An Insight into Gastronomic Tourism through the Literature Published between 2012 and 2022

As tourism became more accessible, the number of visitors to various destinations increased, and that led to mass tourism. In the few last decades, new types of tourism started to emerge in response to the mass tourism offer which was oversaturated. People started to want ‘something different’, and that created new trends and niches in tourism. One of these new niches is food tourism. In this article, our main research purpose is to identify the state of the research carried out on the topic of gastronomic tourism, mainly between 2012 and 2022, as well as on the correlated topic of sustainable gastronomic tourism, and consider the impact they can have on a destination. We are also answering a few research questions including who are the food tourists, where do they go for food tourism and what do they do while traveling. The main research method used was desk review, and the papers taken into consideration for this analysis were mostly published between 2012 and 2022. The novelty of this paper lies in the result of indicating the state of the literature review regarding food tourism, and where is it heading. The research is significant not only because our results answer research questions, which give an insight into gastronomic tourism, but they offer a precise overview in this field with a focus on sustainability, and on gastronomy as a way to revive cultural heritage.