence gastronomic festivals visitors, in order to enhance the positive effects (Yuan & Jang, 2008; Smith & Costello, 2009). As festivals share all the characteristics of a service (perishability, heterogeneity, intangibility, inseparability), and the literature highlights intangibility as one of the key characteristics of services (Zeithaml&Bitner, 1996), participants pay a specific attention to the style and aspect of physical elements related to the environment, the so called festivalscape. Specifically, from a marketing point of view, the festival atmosphere represents the

context where benefits are produced and consumed, thus it has a strategic function as it affects consumers satisfaction and reactions (Lee, Lee, &Babin, 2008). In the last few years there was a gradual consolidation of events within food and wine tourism (Getz, 2000); generally, most of academic debates and existing research on food events concentrate mainly on rural areas (Hall &Sharples, 2008; Hollows, J., et al. 2013). For this reason, the paper will focus on staging of seafood events to understand how this element affects tourists choices. Method The literature analysis revealed a gap related to study of food festivals in coastal and maritime areas. Therefore, this research uses a qualitative research approach and case study analysis of sea food festivals in Marche Region (Italy) and Västra Gotland Region (Sweden) during the 2016 and 2017. In particular, three cases were analyzed: Mussels and Oyster festivals in Sweden and Anghió festivals in Italy. The aim is to describe the phenomenon of sea food festivals and to understand how different approaches to tradition and marketing can influence the process leading to the creation and staging of sea food festivals. A participatory observation methodology contributes understanding the phenomenon with an "insider point of view and to take part in social life of actors. Researchers argues that, through the case study analysis it is possible to investigate a large number of properties and variables related to the object of interest in depth and the temporal proximity allows direct observation and collaboration with the subject of analysis. Moreover, this approach is consistent with the idea that research should include social interaction between the researcher and the subject of investigation. Eisenhardt (1989) emphasizes the importance of triangulation of specific data collection tools, in particular, naturalistic observation (documents, files, meeting records and other directly observable data) and observation of data generated by research (interviews and questionnaires). The case study approach has been considered an effective research strategy to investigate aspects related to food tourism as a whole, contributing to linking theories and practices (Hjalager and Richard, 2002; Robert K, 2003). In particular, the observation of the three case studies was led by an analytical model based on four perspectives: food presentation, restaurant involvement, entertainment and petty trade, children s activities. Results and implications This research is still in progress; during June and July 2017, interviews will be held with the organizations managing the events both in Sweden and in Italy. This will be done in order to understand the strategies of the stakeholders involved and the relationship between them and the different process of creation of a sea food festival according to the different balance between marketing and tradition. For this reason it is not possible to have the final results but just some preliminary considerations. Food tourism is a resource for the socio-economic development of a territory, also in the coastal areas. The study investigates how event managers can use local food for different marketing activities, such as for restaurant, hotels and destination branding, as well as for regional development in general (Peter Björk and Hannele Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2015). Food events have a key role for the integration of territorial policies in which tourism and food products could be part of a wider development strategy (Notta, Vlachvei, Diotallevi, &Marchini, 2013) for coastal areas. Managing the sea food festivals taking in consideration the four perspectives of food presentation, petty trade, children s activities and restaurant involvement could contribute solving the problem of the good balance between traditions and marketing. This could represent an opportunity to

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