Special Food Travel Industry Bulletin

30 March 2020
news-COVID

SPECIAL INDUSTRY BULLETIN

As the crisis grows, our hearts go out to each and every member of our community, which has been devastated by this pandemic. Much of our industry is comprised of small business owners, and we absolutely know what you are going through. Times are hard, but we’ve made a list of what YOU can be working on right now, as we all wait out this crisis.

Join our #coronavirus discussion on GastroTerra. At times of need like this, stakeholders turn to their communities for support and guidance. How do we survive this crisis? What should we be doing? Is now the right time to promote our business or destination? Probably no one reading this has ever experienced a pandemic like the one we are facing today. We’re all learning – and coping – together. We’ve galvanized our online GastroTerra community around this subject. You can ask your questions, and share your strategies, inside our own community. Join free today.

Join our upcoming Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, March 31 entitled Crisis Communications during the Pandemic. It’s focused specifically on what our industry stakeholders – small businesses, destinations and organizations – should be doing and saying right now. Normally, our Town Hall meetings are for premium members only, but we’re opening up this month’s meeting free of charge to all our GastroTerra members. Log in now to find out how to join the Town Hall.

Food … it brings us together. Read our letter to our industry.

Listen to our local ambassadors, who are sharing real-time input from their communities with us. Don’t know who our Ambassador is in your area? Find yours here.

Attend our upcoming FoodTreX Online Food Travel Summit April 22-23. We’re in the process of adding a 10th session focused on coping with this crisis. We’ve extended the early bird pricing through the Summit start date. A €79 registration fee for 10 expert sessions includes access to session recordings for a year, handouts, and our delegate networking app. Learn more and register your digital seat today. Spaces limited.

Oh yeah, and we’ve tapped into our education fund to make a limited number of full and partial scholarships available to anyone who cannot afford the €79 registration for our Online Summit. You can learn more and apply here for one of the scholarships. You also have the option to donate to our scholarship fund. If you or your company would like to make a tax-deductible donation please contact us through the help center.

Need more inspiration? Read Time to Make Lemonade with 10 additional suggestions about what you can be doing right now during this slow time.

Have you thought about taking this time to reinvest in your own professional development? To handle the high demand, we have invested in improving our online learning system to be able to offer more high-quality online content to more people than ever. We’ll announce more information about that and our course catalog very soon.

Meanwhile, please take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Your World Food Travel Association Family

Promotion for culinary capitals an innovative destination certification and development program for unknown destinations
Taste of place podcast listen to our culinary travel and culture podcast with erik wolf
Food
A membership page with a picture of pancakes on a plate.
A row of small bowls filled with fruit on a table.
21 November 2025
The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.
21 November 2025
Born in Las Raíces, San Juan del Cesar, Colombia, Mabel Esther Vega Montaño honors with her life the name of the place where she was born. A rural teacher and guardian of traditions, she combines formal education with the transmission of ancestral knowledge about respectful cultivation and harvesting of the land. Through fique weaving, she connects communities and promotes rural tourism intertwined with local gastronomy, where the wooden pestle, the totumo achiotero, and the wood-fired stove accompany the preparation of traditional dishes that celebrate the living memory and deep roots of the territory to which she has devoted her life. Learn more about our new Taste of Place Movement and how you can support it and the work done by Mabel and others like her.
30 September 2025
In Loving Memory and with Deep Gratitude: Honoring Brian F. Lorge
29 September 2025
🎧 New Podcast Episode Alert! Episode 80: “Mexico Beyond the Myths” featuring Ximena Velasco In this episode of the Taste of Place Podcast, we chat with Ximena Velasco, founder of the ¡Qué Gusto! festival in France. Originally from Mexico, Ximena has dedicated the past decade to changing perceptions of Mexican food abroad, proving that it is far more than fajitas or chili con carne. She shares her journey from working with Atout France to creating her own cultural platform, the challenges of promoting Mexican gastronomy in a country so deeply proud of its own food traditions, and the victories that come from perseverance, creativity, and trust in her instincts. 🎙️ Available now on Spotify, iTunes & your favorite podcast platforms (Search for "Taste of Place") 📺 Prefer video? Watch it now on our YouTube channel.
25 September 2025
Quarterly tales from the ambassadors of the World Food Travel Association
by Erik Wolf 21 September 2025
🎧 New Podcast Episode Alert! Episode 79: “Peace Through Food” featuring Paula Mohammed In this episode of the Taste of Place Podcast, we sit down with Paula Mohammed – podcaster, cultural explorer, and founder of In My Kitchen. Paula’s story begins with a unique multicultural upbringing as the daughter of a Pakistani father and a mother from New Zealand with Māori heritage, raised in both Canada and New Zealand. She shares how a childhood memory of curried peas sparked a lifelong passion for connecting cultures through food. From organizing events and working in sports marketing, to launching In My Kitchen and facilitating culinary exchanges worldwide, Paula has built a life around creating peace through food — one dish and one story at a time. 🎙️ Available now on Spotify, iTunes & your favorite podcast platforms (Search for "Taste of Place") 📺 Prefer video? Watch it now on our YouTube channel.
More posts