GASTRONOMIC FORUM – Tourism and Gastronomy

The Fòrum Gastronomic was the first gastronomic congress with a trade fair, it was first held in 1999. It is a place for learning, for reflection and debate with a programme of activities designed specifically to offer the best tools to professionals; a market of products with a dynamic and participative trade fair; a real meeting place for the trade.

FROM 19 TO 21 NOVEMBER 2017 – Gastronomic Forum

Event devoted to gastronomy with workshops, tastings, show-cooking, talks and an exhibition area for professionals and the general public at the Fira de Girona exhibition centre.

For another year, the Gastronomic Forum returns to Girona. The Girona Conference Centre will be hosting the forum’s technical workshops, in which visitors can enjoy live show-cooking demonstrations provided by top national and international chefs, as well as business forums and an award ceremony, among other activities. The Gastronomic Forum is one of the most important and prestigious events on the gastronomic circuit. The program of activities will bring together, once again, top professionals.

The Gastronomic Forum has become an event of great interest and media coverage, both nationally and internationally.

The Forum welcomes the best gastronomic professionals. With them, it is decidedly committed to the transmission of knowledge and experiences that entail and that have made them stand out. Cooks, producers, winemakers, pastry chefs and experts parade through the stages, classrooms and workshops. And not only that: the Forum invests in regeneration, and that is why great chefs and young values have always shared protagonist.

Among them stand out great icons of the stoves such as Ferran Adrià, Ángel León, Carles Gaig, Carlo Craco, Paco Pérez, Pierre Gagnaire, Sergio and Javier Torres, Joan, Jordi and Josep Roca, Juan Mari Arzak, Yukihiko Shidara, Xosé Cannas, Rui Falcao or Nandu Jubany.

The organization of the event is PEP PALAU-VON AREND ASSOCIATS

Barcelona is the sixth city in the world where tourists who arrive from outside the EU spend more.

The estimated spend by this sector of tourists in Barcelona between January and June beats 14 billion dollars. The city represented 46.74% of the purchases made by visitors from outside the EU up to June of this year in Spain as a whole, compared with 36.92% for Madrid and 6.72% for Málaga.

The leading markets for spending on tax-free purchases in Spain as a whole are China (a 32.05% share with 85% year-on-year growth); Russia (a 12.92% share with a 14% fall); Morocco (a 3.74% share and with 49% growth), the United States (3.37% of the total with 45% growth) and Mexico (a 2.97% share with 45% growth).

The EY report highlights the fact that tourists from outside the European Union spend 50% less in Spain that in neighbouring countries with an average of 38.32 euros per overnight stay, compared with the 91.99 euros they spend in Germany and 69.22 in the United Kingdom. The city with the greatest growth in amount spent by these international tourists is Bangkok, in seventh place just behind Barcelona.

Cuisine is geography, history and culture. To 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; purchasing, tasting and chatting to culinary experts, exploring wine routes… all this is food and wine tourism.

Catalonia boasts a host of gastronomic activities, which bring together local restaurants and other establishments engaged in the culinary world to enable visitors to discover the cuisine of each different region first hand.

The imagination of restaurateurs and the most deeply-rooted traditions find expression in the culinary shows and popular food festivals that take place all over Catalonia. It would be difficult to explore this country without stumbling upon one of the culinary events that are held throughout the year and whose primary goal is to delight the senses.

The arrival of autumn brings with it most of the country’s edible mushroom types, and, in turn, mushroom shows and competitions. Examples include the Llenega (Knight-cap) Mushroom Fair in Cardona (Bages county); the many mushroom festivals in Berguedà county, such as the famous mushroom competition in Puigventós; and the mushroom festival in Setcases (Ripollès).

Delicious di she’s for every season of the year Winter is similarly rich in culinary events, boasting such festivals as the calçotada (calçots are long, sweet onions that are grilled over red-hot embers) in Valls, steeped in a century old tradition; olive oil festivals and shows in the Terres de l’Ebre region and Lleida; xatonades (xató is the traditional local salad, made from escarole, tuna and cod salad) on the Costa del Garraf and in the Penedès region; the unusual Àpats dels Pobres (traditionally, meals served to the poor by the feudal lords) featuring rice dishes; and, early in spring, Carnival ranxo casseroles, with white  botifarra sausage and omelettes; as well as countless cod dishes.

Another leading event, particularly for the high Standard of participants and its innovative approach, is Girona Gastronomic Forum. The participants at the forum include around 200 exhibitors and some 250 accredited journalists, and activities include talks, live cooking demonstrations offered by the world’s finest chefs, and product tastings.

Learning how to cook Catalonia’s finest traditional dishes; soaking in wine in a soothing bath; and strolling amongst vineyards; these are just some of the food and wine activities that visitors can enjoy in Catalonia.