Mid Sweden University

Gastronomy is nowadays seen as an important part of tourism. Different kind of food producers are creating places where tourists want to travel to experience the food (e g product) at a certain place (often the production site). Food producers are therefore becoming important tourism producers and they try to find new ways to attract tourists and/or the tourists demand to experience the place where the products are produced. Due to that, the food producers themselves can become a travel reason. The aim with this paper is to discuss how food producers creates tourism experiences. This is further examined by the following research questions: How do food producers create tourism experiences based on high quality products? What are the key values in creating tourism food experiences? The study was conducted as a qualitative multiple case study with eight cases selected by recommendation from local researchers: four cases from northern Europe (two cheese producers in Jämtland, Sweden, and two distilleries in Tröndelag, Norway) and four cases from southern Europe (two olive oil producers and two wine producers from Andalusia, Spain). Data was collected by observations, semi-structured interviews and documentary studies. The results show that food producers creates different products as well as different types of experiences. This can be explained by a theoretical model in three steps namely products (1), tourism visits (2) and tourism experiences (3). When the first step, the basic needs, is fulfilled, the producer can climb higher to the next step. Thereafter, they continue to climb up in the model by providing different types of visits and tourism experiences. The model is also highly dependent on three surrounding influences; from the place, product quality and value in use. When it comes to quality, this is valued in all three steps of the model. This theoretical model can be useful for food producers that would like to expand their products into tourism.