Colloque Atlas

Du 13 février 2020 00:00 au 14 février 2020 00:00

Atlas Gastronomy and Tourism Research Group

Co-organized by UFR ESTHUA Tourism and Culture and ATLAS - Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research

Scientific positioning 

There are places in the world which are recognised as tourist and gourmand destinations both nationally and internationally.  

Tourism mobility to these gourmand tourist destinations is motivated by certain practices and spaces outside everyday life. The gourmand dimension is a tool for touristic discovery, in the sense that involves experiencing a place or geographical area with all 5 senses: encounter an Other and an Elsewhere through agricultural products, meals, wine or taste preferences, or rituals of being at table… Feeling, touching or devouring with your eyes are an integral part of gourmand tourism. The incorporation and tasting practices in a motivated, desired and chosen environment constitute the specificity of the gourmand tourism experience.

Both professionally and scientifically, the concept of gourmand is competing with other labels (food, gastronomy, culinary, oenological, etc.) thus creating a semantic confusion. For Jean-Pierre Lemasson, "In such conditions, only the notion of gourmand tourism seemed relevant to reconcile at the same time the interest of a holistic vision and perspectives that ultimately only make sense through the pleasure of the person eating. This dimension is fundamental to remember, as the economic motivations and those associated with the supply of products and services" (Lemasson, 2006, p.3). The challenge is therefore to understand how these gourmand tourism practices are reflected in space and time.