As the travel industry’s recovery starts to gather pace, many tourist boards are looking to differentiate themselves from rival destinations by focusing on their cuisine rather than traditional natural hot spots, cities, or coastal locations. This is according to data and analytics company, GlobalData.

According to GlobalData’s Ads Database, DMCs for Turkey, Malta, and Indonesia arefocusing on their national cuisine to entice new tourists. Marketing campaigns have largely included images and short videos covering traditional cooking methods to boost cultural appeal. The development of these marketing campaigns appears to be in response to growing demand for international cuisine and culinary experiences, with DMCs using this to gain a competitive advantage over rival destinations.

Craig Bradley, Associate Travel & Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, said DMOs appeared to be reacting to a change in traveller sentiment to gastronomy. Development of this trend has been brought on by the pandemic, which has helped broaden the palates of many tourists,despite the closure of many restaurants during 2020 and 2021.

“Many restaurants needed to adapt to pandemic restrictions to survive, so they started selling meals via food delivery services such as Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats. These services have made international cuisine more accessible to consumers than ever before due to their low-touch service offering, intuitive smartphone apps, and efficient mobile payment systems,” Bradley added.

This trend was unlikely to slow, with the food delivery market set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7% between 2021 and 2025, said the analytics company’s 2021 Food Insights & Trends report.

A GlobalData Q4 2021 Global Consumer Survey showed that 47% of respondents said they found the broader availability of cuisines the most appealing reason to consume food and drink outside of the home, highlighting the global appetite for experiencing new flavours. It was reasonable to assume that the same sentiment applied to tourists within a destination, GlobalData asserted.

Bradley concluded: “In response to this development in consumer tastes, tourist boards have recognised an opportunity to use regional cuisine to create original marketing campaigns that can convey local culture within the tourist experience. This will be particularly attractive to niche tourists and millennial tourists, who typically search for more unique experiences.”