CULINARY PLACEMAKING

Customized destination consulting services that focus on leveraging your culinary culture as your unique selling proposition (USP). Not sure where to start? Request a complimentary 30-minute call.

DIVERSIFY YOUR OFFERING

Not everyone likes shopping or museums, but everyone eats. Give all visitors something to look forward to, and to talk about after they leave.

SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES

They are a main reason food- and beverage-loving travelers want to visit your destination. Do you make it easy for these business types to be discovered?

GET ON THE FOOD LOVER’S MAP

Getting noticed by food- and beverage-loving travelers is your goal, but how do you achieve it? Hint: a restaurant list or listing on TripAdvisor won't capture our attention!


Culinary Tourism Consulting Services

What phase of the culinary tourism development cycle is your destination currently in?


No two destinations are the same. For every new client, we apply our proprietary 3-D® methodology to help us identify the best customized way to help you.

Please get in touch today to discuss how we can help raise your area’s profile as a culinary destination.


Phase 1 is Discover.  You are just learning how to develop your culinary resources before promoting them. The following are just a few of the tools at our disposal for Phase 1 projects.

  • Readiness Assessment

    How ready is your city, region or country to market itself to food & beverage-loving travelers? Do you know what their expectations are relating to sustainability, local food, local culture and special diets? Do you know the best way to help them discover your restaurants, food tours, cooking classes and similar experiences? How ready are your stakeholders to serve the needs of the younger Generation Z? Food lovers are not all the same, and treating them like they are is not the best way to develop and promote your destination's food & beverage tourism offering.

  • Strategic Plan

    We'll design a sustainable culinary placemaking strategy, with a thoughtful narrative that will appeal to food-and beverage-lovers and include a suitable digital strategy to promote your area’s culinary products and experiences as marketable and sellable attractions for visitors. (Approx. 150 pages.)

  • Action Plan

    With your private food & beverage tourism strategy, we can also provide a Food & Beverage Tourism Action plan for distribution to your area stakeholders.  It's a summary of your culinary placemaking strategy that you'll be comfortable sharing publicly. (Approx. 40-50 pages)

  • Justifying Food & Beverage Tourism

    Do you need to make a business case to your local government or board of directors? In the form of a detailed report, we will show the value of food tourism to your area or project, along with a list of benefits your area or project can expect. This can also be delivered as a live or virtual speech or training workshop for your area stakeholders.


Phase 2 is Develop. You are developing (or refining) your food & beverage products & experiences to be promoted.


The following are a few of the tools we use for Phase 2 projects.

  • Experience Assessment

    How do food- and beverage-loving travelers see your business or the product you offer? What do they appreciate? What do they notice is missing? We will show you areas in need of improvement in product development, marketing and operations. This is different from the Destination Assessment above, which looks at the overall destination's readiness to welcome food & beverage loving travelers.

  • Research

    Demographics are not as useful as they used to be. And all food and beverage lovers are not the same! Find out exactly who your food- or beverage-loving target market is. Our ground-breaking PsychoCulinary research methodology allows for precision target marketing of food & beverage enthusiasts. We also offer custom research, research based on our industry-wide Food Travel Monitor, and specialty product research if appropriate.

  • Product Development

    We work with you to identify, develop and promote the most suitable products based on your asset inventory. This may include Food & Beverage Events; Cooking Classes; Food or Beverage Trails; Food or Beverage tours, and other product types. We also look for ways to leverage new technologies like AI and VR in your overall product offering to visitors.

  • Workforce Training

    Help your members or constituents to understand the value of your culinary culture, or how to work with tools like an asset inventory or a culinary readiness assessment.


Phase 3 is Deploy.  You are actively marketing your products and services to food-loving travelers.


The following are a few of the tools that we leverage for our Phase 3 projects.

  • Culinary Capitals

    No matter if your destination is a household name, or you're just getting started, consider applying for Culinary Capitals - it's a certification, development and marketing program all in one. The certification includes a PDF report, and then we work with you for 12 full months on culinary development and marketing. 

  • Global Culinary Travel Awards

    You've had a great year and benefitted from some of the fantastic programs you implemented. Why not share your successes with the world? Our Awards program recognizes businesses and destinations in 6 different awards categories. Applications open every March 1.

  • World Food Travel Day

    Taking place annually on April 18, World Food Travel Day is a celebration of culinary cultures as a reason to travel. Invite your stakeholders to share their favorite culinary travel memories, and use your destination hashtag too in order to get more global visibility.

  • Stakeholder Engagement

    We're the industry experts. Let us train your stakeholders on food and beverage tourism - what it is and is not, the benefits, and the opportunities and challenges. We will present the highlights of the strategy that we prepared and teach them how to get their share of new visitor bookings and sales.


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