If you are a food loving traveller set aside some space in your calendar for the 18th of April. This day is dedicated to celebrate the how and the why of travelling for unique food experiences around the world. 

The World Food Travel Day celebrates the reason to travel to experience our world’s culinary cultures. When you are visiting a new city or travelling around a country, filling your belly is obviously necessary. For anyone who enjoys food and cultural expressions, it is also an opportunity to try new, exciting flavours, get a closer look at original or avant-garde cooking techniques, or just to learn more about our world’s gastronomic treasures. 

Food tourism includes a range of activities aside from restaurant visits, it could also be visiting a winery or brewery, taking a food tour or a stroll at a local food market, sharing a cooking class or taking part in a foodie event. Today the possibilities are endless! 

Experiencing a new culture through food is to delve into the very soul of that culture. We share food with friends and family, it often carries significant meaning in the holidays we celebrate, both religious and not, and to be offered or to ask to try a local specialty is to recognize a cultural expression. We are often brought up in our own culinary environment, where the possibility to try other kinds of food first comes when we travel abroad for the first time. Do you remember your first encounter with a dish that was completely different from whatever you had eaten growing up? 

Travelling expands your mind, and in the words of Mark Twain – “ Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness ”. 

The World Food Travel Day was established in 2019, to create awareness around the growing food tourism industry, as well as to introduce a day where food lovers from around the world could come together and celebrate culinary culture, gastronomy heritage and food tourism on a global scale. In the two past years we have seen social media posts published from food lovers all over the world! 

We were also joined in the celebration by several organizations and actors in the tourism industry. Luxury Lifestyle Magazine gave their inside tips on where to travel and what to taste for the occasion, The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association inspired us to eat local on #WFTDay, and check out this magical portrayal of a culinary trip on the Island of Skye from Tasting Scotland.  You can find more inspiration on our webpage devoted to the World Food Travel Day, and we can’t wait to see how you will celebrate this year’s #WorldFoodTravelDay! 

We are inviting you to join us again this year, however, we firmly encourage everyone to practice safe celebrations. Let us not forget about the global health concern and its impact on the food tourism industry, – now more than ever, is the time to support small businesses and destinations whose food and culture we love! 

#WorldFoodTravelDay is a virtual event that invites everyone to take part! Share your celebration by posting a photo or a video on a social media platform of your choice, and mention us so we can like and share your posts too! Let your posts be throwbacks and flashbacks, remember and reminisce, or prepare your favourite recipes at home.

Here are some ideas for your posts:

There are no limitations as to what you can include. We just ask that whatever you do, it focuses on your area’s local culinary culture, not chain offerings, and that you take any necessary precautions considering the global pandemic.  

World Food Travel Day is celebrated by everyone – food lovers (consumers), chefs and cooks, tourism offices, bloggers and photographers, pretty much everyone who loves good local food and drink. If you love your area’s local foods, then World Food Travel Day is for you!

As a non-profit, non-governmental organization, regarded as the world’s leading authority on food and beverage tourism, we are committed to our mission: To preserve and promote the awareness of culinary cultures through hospitality and tourism. The World Food Travel Day is part of our vision and we hope to encourage everyone to engage with other food lovers from around the world.

Authored by: Rosanna Olsson