In the theoretical part of the thesis, with the help of references, main concepts of food tourism were presented. Creating a specially tailored food tour for this type of group is essentially important for food tourism in Helsinki.
Food Tourism, Culinary Tourism or Gastronomy Tourism
The current boom in food tourism is linked to the improvement of the lifestyle and living standards of the world's population. Given that destinations generally offer food and drink to visitors, it is surprising that academic interest in food tourism is relatively recent.
Food tours of England, Iceland and Japan
England
One of the options for the food and wine tourists is to visit Three Choirs Vineyard. On the vineyard webpage, one can book and pay for the food and wine pairing experience.
Iceland
The tour host is a native Icelandic citizen who is passionate about food and has lived in other countries for a long time. One option is to visit a family farm, where you can see the production of Skyra according to old customs.
Japan
And there are roads that connect different parts of the country for long-term tourists who can spend more than 5-10 days in the country. They will then enter one of the restaurants in the market for a fresh sushi breakfast.
Food tourism in Finland
There are many promotional videos about food tourism in Japan that attract customers from all over the world, along with social media profiles of food tourism locations that are openly shared online. At its best, a food tourism product invites participation and do-it-yourself, giving the tourist a chance to learn, thus turning the tourism product into a unique experience.” As food tourism industry trends shift towards local, organic and simple, Finland has potential to attract more tourists looking for new food experiences.
Food tourism in Finland is not yet as developed or known as in England, Tokyo or Italy, but it has potential to grow the number of tourists traveling for food. Developed hospitality infrastructure, high standards for food and hygiene, fresh and organic ingredients, mix of old and innovative ways of presenting food experiences are definitely strengths of food tourism in Finland.
Commissioning party
The offers of food tourism means tasty food at restaurants and houses and on the street based on the local environment, culture and stories, learning to cook in the Finnish way, food tourism products related to the gifts of nature and collected from nature, eating in nature and at heritage sites, various types of routes and events related to food tourism, street and indoor markets, specialized shops e.g. for cheeses and at wineries and small breweries and programs and events around this building. When it comes to food and drink, millennials aren't just interested in the small boutique cafes and restaurants that locals frequent. This last point is of particular importance from a future perspective because the young generation is moving up the demographic pyramid and in the future will take the place now occupied by older generations, such as Baby Boomers.
Today's young generation (the so-called GY, GX and millennial generation) have different needs than their parents or grandparents in general and in the context of tourism in particular. As a result, the middle-aged tourist in the 2020s and 2030s, just like today's young tourists, will have different needs and wants compared to today's middle-aged tourist.
Foodies as food tourism customers
They want to understand the whole story-telling of the experience because millennials tend to be more aware of their travel choices when relating to a particular local community. For example, food was one of ten travel niches that Tourisme Montréal identified when they studied millennial travel trends. The organization then worked with food bloggers and lifestyle publications to create web content that spoke to millennials' food interests." (in Le-Heup As we know with millennials, they skimp on accommodation, but they don't want good food," explains Emmanuelle Legault (in LeHeup vice president of marketing for Tourisme Montréal.
Young tourists are key to the future of tourism for at least three reasons: the large number of young tourists currently traveling; the fact that their initial choices may lead to new attitudes towards tourism in the wider community and the expectation that young tourists will continue to travel in the future. To be prepared for the future, the tourism sector needs to understand and meet these changing needs." (Cavagnaro, Staffieri & Postma.
Storytelling
Wolf (November 8, 2017) in his speech “Getting Food Tourism Right” at World Travel Market London, addressed the issue of food tourists who do not call themselves foodies, although they answer positively to the following questions which characterize them as such. Your story's resolution should wrap up the story, provide context around the characters and conflicts, and give your audience a call to action. It was difficult to find or create a special story with characters, conflicts and solutions during the making of the tour (Appendix 2).
But a personal journey for an author who tries food in the places and shares his experiences could also be interesting to follow for the readers of the trip.
Blog type of text
It is sometimes called the Finnish Hackney, compared to one of London's most famous boroughs. The focus was on online research by visiting social media sites and official websites of countries. All the places that were chosen have some special features or interesting stories that will attract guests to visit it.
It was decided to choose a blog post text to write the food tour due to the needs of the target group. But by paying for everything independently, it was possible to write freely about imperfections of the locations.
Data gathering by observation for thesis
By using text in the form of a blog, the writer can express feelings, strong opinions and emotions that allow the readers to follow the writer's journey and possibly attract interest to those places that have been described in the text. Some sites have used images that the author posted in his "stories" of his official Instagram feed or commented immediately under the post. Places could be partnered with by asking them to test the food for free, but it would oblige the writer to only write about the pluses of the places.
It gives the researcher a better understanding of what is happening in the culture and gives credence to one's interpretations of the observation. By observing, it was easy to conclude whether the chosen locations have value for the millennial target group.
Content analysis
By analyzing examples of prepared tours in other countries, it was found that it is important to take advantage of the authenticity of the location in which the food tour is created. In this particular case, it was important to grab the readers' attention by suggesting that we go on a food tour in the Kallio district, which is not a very touristy area of Helsinki. At the beginning of the tour, it was mentioned that Kallio has a controversial opinion about the location.
Most millennials are foodies, so it was important to find places that would meet a foodie's criteria. In the theoretical part of the thesis, it was pointed out that there are many hipsters among the target group millennials.
Development ideas
But the problem is that millennials often don't call themselves that because, as was reflected earlier, the word. One of the purposes of creating the tour was to let readers understand that Kallio is a hipster area without using the word "hipster" because millennials don't want to identify with that word. During the planning of the creation of the tour, a goal was set to visit all the selected locations.
Wino Kallio” bistro and “Dine with” dinner were described in the tour using information found online. It was worth including those two places in the tour because the idea of having dinner at the local farmer's house is very unique and not so common in food and beverage business.
Evaluation of process and final product
Yet it is almost impossible to find aggressive marketing saying that food tourists can find the purest food and ingredients in Finland. Instead, it was decided that the story of the tour is simply a personal journey of millennial who is interested in food and looking for interesting places to visit and share experiences with others. URL: https://www.startup-turismo.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-Rise-of-Culinary- Tourism-2.pdf.
URL: https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail-g189954-d12978996-Arctic_Coastline_and_Micro_Brewery-Akureyri_Northeast_Region.html. URL: https://www.visitscot-land.com/see-do/food-drink/whisky/speyside-malt-whisky-trail-itinerary/.
Observation form
Food tour for millennials in Kallio district
After lunch you must try the Namaste smoothie, if you are lucky you can get it through the app called ResQ Club. I bet they have good breakfast so you can try to come on weekend when it is served. You can find it in the old building of Leipätehdas, which literally translates as Bread Factory from Finnish.
If you find a team or join an existing team, you can use your movie knowledge. If you don't feel like tasting beer, you can just have a glass at the bar, they have 18 taps of different beer. The space itself is a huge area where you can get to by metro or city bike.
Besides being an art space open to all visitors, Teurastamo is also a place where you can find a good selection of quality food.
