Gastronomy and Wine Tourism.- A differential proposal for each tourist destination.

In these last decades, due to the incorporation of gastronomy to the tourist promotion campaigns, the different destinations have had a chance to differentiate and provide to values and enjoy of new experiences.

Looking back, the end of the nineties, gastronomy began to be considered as a differential proposal in tourist programs. At once, gastronomy is an opportunity that helps us work on the sustainability of the territory. The gastronomic tourism it’s more than savoring a good meal during a trip. In actuality, the gastronomy has become a cultural heritage of each region visited on highlighting the dishes made with native products that distinguish the particularities and varieties of each area.

Currently, studies by the World Tourism Organization indicate that the tourist or visitor invests about a third of their budget for holidays in gastronomy and that is why the sector has a great participation in the experiences that complement the travel programs. In this sense, the growing success of wine tourism is the joint result of the work carried out by all sectors linked to an tourist activity.

In Catalonia, gastronomy has always played a leading role and its Mediterranean diet is very attractive for tourists who visit it. It does not matter if your destination is sea or mountain, since each place has its history and tradition that can be shared through its gastronomy. The Catalan culinary offer has the secret of its success in the quality and uniqueness of the products it uses, in addition to the combination between what the land produces and what the sea provides.

Apart from a wide range of all kinds of restaurants, Catalunya also has a network of public markets where the quality of the product is the most important, and a good number of groups of restaurateurs are dedicated to promoting the typical cuisine of each area, working together the proposal of the territory and the product.

Gastronomic Forum in Barcelona. PHOTO:PERE DURAN

Cuisine is geography, history and culture.

Catalunya, is also renowned for its long tradition of refined cuisine, with a wide variety of foods, wines and dishes linked to the Mediterranean Sea and to the farms, olive groves and vineyards of the interior region.

Taste and enjoy a country’s culinary products is to explore all its traditions at once. Discovering a country’s food and drink, browsing its market stalls.

Tasting and chatting to culinary experts and exploring wine routes.  All this is food and wine tourism.

Since immemorial times, Catalan cuisine has constantly absorbed influences that have contributed to shape the rich and diverse culinary traditions of the country.

All these historical influences have given this cuisine a distinctive Mediterranean character.

The earth produces the products that form the basis of this kitchen.

Culinary tourism is also another great attraction of the Barcelona Province counties, which are intimately linked to wine culture and have managed to maintain and revive a high-quality wine-growing economy. There are five wine Designations of Origin in this area: Penedès, Alella, Pla de Bages, Catalunya and Cava. Apart from going to the area’s wineries, which are open to visitors, you can also enjoy local festivals linked to rural life and wine-growing.

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TRANSPORT. VERY NECESSARY IN THE TOURIST ACTIVITIES.