Postgraduate Researchers

PhD Research Student - School of Tourism and Hospitality Management

Project title: An Exploration of the Pathways in Food Tourism Development in Destinations in Ireland.

Project abstract:

Tourists spend nearly half their travel budget on food and beverages, making food tourism a vital part of the tourist experience, whether it is the main motivation or a secondary attraction (Quan and Wang, 2004; Okumus, Koseoglu, and Ma, 2018). Much of the literature on food tourism focuses on understanding food tourists (Soltani, Soltani Nejad, Taheri Azad, Taheri, and Gannon, 2021) and the importance of food tourism for destination development (Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2016), with relatively little attention given to exploring the processes behind how food tourism develops within places. The literature demonstrates that while development is resource-dependent, it is largely driven by the actions of entrepreneurs and networks (Long, Yusof, Azmy, and Qin, 2023). The food tourism sector is highly fragmented, composed of micro-sized businesses and a diverse range of stakeholders, making its development difficult to map (Rachão, Breda, Fernandes and Joukes, 2019).  

In the broader field of tourism destination development, extensive research has explored the dynamics of tourism evolution, examining how development moves from one stage to the next and identifying the factors that drive this movement (Christaller, 1963; Miossec 1976; Butler, 1980; Keller, 1987; Lewis, 1998; Ritchie and Crouch, 2003). Whilst these theories and models provide insights into the growth and stages of tourism destination development, they lack dynamism, failing to account for the non-linear nature of change (Bianchi, 1994). Although the role of entrepreneurs in destination development is acknowledged, the tourism models do not fully examine their impact (Hovinen, 2002; Ryan, Mottiar, and Quinn, 2012), overlooking the power dynamics that shape tourism development (McKercher, 1999). 

Recently, scholars have employed evolutionary economic geography (EEG) to provide new insights into how and why local tourism destinations change over time (Brouder and Eriksson, 2013; Gill and Williams, 2011). EEG provides a more holistic and context-sensitive framework for understanding the dynamics of tourism evolution (Brouder, 2014). This study adopts a path development perspective using concepts from EEG, to consider both radical and incremental changes in how food tourism evolves in destinations. By identifying the factors that drive development, it utilises the analytical framework of critical juncture sequences (Sorensen, 2023), to understand and explain processes and contexts in which development takes place. 

An in-depth study of three destinations in Ireland with well-developed food tourism offerings will be conducted. Using qualitative methods to interview key actors within the food tourism sector in each region, the findings will be analysed using the path development/critical juncture framework. This research will examine development in detail moving beyond observation, to identify and classify the impact of causal factors in food tourism development, and how these conjunctures interact to create unique situations or turning points in the developmental path. Through this approach, the study will uncover the key drivers of food tourism development and examine how various factors interact with events or circumstances to bring about change. This study will make a significant contribution to the literature on food tourism and destination development. It will also advance the literature on EEG by using this framework to trace the evolution of food tourism development.  

 

Supervisors: Dr Ziene Mottiar and Dr Theresa Ryan

Funder: TU Dublin