**1. Introduction**

Since the ending of the twentieth century, rural Europe has been at the core of a deep social change, which saw the countryside to evolve from a simple "production landscape" into a "consumer landscape" [1]. With the spreading of the service economy, the countryside turned into a mainly residential and recreational place [2]. It therefore increased its attractiveness by becoming more accessible and more useful, thus providing rurality with a new role within the broader social context. This change is derived from a plurality of social as well as cultural processes, such as the growing mobility and integration among goods, services, people and knowledge from different territorial areas, including rural and urban areas [3], together with a healthier life style associated with a new concept of well-being. Under these circumstances, agriculture gained new significance, by becoming a priority of rural development [4]. During the last decade, indeed, numerous studies emphasized the relation of agriculture with the environment, with other economic sectors, and with society as well. As pointed out, this approach resulted from a change in the economic and social meaning of the primary productive activities, which attributed to agriculture a different and wider role than in past times.

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1999;**1**:1-14

*Sustainability Assessment at the 21st Century*

[1] Givati A. The impact of climate changes on water resources in the North, Water Authority. 2016 (Unpublished

Sustainable Cities and Society.

[9] Chen XL, Zhao HM, Li PX, Yin ZY. Remote sensing image-based analysis of the relationship between urban heat island and land use/land cover changes. Remote Sensing of Environment. 2006;**104**(2):103-146

[10] Julien Y, Sonrino JA, Verhoef

[11] Kaufmann RK, Zhou L, Myneni RB, Tucker CJ, Slayback D, Shabanov NV, et al. The effect of vegetation on surface temperature a statistical analysis of NDVI and climate data. Geophysical Research Letters. 2003;**30**(22):2137

[12] Li W, Bai Y, Chen Q, Hee K, Ji X, Han C. Discrepant impacts of land use and land cover on urban heat islands: A case study of Shanghai, China. Ecological Indicators. 2014;**47**:171-178

[13] Wine ML. There are no black hole swallowing water in the Hul Valley. Landuse Policy. 2019;**84**:363-364. DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.02.046

[14] Karakus CB. The impact of land use/land cover (LULC) changes on land surface temperature in Sivas City Center and its surroundings and assessment of Urban Heat Island. Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. Springer B.V. 2019. ISSN 1976-7633. DOI: 10.1007/

s13143-019-00109-w

[15] Rimmer A, Gal G, Opher T, Leschinsky Y, Yacobi Y. Mechanisms of long-term variations in the thermal structure of Lake Kinneret. Limnology and Oceanography. 2011;**56**(3):974-988

[16] Tsipris J. ET data in the Hula Valley: Migal Hula Project Data Base. 2005-2018

W. Changes in land surface temperatures and NDVI values over Europe between 1982 and 1999. Remote Sensing of Environment. 2006;**103**:43-55

2016;**23**:94-104

[2] Gophen M, Meron M, Orlov-Levin V, Tsipris Y. Seasonal and spatial distribution of N & P substances in the Hula Valley (Israel) subterranean. Open Journal of Modern Hydrology. 2014;**4**:121-113. DOI: 10.4236/

[3] Gophen M. A climate change and water loss in the Kinneret drainage basin. Land Use Policy. 2018;**80**(2019):424-429. DOI: 10.1016/

[4] Gophen M. Water-mediated nutrients export from the Hula Valley to Lake Kinneret: A review. Global Journal of Human-Social Science-H Interdisciplinary. 2018, 2018;**18**(8 Version 1.0):20-39. Online ISSN: 2249- 460X & Print ISSN: 0975-587X

[5] Wine ML, Rimmer A, Laronne J. Agriculture, devcersion, and drought shrinking Galilee Sea. Science of the Total Environment. 2019;**651**(2019):70- 83. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.058

[6] Gophen M. Scientific values are crucial for Lake Kinneret management

Management Research. 2016;**5**(1):12-21

invasion of Lake Kinneret, Israel, by N2 fixing cyanobacterium *Aphanizomenon* 

[8] Bokaie M, Zarkesh MK, Arantesh MP, Hosseini A. Assessment of urban heat island based on the relationship between land surface temperature and land use/land cover in Tehran.

[7] Gophen M, Smith VH, Nishri A, Threlkeld ST. Nitrogen deficiency, phosphorus sufficiency, and the

design: Test cases. Engineering

*ovalisporum*. Aquatic Sciences.

landusepol.2018.03.008

**References**

ojmh.2014.44012

data)

In this framework, consecutive Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms progressively broadened the rationale of the rural development policies, from the simple support to the fostering of its development through the promotion of the agricultural policies, a better care and financial aid aimed at both qualifying and preserving the environment and the rural space, the improvement of the life quality, as well as a growing diversification of the rural economy. When, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we talk about "the revenge of the countryside" [5] and of the economic value inherent in the rediscovery of the identity of the places [6], the concept of rural development was linked to the new role attributed to agriculture in relation to the environment, to the territory, and to food safety and quality. If in the second half of the last century announcing the end of peasants, erased by industrialization and the growth of the cities [7], nowadays a new scenario of rurality is emerging, so-called the postindustrial or postmodern rurality, where agricultural development requires policies based on the territory and oriented toward general development. With the progressive establishment of a multifunctional agriculture, coherent with the guidelines of the Economic Community policy [8, 9], which is able to play different roles in addition to the traditional primary one linked to the production of food and raw materials, and the growing diversification of economic activities within the rural areas, the modern agriculture has played a different role in respect to the past, having to respond to the renewed needs of the current society in terms of food safety, environmental protection, recreational needs, and, in general, the improvement of the quality of life [10]. The general objective of this work is the analysis of the relationship among local food, rural territory and tourism. Specifically, we will investigate on how tourism linked to the enhancement of food can contribute to the development of activities related to its production, linking it to new forms of tourist experience, helping to preserve and disseminate the rural culture of a territory.

As registered by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), tourism connected to food and countryside is a quickly growing segment. A high percentage of tourists does choose tourist destination on the basis of food as well as of the will to gain positive experiences by tasting local products in small locations, renowned for their quality and their strong connection to the territory. In this way, a strong relationship has been created among free time, tourism, food rediscovery, and rural areas' promotion, able to exert an influence on both demand and supply of tourist services.

Local traditional products, in Italy, represent a decisive component of the endogenous development of territorial systems (Food Clusters, Metropolitan Food Clusters), due to the significant economic, social, and tourist repercussions they can produce [11]. Thanks to typicality promotion, the productive function of the agricultural activities is integrated with new and diversified functions, among them are the environmental and territorial safeguard, the preservation of culture and rural traditions, and the creation of spaces and locations interested in new economic and social dynamics [12]. During the last years, it has been possible to observe a proliferation of initiatives aimed at matching the agricultural production with services (touristic, recreational, educational, social, and other services), also in order to intercept and satisfy new consumer segments interested in the fruition of agricultural products in the territory of their production, so to "plunge" within the local culture and to live consumer experiences as opportunities of cultural and social enrichment.

All the same, local public administrations look at rural as well as gastronomic tourism with renewed interest, also in the light of a strengthening of both local community identity and cohesion, by fostering synergies and links with other territorial economic activities (handicraft, tourism, etc.) so to favor a local endogenous development. The special focus we put, with this study, on the gastronomic

**147**

thematic experiences.

*Rural Tourism and Territorial Development in Italy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85774*

**local gastronomy and tourism**

oil, City of wine, of pasta, of hazels, etc.).

territories.

food [13, 14].

products has also been encouraged and supported by the growing public care for food quality, other than by the will of promoting as well as preserving local traditions and by a more general sharing of a simpler and more natural life style. It is after all of universal acknowledgement that traditional products, as forms of expression of a territorial culture, strongly affect the social and economic development of rural

**2. Toward a new vision of rural development: the relationship between** 

By borrowing the definition from the World Food Travel Association, "*food tourism is the act of traveling for a taste of place in order to get a sense of place.*" The development of gastronomic tourism has prompted the interest of the scientific community that has begun to describe and theorize about this new social phenomenon. The research was recently directed to consider the culinary tourism as a new emerging tourist practice, showing a clear and steady increase in travel-oriented

The scientific literature initially highlighted how local food could become a new tourist attraction [15] and how new tourist expectations could be created around it [16]. The study of gastronomic tourism has led some authors [17, 18] to highlight some important aspects for its development and its affirmation, identifying four categories that refer to structures, activities, events, and organizations [19]. Regarding the structures, the authors mainly refer to buildings (wineries, olive groves, farms, museums, taverns, etc.), land use (vineyards and olive groves), and to the itineraries (wine and olive oil roads, etc.). With reference to the activities, gastronomic tourism is linked to the methods of consumption of the product (tastings, pick your own activities, etc.) and to the experiences of education in the knowledge of food (cooking schools, visits to the places of production, etc.). As regarding the events, which are the third category identified by the authors, we can identify fairs, parties, and events linked to food. Finally, as regards the organizations, we refer to the presence of certification systems and the structures of the product and adherence to civil society associations that enhance the connection of food to the territory (Slow Food, National Identity Associations such as City of olive

In the last 20 years, food positioning in the tourism sector has changed profoundly and geographical destinations have recognized their gastronomic potential as an important attraction factor and as a new opportunity to position themselves in an even more increasing competitive global market. The interest in typical products and local food has thus acquired an ever-increasing importance among tourist motivations [20], thanks not only to the renewed attention to gastronomy that characterizes today's society, but also to the affirmation of a tourist offer of experience complex, based on gastronomic resources capable of involving and stimulating the sensorial and experiential component of tourism consumption. A gastronomic tourism is affirmed that is a movement of tourists who, while moving, buy and consume local food, observe and participate in the process of food production and consider it as the main motivation to move or at least as one of the most important activities that characterize the journey [17]. About 59% of Italian tourists consider the important or very important the presence of an enogastronomic offer and

The evolution of the relationship between gastronomy and tourism has, however, been characterized by some important steps that have changed the interest and the involvement of tourists with respect to local food. Richards [20] in deepening the

*Rural Tourism and Territorial Development in Italy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85774*

*Sustainability Assessment at the 21st Century*

and disseminate the rural culture of a territory.

In this framework, consecutive Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms progressively broadened the rationale of the rural development policies, from the simple support to the fostering of its development through the promotion of the agricultural policies, a better care and financial aid aimed at both qualifying and preserving the environment and the rural space, the improvement of the life quality, as well as a growing diversification of the rural economy. When, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we talk about "the revenge of the countryside" [5] and of the economic value inherent in the rediscovery of the identity of the places [6], the concept of rural development was linked to the new role attributed to agriculture in relation to the environment, to the territory, and to food safety and quality. If in the second half of the last century announcing the end of peasants, erased by industrialization and the growth of the cities [7], nowadays a new scenario of rurality is emerging, so-called the postindustrial or postmodern rurality, where agricultural development requires policies based on the territory and oriented toward general development. With the progressive establishment of a multifunctional agriculture, coherent with the guidelines of the Economic Community policy [8, 9], which is able to play different roles in addition to the traditional primary one linked to the production of food and raw materials, and the growing diversification of economic activities within the rural areas, the modern agriculture has played a different role in respect to the past, having to respond to the renewed needs of the current society in terms of food safety, environmental protection, recreational needs, and, in general, the improvement of the quality of life [10]. The general objective of this work is the analysis of the relationship among local food, rural territory and tourism. Specifically, we will investigate on how tourism linked to the enhancement of food can contribute to the development of activities related to its production, linking it to new forms of tourist experience, helping to preserve

As registered by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), tourism connected to food and countryside is a quickly growing segment. A high percentage of tourists does choose tourist destination on the basis of food as well as of the will to gain positive experiences by tasting local products in small locations, renowned for their quality and their strong connection to the territory. In this way, a strong relationship has been created among free time, tourism, food rediscovery, and rural areas' promotion, able to exert an influence on both demand and supply of tourist services. Local traditional products, in Italy, represent a decisive component of the endogenous development of territorial systems (Food Clusters, Metropolitan Food Clusters), due to the significant economic, social, and tourist repercussions they can produce [11]. Thanks to typicality promotion, the productive function of the agricultural activities is integrated with new and diversified functions, among them are the environmental and territorial safeguard, the preservation of culture and rural traditions, and the creation of spaces and locations interested in new economic and social dynamics [12]. During the last years, it has been possible to observe a proliferation of initiatives aimed at matching the agricultural production with services (touristic, recreational, educational, social, and other services), also in order to intercept and satisfy new consumer segments interested in the fruition of agricultural products in the territory of their production, so to "plunge" within the local culture and to live consumer experiences as opportunities of cultural and

All the same, local public administrations look at rural as well as gastronomic tourism with renewed interest, also in the light of a strengthening of both local community identity and cohesion, by fostering synergies and links with other territorial economic activities (handicraft, tourism, etc.) so to favor a local endogenous development. The special focus we put, with this study, on the gastronomic

**146**

social enrichment.

products has also been encouraged and supported by the growing public care for food quality, other than by the will of promoting as well as preserving local traditions and by a more general sharing of a simpler and more natural life style. It is after all of universal acknowledgement that traditional products, as forms of expression of a territorial culture, strongly affect the social and economic development of rural territories.
