Culinary Tourism as a Tool for Regional Re-equilibrium

This paper is the result of research undertaken into the relationship between quality agriculture and wine-and-food tourism on the Apennines of central and southern Italy. Food is not merely a source of nourishment: depending on production methods, food can also become a cultural reference point, an element of regional development and a tourist resource. This occurs with "local" food, representing a model of production and consumption which suggests a strong link with the region in which the food is produced. In the marginal mountainous regions of central Italy, there is an important productive segment involving motivated and innovative entrepreneurs, regardless of the public sector that is not always up to the situation. Tourism linked to quality agriculture has not only proved to be an economic lever but a form of protection of a territory that is fragile and at risk; it is a sort of contemporary sustainable development. The process is at the initial phases and in need of public support according to a bottom-up approach.