© PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. ISSN 1695-7121
Vol. 12 N.o 3. Special Issue. Págs. 651-652. 2014
www .pasosonline.org
Reseña de Publicaciones
Food, Agri‑Culture
and Tourism. Linking Local Gastronomy
and Rural Tourism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Sidali, K. L., Spiller, A. and Schulze, B. , Springer Link (2011)
ISBN: 978‑3‑642‑11360‑4;
978‑3‑642‑11361‑1
Gunjan Saxena*
The University of Hull (UK)
* The University of Hull (UK), tHE Business School; Senior Lecturer (Marketing). E‑mail:
g.saxena@hull.ac.uk
Gunjan Saxena
Food in promotional strategies of rural tourism
has increasingly acquired significant role of a cul-tural
signifier of place and its essence. By bringing
together research on food and tourism industries,
this book is a welcome contribution in furthering
the work on this angle from an inter‑disciplinary
perspective. The book is neatly divided into three
parts, namely, Part I: Farm and Rural Tourism;
Part II: Food, Wine and Tourism; and Part III: New
Avenues of Research: Online Marketing and Sen-sory
Marketing. Each part contains well‑researched
and an array of case studies, but one of its key
weakness is its Europe‑centric
focus.
The key emphasis of the text is on how tourists’
desire to experience farm as a product can be fur-ther
enhanced by “online and sensory marketing
for fulfilling the needs of the new trends within this
sector” (p. 20). In this respect, the main challenge
remains on identifying the most appropriate adver-tising
strategy. Stockebrand et al.’s case research on
Germany underlining the need for emotions‑based
communication is particularly interesting as the
authors also include a number of good practices that
have made agri‑tourism
enticing by the virtue of
story‑telling
that embodies a mix of romantic, suc-culent
and poetic traits. The analysis is somewhat
weakly presented and does not appear to elaborate
in greater depth fascinating theoretical assertions
made in the chapter. Bianchi’s chapter that follows
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 12 N° 3. Special Issue. Mayo 2014 ISSN 1695-7121
652 Food, Agri‑Culture
and Tourism: Linking Local Gastronomy and Rural Tourism…
would have better served as an opening chapter to
set the scene in Part I. Generally, authors generally
agree on the lack of entrepreneurial traits among
rural SME owners / managers that prevent them
from benefiting the niche and profitable segment
of wine tourism.
Focus of Part II is on exploring different facets
of commercial interface between tourism and vini-culture,
including a relatively under‑investigated
theme of co‑operative
marketing and wine tourism.
The case studies are relevant and well‑researched
and highlight a combination of techniques available
to providers in crafting and selling unique forms
of rural tourism experience and enterprise (e.g.
linking wine routes to historical sites). Except
one chapter by Santini et al., most chapters on
marketing included in Part III fail to make ade-quate
links with rural or wine tourism which is
the overarching premise of the book and distract
the reader. This is one of the key weaknesses of
the book that could have been easily rectified with
greater attention to the overall message that was
being conveyed and accordingly defining chapter
content. Also, at the start of each section, a summa-ry
outlining key themes and the general discussion
would have helped the reader to have an improved
understanding of the underlying logic behind the
inclusion of individual chapters.
Despite these limitations, the book foregrounds
the significance of designing “memorable expe-riences”
(p. 171) to capture and retain tourists’
attention. Certainly, concepts like sensory ma-rketing,
sensory analysis as means to distinguish
rural tourists are quite interesting and have the
potential to be easily replicated in other case
contexts. Given the rapid pace of change and the
need for differential marketing strategies required
for creatively packaging rural tourism, this work
by Sidali and colleagues indeed sets the scene by
depicting the plurality of approaches available to
rural SMEs to augment consumers’ experience.
However, critical discussion on how the marketed
identity overlaps with the experienced identity
as well as how the relational capital of owners /
managers of rural SMEs impacts on the positional
features of creativity, i.e. potential of a region to
become a creative milieu would have been quite
useful. Thus the book should be seen as an initial
step to commence further enquiries into the way
contemporary rurality is experienced, consumed
and marketed.
Recibido: 07/11/2013
Reenviado: 16/12/2013
Aceptado: 22/12/2013
Sometido a evaluación por pares anónimos
Pasos: revista de turismo y patrimonio cultural
