Luxury food tour: Perspectives and dilemmas on the "luxurification" of local culture in tourism product

Saša Poljak Istenič; Jasna Fakin Bajec

doi:10.3986/AGS.8960

Authors

Saša Poljak Istenič Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Slovenian Ethnology, Ljubljana, Slovenia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5277-7100
Jasna Fakin Bajec Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, Nova Gorica, Slovenia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1680-6220

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.8960

Keywords:

experiential tourism, luxury tourism products, gastronomy, local culture, heritage, Kras/Carso Food Tour, Karst region

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Kras/Carso Food Tour to present the challenges of developing a luxury tourism product. The tour's design followed the current strategy of the Slovenian Tourist Board, which defines specific criteria for a luxury experience. Contextualized by the experiential trends in tourism, the paper juxtaposes the bottom-up and top-down perspectives on luxury experiences. The authors argue that mediation by experts familiar with academic discourses and local culture is beneficial for the development of a successful tourism product. The study contributes to the debates on luxury tourism, which have neglected bottom-up perceptions in tourist discourse and overlooked the dilemmas people face when "luxurifying" their traditions and heritage practices.

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