Food and Wine Tourism

Gourmet tourism is a niche industry catering to people who travel to food or wine tastings, restaurants, or food production regions for leisure. Today, the consumer is better educated, wealthy, has traveled more extensively, lives longer, and is concerned about his health and the environment. The word gourmet is from the French term for a wine broker or traste-vin employed by a wine dealer. Gourmet is a cultural ideal associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by elaborate preparations and presentations of large meals of small, often quite rich courses.