Developing Traditional Culinary Tourism Experiences for the Asian Outbound Market in Australia and Germany/Die Entwicklung traditioneller kulinarischer Erlebnisse für den asiatischen Outbound-Markt in Australien und Deutschland

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Food and drink can be described as a central aspect of society in today’s world, so it is not surprising that culinary has increasingly become an important part of the tourism experience. With this growing interest in culinary tourism, a development can also be observed in recent years in which the topic of sustainability takes a central position. This can be seen, for example, in the increasing demand for regional and local products and for a more authentic cuisine, but also in culinary trends such as ‘native food’ or ‘nature food’. Tourism destinations try to use these potentials to establish a sustainable instrument to increase the attractiveness of the destination and to differentiate it from the competition. In addition, specific target groups can be addressed by means of culinary experiences. One example is the fastest growing tourism source market worldwide: The Asian and especially the Chinese market. At the same time, it can be noted that the demands of Chinese tourists were already changing before the CoViD-19 crisis and these trends have intensified during 2020 (Arlt, Welcoming the new Chinese outbound tourists. Guest relationships with Chinese visitors in the 2020s. COTRI, Hamburg, 2020). The number of ‘first-time travellers’ is decreasing; instead, a growing proportion of Chinese tourists abroad have previous outbound travel experience. This new target group is looking for unique, nature-based, authentic and ‘instagramable’ activities. Culinary experiences can play an important role in this. The goal of the study presented here is to investigate the demand for traditional culinary experiences by international visitors from Asia, especially China, to Australia and Germany in order to assess their future potential for product development. The results show a clear difference in demand pattern from Asian and Chinese travellers between Western Australia and Bavaria, and reciprocal learning may support a long-term establishment of regional culinary experiences for this travel market.