Tourism Review International, Vol 9, pp 281–291 Printed in the USA All rights reserved 1544-2721/05 $20.00 + 00 Copyright © 2005 Cognizant Comm Corp www.cognizantcommunication.com A GOURMET TRIP: ONE DIRECTION OF DOMESTIC TOURISM IN JAPAN IIS P TUSSYADIAH Regional and Urban Planning Laboratory, Tohoku University, Japan Abstract: In addition to the tradition of visiting onsen (hot springs), one of the major purposes of travel for leisure in Japan concerns the enjoyment of different cuisines Such culinary tourism also involves the exploration and enjoyment of the variety found in food in relation to regional cultural variations in Japan, especially where visitors from the large cities travel to rural areas Indeed, culinary tourism has been a major factor in the development of some regions In this article, the pattern of and trends in culinary tourism are described and explained Key words: Onsen; Regional cultural variations; Cuisine; Culinary tourism; Japan Introduction food, while many of them are mixtures of onsen and gourmet trips offered by hotels or ryokans (Japanese-style inns) In response to this trend, many destinations implement different strategies in relation to their provision of food programs Some cities offer a tour route guide for different types of local cuisine, some offer dinner cruise trips, and some build food theme parks where various types of food are cooked and served in front of the traveler’s eyes Similar to the onsen trips, many travelers on gourmet packages originate from big cities and visit rural areas, exploring wide varieties of local food This trend suggests that culinary tourism can promote development in tourism in many regions Unlike the onsen trips, culinary travel in Japan has not been subject to much academic research This article attempts to make a descriptive analysis of the pattern of culinary tourism in Japan and to present facts about the culture of dining out and food-motivated In addition to the tradition of visiting onsen (hot springs), the most recent trend in tourism is traveling to eat out In their research on the behavioral attributes of Japanese travelers, Mok and Lam (2000) found that type of dining facility is one of the main factors—besides natural scenery, historical spots, modern culture, and good shopping—influencing Japanese leisure travelers’ choice of destination The promotional campaigns of many gourmet spots and travel packages in the media reflect the fact that regional variations in cuisine strongly affect the direction of domestic tourism in Japan There are many food-related programs shown on television, as well as dining and food trip guides on the Internet and in travel magazines Tour operators and travel agencies offer various packages of gurume tabi (gourmet trips) Some of the packages are trips purely for Address correspondence to Iis P Tussyadiah, Regional and Urban Planning Laboratory, Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan Tel: +81-22-795-7499; Fax: +81-22-795-7500; E-mail: iis@plan.civil.tohoku.ac.jp 281 282 TUSSYADIAH travel A detailed analysis of the trends in culinary tourism will be a valuable resource for organizers of tourism destinations to apply appropriate strategies to cater to the trend The first major section provides an overview of theories of food and tourism, recent leisure trends in Japan, as well as a discussion on various factors that have had an effect on Japanese food culture The subsequent section focuses on the determinants of the culinary tourism format in Japan, and is followed by an analysis of the Japanese dining out pattern and culinary travel Data includes numerous secondary sources as well as primary data collected by the author Destination management and marketing strategies are the final topic of discussion Food and Tourism Food culture is affected by, among other factors, the natural geography, climate, religion, ethos, social groupings, and social status of a region A regional or national cuisine and eating habits can be viewed as a form of regional culture and as forming a part of regional identity Thus, food is one of the pull factors for tourists to visit particular destinations (Au & Law, 2002) Travel to search for and enjoy the consumption of food at different geographical locations is regarded as culinary tourism People socially construct the world into the known and the unknown, and self and other The choice of traveling to distant places implies openness to what is new (Long, 2004) Through tourism, people satisfy their curiosity about otherness and expect to find pleasure in exploring the unknown Away from home, tourists experience food that is different from that in their normal routine Mitchell and Hall (2003) argue that food is usually treated as a functional product when one is dining at home, but it has a deeper symbolic meaning when dining out Within the context of culinary tourism, tourists consume food at a destination not merely to satisfy their physical hunger Rather, tourists derive satisfaction from the enjoyment of experiencing different kinds of food in different modes and, further, possibly from the wish to become more intimate with the local culture Furthermore, Long (2004) argues that tourists explore food new to them as an entry point to explore new cultures and ways of being The definition of what, how, and when to eat, how the food is cooked and displayed, and under what social circumstances the food is to be eaten reflect a complex set of cultural, social, economic, and aesthetic factors Tourists’ satisfaction derived from food and eating at a destination point might come from satisfying their sensibilities of taste, proportion, and appearance, as well as satisfying their curiosity of what the local food and eating habits represent Tourist Dining Behavior The demographic, psychographic, and social characteristics of tourists highly influence the overall pattern of culinary tourism and of dining behavior Some studies, as mentioned by Au and Law (2002), show that gender, age, marital status, the existence of children in the family, race, annual income, level of education, and geographical locations partly determine dining out expenditure and frequency Tourists differ characteristically in their concepts of value for money, in their cognitions of satisfaction, and in their evaluation frameworks, including in all cases in relation to food and dining (Nield, Kozak, & LeGrys, 2000) A tourist dining pattern is shown in Figure Tourists’ dining can be divided into dining at home (dining in), dining out at a restaurant nearby, and dining during vacation People dine out at a restaurant near their home and/or afar in search of more variation in their dining styles and experience Dining out as a tourist is different from dining out for other reasons Tourists also have a propensity to spend more than other restaurant consumers and it might be suggested that this is due to the experiential differences between tourist dining and other dining (Mitchell & Hall, 2003) The dining variety of the “home” region, a tourist’s motivation, and their perceived risk influence all impact the level of involvement in the destination area The level of involvement in food and dining during vacation may vary from simply eating to preparing, cooking, and buying ingredients to take home to try to consume at home, etc In turn, the level of involvement at the destination may enrich a tourist’s overall dining experience and influence dining habits Japanese Food Culture Ashkenazi and Jacob (2000) argue that major factors affecting Japanese food culture are geography, GOURMET DOMESTIC TOURISM IN JAPAN  283                                   Figure Tourists’ dining patterns history, climate, religion, and external influences The geography of Japan is directly related to the history of Japanese food culture, as is influence from other countries Geographically Japan comprises four major islands (Honshu, Kyushu, Hokkaido, and Shikoku) and thousands of smaller ones Its easy access by sea historically has been open to the facilitation of the foreign exchange of crops and knowledge of different ways of living, enhanced in the present age by the reality factors of progress towards a global community evidenced in the ready transmission of news and information, technological innovations such as the Internet, and the expanding physical presence of worldwide chains of major companies, including the catering and hospitality sphere The climate in Japan varies from a subtropical one in the south to a subpolar one in the northernmost part of the country The volcanic and mountainous terrain hosts forests and heavy rainfall, much of it from monsoons The abundance of flowing water makes the hillsides and coastal agricultural areas of Japan suitable especially for growing rice Rice growing techniques were introduced to the Japanese from China and Korea, and rice has become the mainstay of the Japanese diet since Furthermore, rice is now used more than just for human food, but also for paper production, in brewing, for fuel, building materials, and as animal feed The influence of religion on Japanese food culture came from Shintô and Buddhism Shintô belief involves naturalism and purity, and it emphasizes that offerings (including food offerings) to God (Kamisama) be gathered from nature This emphasis has created a style of Japanese cuisine in food type and presentation Buddhism, which came from India via China and Korea to Japan, became the official religion in the 6th century In Buddhism the preference is on vegetarian produce, and meat was officially forbidden to Japanese people for the next 1200 years This is the main reason that Japan has developed one of the most complex and elaborate vegetarian cuisines in the world Buddhism requires that meals feature five types of flavors: they should be sweet, spicy, salty, bitter and sour; and the food should feature in five colors: yellow, black, white, green, and red The most pervasive influence on Japanese culture has been from China (Ashkenazi & Jacob, 2000) Japanese food culture that originated in China includes the foodstuffs, condiments (shoyu/soy sauce, miso/bean paste, etc.), and eating utensils (chopsticks and bowl) Other influences came from Korea and Western countries The Portuguese introduced fried foods, such as those involved in tempura (deep batter frying) The Spanish introduced baked cakes known as kasutera Western traders also brought tobacco, sugar, sweet potatoes, and corn After the Edo period, when Japan opened to the rest of the world, the Japanese started to make many changes in their food habits and tried to assimilate some Western styles and types of food It was in the New Year feast of 1872 staged by the New Emperor 284 TUSSYADIAH of Meiji that, for the first time in over 1,000 years, people publicly ate meat Some meat dishes, as well as karê-raisu (from a southern Indian vegetarian stew called curry) and tonkatsu, were introduced and adopted from the West at that time In the post-war era, the influence continued with the introduction of different Western foodstuffs, ways of cooking, ways of preparing, ways of eating and, most recently, with the presence of Western fast-food corporations Another important factor shaping Japanese food culture nowadays is the fact that there is a clear shift in Japanese food consumption and preferences The dining culture shifts from hôshoku to hôshoku, both pronounced the same but written with different characters The former literally means gluttony or satiation, reflecting the consumption of food as a means to survive, while the latter, which literally means service, associates the consumption of food with ease and often luxury The long-term boom in the Japanese economy has resulted in bringing prosperity to most of its population Japanese people are purchasers of many luxuries, including in the sphere of food People go out to eat at Western, Chinese, Japanese, or other ethnic restaurants, there being a demand for more variety and authenticity in good food and drink Recent Trends in Leisure The former Japanese view of work and leisure as stated by Kelly (1991) is that “growing up Japanese meant becoming motivated to achieve long-term goals rather than satisfy immediate pleasures” (p 400) During the recent economic recession, more people have tended to seek and enjoy leisure time People who consider leisure to be more important than work outnumber those who make work the focus of their lives More and more Japanese consider leisure as being what makes life worthwhile (Seya, 2003), and they seek more enjoyment outside their work (Ishimori, 2004) The Cabinet Office (Naikakufu) conducted a public opinion survey concerning priorities in life The results indicate that from time to time, leisure and leisure activities are a high priority for most Japanese Responding to the question of what they will focus on in their future life, 26.9% answered, “Preparing for the future with savings and investments,” 56.4% answered, “To enjoy an enriched life every day,” and 14.9% answered, “Cannot say” (Seya, 2003, p 244) The Leisure Development Research Center, which is located in the Japan Productivity Center for SocioEconomic Development (JPC-SED), regularly monitors people’s participation in 91 leisure activities, and has published a White Paper on Leisure (Rejâ Hakusho) every year since 1977 The most popular leisure activities have changed little from year to year Figure shows the popular leisure activities in 1998 and 2002, as sourced from the 1999 and 2003 White Paper on Leisure (Seya, 2003), on the basis of a multiple-response survey Dining out with family or friends and domestic travel during holidays seems to be firmly established as Japanese ways of spending leisure time According to the 1999 White Paper on leisure, spending on leisure activities (i.e., expenses for dining out, buying durable goods, culture and entertainment, sports, and traveling) was ¥80.17 trillion (US$636 billion) in 1998 The number of domestic sightseeing trips involving overnight stays during 1998 was estimated at about 205 million, or an average of 1.6 trips per person, almost the same as in the previous year Such trips are estimated to have cost a total of ¥8.7 trillion (US$69 billion), or about ¥68,600 (US$544) per person In 2002, spending for overseas travel was estimated at an average of ¥169,610 (US$1,288) per trip or ¥305,000 ($US 2,316) per person per year, while spending for domestic travel was ¥29,590 ($US224) per trip or ¥100,600 ($US764) per person per year The average of overseas travel in 2002 was estimated at 1.9 trips per person, while domestic travel was trips per person The Determinants of Japanese Culinary Tourism What attracts people to search for food in a particular place can be that of the attraction of the food itself: ingredients, presentations, healthiness, freshness, etc., and the association of the food with a place of culture In Japan, there are two factors that have a strong role in determining the culinary tourism pattern: the meibutsu culture and the seasonal variations The meibutsu culture is the idea of famous things being associated with a local place and culture When they are at a particular location, tourists usually consider that they are consuming its meibutsu Seasonal variation is the factor that makes potential tourists consider which dishes are best to eat and where they might find such dishes GOURMET DOMESTIC TOURISM IN JAPAN 285 Popular Leisure Activities 1998 and 2002 77.5 71.6 Dining out 63.1 62.7 Domestic travel 59.4 61.2 Driving 49.5 Karaoke 56.9 47.9 43.4 Videos 45 40.6 Lotteries 2002 44.4 41.7 Listening to music PC (Games, Communication) 1998 42.3 31.6 42.7 43.4 Zoos, museums, etc Movies 28.4 40.8 38 38.3 Gardening 37.9 43.4 Bars 35.5 36.6 Amusement parks 34.6 30.7 Physical exercise (without equipment) 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Number of Participants (in millions) Figure Popular leisure activities in Japan Source: (Seya, 2003) The Role of Meibutsu In the realm of tourism, Japan has a culture of searching meibutsu, translated literally as the famous things/products of a location The idea of meibutsu derived from the religious nature of tourist travel (Ashkenazi & Jacob, 2000), such as water from holy springs or fruit from particular mountains, etc Nowadays, meibutsu mostly involves the form of food and foodstuffs: special fish from local waters, special crops from local farms, or a special cuisine prepared using a unique local technique It also often includes local features and is presented as a form of support for local festivals or other events The culture of meibutsu reflects an association of local features to Japanese-ness, culturally as well as regionally Therefore, the creation, regeneration, or sale of meibutsu involves raising the importance of local feelings and local pride With their meibutsu, localities became equivalent to other places in Ja- pan The creation of meibutsu is also important in relation to tourist destination choice, as it generates publicity: “as tourism became more and more a popular phenomenon, and as Japanese started exploring their country to a greater extent, there was more demand for specific local products which would provide the purchasing traveler with a bona fide identification that he had been there” (Ashkenazi & Jacob, 2000, p 175) However, the postal system nowadays reduces the importance of the original locality of a product from previously, as people can order many local special products by post as well as buy them from the nearest department store Nevertheless, as the media also cultivates this, people believe that a meibutsu is best consumed/enjoyed in its original place It is believed that the most delicious way to eat kegani (hairy crab) is going to Hokkaido where it comes from and that the taste and the feeling from eating it are incomparable with eating ordered kegani at home This belief leads to a 286 TUSSYADIAH motive to travel to be in the place of origin to enjoy the desired meibutsu Seasonal Variations Japanese customs are very sensitive to seasonal change In seasonal change, one can immediately see changes in the colors of street decorations as well as in the clothes people wear As the parades and festivals of the changing seasons take place in different locations, there are also changes in seasonal food Japanese traditional culture is often described as a seasonal culture, for an appreciation of season is highly valued People in general, as well as the gourmand and restaurateurs, make dishes with the ingredients and presentation that meet the shun: the peak of perfection The ingredients and presentation of every dish in Japan, whether an actual product or in symbolic form, have to be according to season This aspect of food culture is a form of communication and association with nature in that eating the ingredients at the shun is believed to be good for health This seasonal change factor also has an important influence on culinary travel Local places, ryokans and restaurants, adjust the main dishes offered to tourists to match the shun People also choose to travel to places where their food is served best to the seasonal changes As winter comes, people travel to places with nabe ryôri (pot dishes), which is believed to be good to warm up the body The Forms of Japanese Culinary Tourism As an attempt to analyze culinary tourism in Japan, this article describes three major patterns of dining out in Japanese society and of gourmet trips undertaken The first analysis concentrates on the place and the frequency of dining out, and kind of food or cuisine Japanese consume when dining out The second analysis concentrates on the gourmet trip product offered by travel agents and tour operators throughout the year The third analysis concentrates on the destination management and marketing of culinary tourism Japanese Dining-Out Patterns The move of Japanese society into a consumeroriented economy and the emergence of two-carrier households have created a change in Japanese food consumption patterns The change is marked by an increase in the consumption of prepared/convenient food and by dining out Convenience food is usually in the form of demae (delivered food) or mochikaeriv (takeaway) According to data from the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunication/sômushô (Seya, 2003, p 178), the ratio of dining out in a salaried worker’s household food expenditures is 19.4% in 2002 [at the value of ¥14,223 ($US108) a month], compared with only 7.2% in 1965 (at the value of ¥1,288 a month) Places for dining in Japan vary from high-class restaurants such as ryôtei (expensive restaurant serving Japanese cuisine), Chinese culinary delights and French haute cuisine, to ryôriya (cook shops) and many unique low-cost dining stalls High-class restaurants can easily be found in the best hotels or in fashionable city districts More affordable restaurants flourish on the dining floors of department stores and in the underground malls of railway stations A Ryôriya usually serves specialized dishes; examples of ryôriya dishes are tempura-ya and ramen-ya Some other forms of dining-out are in bars, izakaya (Japanese drinking places that also serve a wide variety of food), street side yatai (food stalls), Kaitenzushi (running sushi) where customers sit at a round counter and choose low-priced sushi on a circling conveyor belt, and bentô (lunch box) shops Noodle stands, coffee shops, fast-food outlets, and vending machines can be found in train stations or urban shopping centers, providing a variety of food and drink at very low cost One leading web guide on Japan (www.japanguide.com) organized a survey on dining out in August 2001 The subjects were 726 Japanese people who live in Japan (The Japan Guide, 2001) However, as about 75% of the subjects were between 20 and 40 years old, the survey is not a valid measure of the whole Japanese population The survey results show that most subjects (55%) go out for dinner between two and eight times per month The average spending is ¥2,275 per dinner and person Most (60%) dine out with friends, some (44%) dine out with the family, and some (13%) with coworkers The most popular places for dinner are family restaurants (48%) and izakaya (44%), both of which serve a wide variety of food and dishes The rankings of different categories of restaurants are as follows: GOURMET DOMESTIC TOURISM IN JAPAN Italian (33%), fast food (30%), Korean BBQ (30%), noodle (27%), Chinese (24%), and sushi (21%) Gourmet Trip Packages Besides dining out in nearby restaurants, an important form of culinary tourism in Japan is gourmet-themed package trips from one area to another, available as day-trip and overnight-trip packages The gourmet trip package is gaining popularity in Japan In many travel brochures, food is presented as the main attraction and destination image Most gourmet day-trip packages (higaeri puran) are lunch plans (higaeri chûshoku puran) offered by tour operators, hotels and ryokan, and other operators such as Japan Railway (JR) and Japan Post Lunch packages offered by hotel and ryokan are combined with the use of guest rooms and onsen Some of the packages are as follows: • • • In-Room Dining Package (Oheyashoku Puran) The guest can have lunch at one guest room in ryokan; the guest room is utilized only for lunch; Lunch and Guestroom Package (Ranchi & Kyakushitsu Riyô Puran) The guest can have lunch at one guest room in ryokan, and use the room to relax and have a little chat with family or friends after lunch; Gourmet and Onsen Package (Gurume & Onsen Riyô Puran) After lunch, the guest can use the onsen of the hotel or ryokan Within this package, the lunch can be served either in the guest room (ryokan), or in the restaurant (hotel or ryokan) Some hotels also serve buffet lunch Packages offered by JR are usually in the form of train tickets plus gourmet vouchers and other activities (higaeri gurume chiketto) Some forms of these are: • • • Gourmet Ticket (gurume chiketto) Within this package, the traveler gets a return ticket with a dining voucher; Gourmet Ticket plus Hot Spa (gurume chiketto purasu onsen) Within this package, the traveler gets a return ticket, a dining voucher, and a ticket to use the hot baths; Gourmet Ticket plus Sightseeing Ticket (gurume chiketto purasu kenbutsu) Within this 287 package, the traveler gets a return ticket, a dining voucher, and entry tickets to some sightseeing spots at the destination Travelers usually can decide their own schedule by adjusting the departure and return times so that they have free time in between to enjoy other activities There are many other packages offered, combining restaurants, hotels, ryokans, hot baths, and other sightseeing spots, with different modes of transportation, such as bus trips and rental car packages Although there are not as many as lunch trips, there are also some forms of dinner trips offered One of the popular trips for dinner is a cruise ship in the evening that enables diners to enjoy the city lights from the water Gourmet overnight trip packages are basically trips to stay in certain hotels or ryokans, which utilize local cuisine, ingredients and foodstuffs, cooking styles, food displays, and unique eating environments as their main attractions Such a package comprises usually a mixture of cuisine and the use of other hotel facilities A standard breakfast is served in hotels, but what makes the gourmet overnight trip special is the dinner The term “gourmet” in most overnight trips refers to dinner and, in the day trip, to lunch One example of popular packages is Ajiwai no yado (flavor lodging), operated by Ace JTB (the Japan Travel Bureau) The package arranges travel from the Tokyo area to 10 different prefectures with more than 50 hotels and ryokans All hotels and ryokans serving the Ajiwai no yado package offer different kinds of cuisine, all seasonally specific Other packages have similar themes, such as Bimi no yado (delicacy lodging), Mikaku puran (palate plans), and Ryôri jiman no yado (cuisine lodging) To analyze the pattern of Japanese gourmet overnight trips, a total sample of 406 packages, consisting of 131 day trips (32.27%) and 275 overnight trips (67.73%), were taken from the travel brochures available in several major cities in Japan: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Fukuoka, and Sendai The collected data include travel cost, duration, main food/menu, and other facilities offered in the packages The chi-square test was applied to pairs of data category, and the result shows that the hypotheses that all data are independent can be rejected The cost of a gourmet day-trip package ranges from 288 TUSSYADIAH ¥3,300 to ¥14,900 ($US136) Around 83.21% of the samples cost less than ¥10,000 ($US91), while the rest (16.79%) cost from ¥10,000 ($US91) to ¥14,900 ($US136) The cheapest day-trip package is a trip called Gourmet Hakata, from Hakata Station to Gourmet City, both in Fukuoka, while the most expensive is a higaeri asobase trip from Tokyo to one ryokan in the Kansai Area The cost of an overnight trip (based on two-person occupancy in the low season) ranges from ¥6,900 ($US63) to ¥42,000 ($381) Most of the packages (34.90%) cost from ¥15,000 ($US136) to ¥20,000 ($US182) The distances between origin and destination result in some differences in trip duration and means of transportation, which eventually influence the cost of a trip The cheapest overnight trip is a Mikaku puran from Sendai City to a ryokan in Matsushima Beach In the category of overnight trip within one area, the most expensive package is a Bijin kamameshi ryôri trip, from Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture to Niigata Prefecture, both in Tohoku Area The package is a trip to enjoy kamameshi (rice and other ingredients cooked in soup stock inside a pot/kettle) served by a beautiful woman in traditional dress and who also performs local traditional art while accompanying the guest during the meal In the category of longdistance trips, a 2-night, 3-day trip from the Tokyo area to Hokkaido costs around ¥35,000 (US$318) in the low season and ¥52,000 ($473) in the high season Another important finding from this sample is the food category served by the destination eatery to travelers Around 96% of the overnight trip packages serve washoku (Japanese style food) for dinner, only 1.8% serve yoshoku (Western style food), and 2.2% serve chûshoku (Chinese style food) In comparison with dinner, the breakfast has more yoshoku (10.6%), and in some hotels/ryokans (20.8%), the guest could even choose between washoku and yoshoku for their breakfast The dinner, especially washoku, is usually served inside the guest room kaiseki (multi-course meal) style, while the breakfast is often served either in the restaurant or dining hall baikingu (buffet) style Destinations that offer more variation in the food category are Yokohama and Tokyo The other parts of the country only offer washoku as tourist attractions From the sample, it is apparent that Japanese people travel to search for something “Japanese,” a reflection of washoku culture Ashkenazi and Jacob (2000) pointed out some important factors in the creation of the washoku culture The first is the natural food movement, a growing awareness of a need to shift from consuming “risky” industrialized food to more “healthy” natural food Local, natural food is believed to be more “safe” because of its simplicity and authenticity (Scarpato & Daniele, 2003) The second is that Japanese food incorporates a symbol to differentiate Nihonjin-ron (this term refers to the Japanese-ness of things, values, customs, and other) from other-ron In this way the philosophy of Nihonjin-ron—basically a belief that Japan is unique, special, and incomparable—has a strong influence on Japanese food preferences, particularly in relation to special events and occasions including traveling Destination Management and Marketing Strategies Creating a local cuisine and making it a pull factor for a particular location can be one effective strategy for tourism development Some regions in Japan adopt a particular food as their icon and some others take the availability of good food as their icon One example of the second category is Yamagata Prefecture, with its Oishii Yamagata (Delicious Yamagata) slogan As many regions are aware of the importance of culinary tourism to promote their area, they apply different strategies to promote their localities to attract more visitors Some of the strategies involve organizing food festivals or food events, creating gourmet zones or eating districts, and building food theme parks Many regions in Japan organize food festivals often called “Foodpia,” short for Food Utopia One of them is “Foodpia Kanazawa,” a festival held every February in Ishikawa Prefecture Several foodrelated events organized in the prefecture give visitors opportunities to taste various local foods, brewed drinks, and confectionary Some prefectures have other forms of food festivals; one example is the Heisei Nabe Gassen (Pot Food Contest), organized in Tendo City, Yamagata Prefecture, every January In the festivals, the fastest to sell 100 pots of their original Nabe cuisine wins the contest This form of festival can also attract many visitors simply to taste the food and enjoy the competition GOURMET DOMESTIC TOURISM IN JAPAN Another popular concept for food tourism in Japan is the booming food theme park development Food theme parks are usually located indoors and decorated with a specific epoch or fantasy theme Food theme parks usually specialize in one type of food or dish, cooked by a reputable restaurant or chef, and, in contrast to the gourmet trip to hotels or ryokans, the food theme parks serve more foreign food or adaptations The first food theme park in Japan was the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum (founded in 1994), where visitors can try out some of the most popular varieties of ramen at one location As featured frequently in the media, it attracts between 100,000 and 150,000 visitors each month (The Japan Information Network, 2003) Examples of other specialized food theme parks are the Yokohama Curry Museum (specializing in curry) in Yokohama, the Ikebukuro Gyoza Stadium (specializing in gyoza/dumplings stuffed with minced pork and vegetables) in Tokyo, Shimizu Sushi Museum (specializing in sushi) in Shizuoka Prefecture, Ramen Stadium (specializing in ramen) in Fukuoka Prefecture, Ice Cream City (specializing in ice cream) in Tokyo, Jiyugaoka Sweet Forest (specializing in sweets) in Tokyo, and Yokohama Daisekai (specializing in Chinese Food) in Yokohama Chinatown The other parks have more varieties of dishes, including the Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho (Osaka Eater’s Alley), the first food theme park in the Kansai region, and Otaru Unga Shokudo (Otaru Canal Cafeteria) in Hokkaido Prefecture Osaka has long been acknowledged as Japan’s culinary Mecca (the Japan National Tourism Organization, 2003), but now faces challenges from other cities and regions Tohoku region plans to become Japan’s Foodpia, for it has the best apples in Japan, delicious and tender Yonezawa Beef, oysters the size of a man’s palm, Eniwa udon noodles, and many other delicacies The Markets These gourmet day-trip and overnight trip packages are designed to attract general visitors Some of them focus on families or group of friends, as the hotels and ryokans also provide rooms to relax and chat A particular target market exists in some silver plan shiruba puran trips (i.e., for groups of senior travelers, and graduation trips) and sotsugyôshiki puran trips (i.e., for fresh graduates from junior high schools, high schools, and 289 universities) The silver plan usually focuses on healthy food, healthy baths, and relaxing surroundings The graduation plan offers facilities to organize graduation parties and other facilities for younger visitors, such as karaoke rooms and game centers Some food theme parks also try to attract a particular gender The Jiyugaoka Sweet Forest, which offers a huge variety of sweets and confectionaries, focuses on attracting women, as the passion for sweets usually involves women rather than men in Japan The Media The media play a very strong role in the direction of Japanese culinary tourism Travelers refer to the media listings when choosing destinations and food There are three main references used by travelers in Japan, beside travel brochures: travel magazines, television programs, and the Internet Travel magazines are available in bookstores conveniently located in shopping centers and train stations A magazine usually focuses on one particular area or tourism spot, giving detailed information about its attractions, best hotels, best restaurants, prices, transportation, etc A gourmet travel magazine provides a wide choice of a particular food category at a particular location Japan also presents a remarkable number of foodrelated programs on television Food programs including aspects of everyday life, social history, and cultural values are aired year-round on every channel throughout the broadcasting day (Holden, 1999) Food also appears in travel programs (cruises, adventures, cultural explorations, etc.), and there are features on travel locations, hotels, and restaurants in numerous programs (talk shows, quizzes, etc.) that usually include highly motivating introductions playing to the oishii (delicious) culture of Japan Internet access, including access to leisure and travel-related websites, is increasing during holidays such as Golden Week and New Year Sugimoto (2003) reported on the number of visitors to two culinary-related websites, “Yahoo! Gurume” (gourmet.yahoo.co.jp) and “Gurunabi” (gnavi.co.jp), during New Year 2003, December 2002, and January 2003 “Yahoo! Gurume” was visited by 1.078 million people in December 2002 and 1.094 million people in January 2003, while “Gurunabi” was visited by 895,000 and 882,000 people in December 2002 and January 2003 respectively “Yahoo! 290 TUSSYADIAH Gurume” received 18.53 million page views (about 6.5 minutes per person per visit), while “Gurunabi” had 25.5 million page views (about 9.5 minutes per person per visit) Numerous people accessed the gourmet websites, as well as other leisure information websites, during Golden Week 2003 According to Hagiwara (2003), the number of visitors to travel and leisure information websites increased during Golden Week 2003 (compared to the period of April 21 to April 27 and of April 28 to May 4) Some of the websites are “Yahoo! Eiga” (movies.yahoo.co.jp), “Yahoo! Chizu” (map.yahoo.co.jp), “Yahoo! Gurume” (gourmet.yahoo.co.jp), “Yahoo! Rosen” (transit.yahoo.co.jp), “Pia” (pia.co.jp), “Walker Plus” (walkerplus.com), “Gurunabi” (gnavi.co.jp), and “Nihon Dôro Kôtsû Sentâ” (jartic.or.jp) The different contents of each site reflect the information needed to decide where and how to travel Conclusion More and more Japanese consider leisure to be an increasingly important factor in their lives and they seek more enjoyment outside work Dining out and domestic travel are two of the most popular leisure-related activities carried out by Japanese in recent years People dine out more frequently nowadays, mostly in family restaurants or izakaya, eating places that offer more variety in food In search of greater variety, people also travel to other areas to try out good food and drink This trend shows that cuisine is an important factor in Japanese domestic tourism In culinary tourism, hotels, restaurants, and chefs have become designers of many travel packages The media, as opinion mediators and influencers, present relaxing food trips and unique food experiences in such ways that culinary tourism is highly promoted Since accurate data on domestic tourism is difficult to find, this article cannot present the proportion of all Japanese tourists who travel primarily for food in relation to tourists regarding food as secondary or minor motives As an attempt to analyze the demand for culinary tourism, this article tries to analyze it from the supply side, presenting trends in culinary tourism provision in Japan Gourmet trip packages, day trips, and overnight trips usually originate from big cities and the desti- nations are often suburban areas, places that offer an authentic or natural feeling to tourists Rest, relaxation, and natural affinity are the themes of most packages Local traditional food as a pull factor to attract many visitors can be a vehicle for tourism development in suburban areas On the other hand, the big cities have advantages in attracting visitors as they can offer wider varieties of food and eating places The gourmet districts, eating zones, and food theme parks are some of the facilities offered by big cities to attract visitors A key difference in offerings between the gourmet trip packages and gourmet districts exists in relation to the types of food they offer to visitors Nearly all gourmet trip packages offer only washoku cuisine as the main menu, while most of the gourmet districts offer various kinds of food, including food adopted and, perhaps, adapted from overseas The washoku culture that exists in gourmet trip packages indicates that Japanese tourists are in search of authenticity in the places they go to, seeking good traditional food and local cuisine that represent their varied food culture This fact confirms the finding of most studies that Japanese tourists are more safety conscious (risk avoiders) than other tourists (Mok & Lam, 2000) Another explanation of the washoku search and consumption is that traditional local food can generate pride and satisfaction in most Japanese in relation to their perceived unique culture Biographical Note Iis P Tussyadiah is a Ph.D candidate in the Regional and Urban Planning Laboratory in the Graduate School of Information Sciences at Tohoku University in Japan Her research interests focus on destination choice, tourism economics, tourists’ psychology, culture tourism, and special interest tourism References Ashkenazi, M., & Jacob, J (2000) The essence of Japanese cuisine: An essay of food and culture Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press Au, N., & Law, R (2002) Categorical classification of tourism dining Annals of Tourism Research, 29(3), 819–833 Hagiwara, M (2003) Tegaru na rejâ jôhô saito ga nigiwatta kotoshi no GW [This Year Golden Week (GW) when the Easy Leisure Information Sites are Crowded] [On-line] Available: http://japan.internet.com/atlas/20030514/ print1.html GOURMET DOMESTIC TOURISM IN JAPAN Hall, C M., Sharples, L., & Smith, A (2003) The Experience of consumption or the consumption of experiences? 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Food theme parks whet appetites [On-line] Available: http://webjapan.org/trends01/article/030217fas_r.html The Japan National Tourism Organization (2003) Japan convention law letter [On-line] Available: http:// www.jnto.go.jp/MI/eng/JCN/2003 Kelly, W W (1991) Directions in the anthropology of the contemporary Japan Annual Review of Anthropology, 20, 395–431 Long, L M (2004) Culinary tourism: A folkloristic per- 291 spective on eating and otherness In L M Long (Ed.), Culinary tourism (pp 20–25) Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky Mitchell, R., & Hall, C M (2003) Consuming tourists: Food tourism consumer behaviour In C M Hall (Ed.), Food tourism around the world: Development, management and markets (pp 60–80) Oxford, UK: ButterworthHeinemann Mok, C., & Lam, T (2000) Travel-related behavior of Japanese leisure tourists: A review and discussion In K Chon, T Inagaki, & T Ohashi (Eds.), Japanese tourists: Socioeconomic, marketing and psychological analysis (pp 171–184) New York: The Haworth Press Nield, K., Kozak, M., & LeGrys, G (2000) The role of food service in tourist satisfaction Hospitality Management, 19, 375–384 Scarpato, R., & Daniele, R (2003) New global cuisine: Tourism, authenticity and sense of place in postmodern gastronomy In C M Hall (Ed.), Food tourism around the world: Development, management and markets (pp 296– 313) Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann Seya, H (2003) The Asahi Shinbun Japan almanac 2004 Tokyo: The Asahi Shinbun Company Sugimoto, T (2003) Gurume Saito, Hyaku Man Nin wo Meguru Kôbô [Gourmet Sites, Battle of Million People] [On-line] Available: http://japan.internet.com/atlas/ 20030219/print1.html [...]... package trips from one area to another, available as day-trip and overnight-trip packages The gourmet trip package is gaining popularity in Japan In many travel brochures, food is presented as the main attraction and destination image Most gourmet day-trip packages (higaeri puran) are lunch plans (higaeri chûshoku puran) offered by tour operators, hotels and ryokan, and other operators such as Japan Railway... local cuisine and making it a pull factor for a particular location can be one effective strategy for tourism development Some regions in Japan adopt a particular food as their icon and some others take the availability of good food as their icon One example of the second category is Yamagata Prefecture, with its Oishii Yamagata (Delicious Yamagata) slogan As many regions are aware of the importance of. .. several major cities in Japan: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Fukuoka, and Sendai The collected data include travel cost, duration, main food/menu, and other facilities offered in the packages The chi-square test was applied to pairs of data category, and the result shows that the hypotheses that all data are independent can be rejected The cost of a gourmet day-trip package ranges from 288 TUSSYADIAH... trends in culinary tourism provision in Japan Gourmet trip packages, day trips, and overnight trips usually originate from big cities and the desti- nations are often suburban areas, places that offer an authentic or natural feeling to tourists Rest, relaxation, and natural affinity are the themes of most packages Local traditional food as a pull factor to attract many visitors can be a vehicle for tourism. .. in Japan, beside travel brochures: travel magazines, television programs, and the Internet Travel magazines are available in bookstores conveniently located in shopping centers and train stations A magazine usually focuses on one particular area or tourism spot, giving detailed information about its attractions, best hotels, best restaurants, prices, transportation, etc A gourmet travel magazine provides... from a subtropical one in the south to a subpolar one in the northernmost part of the country The volcanic and mountainous terrain hosts forests and heavy rainfall, much of it from monsoons The abundance of flowing water makes the hillsides and coastal agricultural areas of Japan suitable especially for growing rice Rice growing techniques were introduced to the Japanese from China and Korea, and rice... and izakaya (44%), both of which serve a wide variety of food and dishes The rankings of different categories of restaurants are as follows: GOURMET DOMESTIC TOURISM IN JAPAN Italian (33%), fast food (30%), Korean BBQ (30%), noodle (27%), Chinese (24%), and sushi (21%) Gourmet Trip Packages Besides dining out in nearby restaurants, an important form of culinary tourism in Japan is gourmet- themed package... Nihonjin-ron (this term refers to the Japanese-ness of things, values, customs, and other) from other-ron In this way the philosophy of Nihonjin-ron—basically a belief that Japan is unique, special, and incomparable—has a strong influence on Japanese food preferences, particularly in relation to special events and occasions including traveling Destination Management and Marketing Strategies Creating a. .. [On-line] M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 2(7) Available: http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/ entree.html Ishimori, S (2004, February) Autonomous tourism and regional culture (in Japanese) Paper presented in the WTO/ APTEC Ishikawa Conference on Tourism Resource Management of Regional Culture, Kanazawa, Japan The Japan Guide (2001) Japan related survey: Eating out [On-line] Available: http://www .japan- guide.com/e/... (Kamisama) be gathered from nature This emphasis has created a style of Japanese cuisine in food type and presentation Buddhism, which came from India via China and Korea to Japan, became the official religion in the 6th century In Buddhism the preference is on vegetarian produce, and meat was officially forbidden to Japanese people for the next 1200 years This is the main reason that Japan has developed