A Glimpse into the Culinary Tourism Alliance’s Grow Food Tourism’s Website

The Culinary Tourism Alliance (CTA), one of Sustain Ontario’s members, has recently launched a new innovative website! It provides us with a glimpse into food tourism 101, culinary food experiences, a variety of resources such as workshops, webinars, and grants as well as information on their services to develop food tourism.

The CTA is a not-for-profit, industry-led association that has been creating world-class food tourism strategies for the last decade. They work to build economies and connect people globally through targeted, effective product development and industry education.

Their Mission?

“By bridging the gap between the food and travel industries, we are strengthening the links between the agriculture and hospitality sector to promote the growth of food tourism.”

Their mission also includes helping regional and community identities by supporting agriculture, viticulture and aquaculture resources across the food tourism value chain. Through their strong stakeholder engagement and relationships, they are able to achieve this which results in new or improved food tourism experiences!

“It is CTA’s goal to #GrowFoodTourism globally by working with locals to create sustainable, authentic and meaningful tourism experiences through food and drink.”

They are a leading global expert in developing a destination “taste of place”, into the full tourism experience. The CTA fosters local economic development and puts a spotlight on regions and cities so they can become food tourism destinations. They also have extensive experience working alongside tourism and agriculture departments to develop food tourism programs.

The CTA defines Food Tourism as the pursuit of unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences. An interesting feature on their website includes a comprehensive list of culinary trail experiences, in which they consider are the industry’s best practices.

Other notable resources on the CTA website include:

• Information on the most popular Food Tourism Workshops that CTA offers.
• Information on upcoming webinars hosted by CTA, all geared towards different sectors and commodity groups.
• A wide-ranging list of relevant grants in Canada and internationally for businesses to grow food tourism.
• The Rise of Food Tourism, a free downloadable travel trends report that examines how destinations have developed food tourism to define their brands, examples of places that incorporate food into local communities and events and best practices and strategies for cultivating food tourism.

For those interested in developing food tourism, visit here! The CTA offers a wide range of services from workshops to consulting services that can boost your culinary tourism development and economic growth. They have worked to develop new strategies and products for a variety of clients such as, culinary and food tourism strategies and a craft beer trail experience. For a full list of past clients and projects click here!