Food tourism policy: deconstructing boundaries of taste and class

Anna de Jong, Peter Varley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

53 Citations (Scopus)
72 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Recent discussions from the journal of Tourism Management call for more critical deconstructions of the political and economic structures that shape policy and planning. This paper takes up this call, utilising a post-structualist framework to examine Scotland’s food tourism landscape. Utilising Foucauldian discourse analysis to deconstruct 2,251 media sources collected through a Factiva database search, we illustrate the ways policy discourses privilege the cultural symbols of the middle class through official food tourism promotion, marginalising particular foods positioned as working class. We find that this is particularly evident through the example of the deep fried Mars bar; where, despite touristic desires, through classed media discourses it becomes constructed as global, bad and disgusting, and therefore an embarrassment to official tourism bodies. We conclude by discussing the broader importance of attending to the marginalising and silencing effects tourism policy exerts if the power values and interests involved in its formation are not critically appraised.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)212-222
Number of pages10
JournalTourism Management
Volume60
Early online date15 Dec 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2017

Keywords

  • Food tourism
  • Class
  • Tourism policy
  • Disgust

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