Slow food earth markets as gastronomy tourism offerings

This presentation builds on the study of Slow Food Earth Market accessibility and discusses the potential to develop these markets as gastronomy tourism products.

Founded in 2004, Earth Markets are farmer’s markets which are accredited by Slow Food International and operate according to their principles offering customers access to food which is good, clean, and fair. The sellers at Earth Markets are small-scale farmers, producers, and artisans who regularly set up stalls in a designated space to promote local and seasonal food to consumers. There were 96 accredited Earth Markets in 22 countries across the world at the beginning of 2024 (Slow Food, 2024).

Earth Markets play an important role in the preservation of local biodiversity, the development of local communities and also contribute to sustainable forms of tourism (Hatipoglu & Inelmen, 2021), including slow tourism and gastronomy tourism. However, the question remains how Earth Markets can remain authentic whilst also being inclusive and accessible to a variety of audiences.

The presentation draws on a qualitative study which employed semi-structured interviews with Earth Market organisers. The data collection took place in January-March, 2024. The interviews were conducted using MS Teams and Zooms platforms and face-to-face. Altogether, sixteen organisers from ten markets across nine countries – Australia, Canada, Chile, Latvia, Mexico (2 markets), Spain, Tanzania, Turkey, and Uganda – took part in the study.

The participants were asked about the target audience of Earth Markets, what prevents and encourages people to visit, and how they are promoted, including collaboration with Destination Marketing Organisations.

The presentation discusses the factors contributing to the development of Earth Markets as gastronomy tourism offerings as well as the challenges that the organisers would need to overcome for these markets to be developed as quality gastronomy tourism offerings in a sustainable way.

For example, results show that Earth Markets are open to any type of visitors, yet the visitor profile for many markets is changing either from season to season or year to year. This change is especially apparent in the summer when locals go on holiday and more tourists visit the markets. While local customers generally account for 80-90% of the visitor numbers, the proportion of tourists in the holiday season can reach up to 50% of the market visitors in some markets. This highlights the need for the markets to adapt to the changing customer profile.

There are also opposing views about targeted promotion of Earth Markets for tourists. While some markets embrace the idea of putting Earth Markets on the tourist map, others are more sceptical such promotion.

The presentation discusses the implications for food tourism policy makers and presents considerations for the inclusion of Earth Markets into tourism policy.