Food, Wine and China

Book excerpt: The growth of the Chinese economy and the emergence of the Chinese middle class have fuelled the rapid expansion of China’s outbound tourism market, with many destinations around the world trying to capitalise on the opportunities created by the growing number of Chinese visitors. This book specifically focuses on the demand for food and wine tourism experiences by Chinese tourists, which in recent years has become an important constituent of destination competitiveness. Looking at the different ways in which individual destinations have responded to this increasing demand, this book provides a better understanding of the preferences, motivations and perceptions that underlie food and wine consumption by Chinese tourists. It also illustrates how food and wine tourism experiences have been used in a range of international destinations to specifically attract visitors from China. Including a range of case examples from the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, this book ultimately investigates the strategic directions adopted to guide destination development and marketing initiatives. Such a perspective provides a novel contribution to the still limited body of knowledge on China outbound tourism and will be of interest to upper level students, researchers and academics in Tourism and Hospitality.