Bibliometric Analysis of Gastronomic Heritage: Evolution and Patterns for Tourism Destinations

Abstract

Purpose - Gastronomic heritage is a relevant theme of research for tourism destinations since visitors are more engaged in experiencing the cultural activities of local communities and could be a key issue for generating economic, social, and environmental benefits in tourism destinations. Methodology/Design/Approach - This research applies the bibliometric analysis methodology and uses the VosViewer 1.6.20 tool to examine trends, areas of interest, and main contributions in the research of gastronomic heritage. Findings - The main results point out three phases: 1) from 2000 to 2010, 2) from 2011 to 2020, and 3) from 2021 to the present in academic journals that rank in Q1 and Q2. The first phase presents the research of gastronomic heritage focused on regional food, the second phase mentions diferent local gastronomic experiences, and the third phase brings attention to gastronomic heritage within the context of marketing to increase competitiveness for tourism destinations. Originality of the research - This paper highlights thematic patterns like: “cultural identity”, “gastronomic cultural heritage”, “gastronomy and local tourism in rural development”, “traditional food” and “food heritage” which could be explored closely to identify elements of competitiveness and sustainability for tourism destinations.

Keywords

• eol>Gastronomic Heritage
• Culture
• Competitiveness
• Tourism Destinations

1. Introduction

Gastronomy tourism is one of the main types of tourism in destinations around the world. Gastronomy itself is a tourism service that participates with a high percentage of income for destinations where tourists visit for other reasons than gastronomy [ 1 ]. Moreover, after the pandemic, gastronomy has been a key issue to reactivate local economies through food and beverage establishments [ 2 ]. Overall, gastronomy is a key issue in destinations for its economic, social, and environmental benefits from the sustainable perspective [ 3 ]. However, it is undeniable that the cultural aspect is significant in tourism likewise [ 4, 5, 6 ]. In tourism destinations, local communities possess valuable assets that motivate visitors to travel or involve visitors who travel for diferent reasons than culture, to participate in cultural activities, which revitalize and strengthen the local culture [ 7 ]. UNESCO included food as part of the intangible cultural heritage asset in 2010 [ 4 ].

Gastronomy plays an important role in transferring knowledge and traditions of communities through recipes, dishes, utensils, and table manners, among other elements, which preserves the unique characteristics of a specific group of people located in a place, thus, gastronomy is an important heritage for destinations [ 5, 8 ]. In gastronomic heritage research, some authors mention similar cultural elements (eg. authenticity, identity, traditions, transmission from the past) and benefits (eg. promotion of local culture, contributes to sustainability and tourism development) [ 9, 10, 11 ]. Others explain the characteristics of gastronomic heritage throughout the supply chain, for instance: ingredients (supply), dishes, recipes, techniques (production), manner of drinking and eating (consumption) [ 5, 12, 13 ]. While other researchers suggest the need to incorporate the concept of a supply chain in gastronomic heritage for a better organization of stakeholders, to reach a tourism development in destinations [ 5, 14 ].

Gastronomic heritage is a concept that has been used in tourism research since 2001 with minor concern; however, since 2011, gastronomic heritage developed an increased interest in research due to the public recognition by UNESCO in 2010. Moreover, its research expanded remarkably between 2019 and 2020 [ 15 ]. This study analyses the main topics discussed in gastronomic heritage in the research of tourism and hospitality. The keywords are related to “food” drink”, “wine”, “dining”, “restaurant”, “tourism”, “hospitality”, “heritage”, “culinary”, and so forth. In this sense, it seems that gastronomic heritage has been analyzed within tourism and hospitality, although, lacking the analysis over time regarding trends, areas of interest, and thematic patterns in journals.

It is important to mention that gastronomy is part of culinary heritage and cultural tourism [ 1 ]. In the context of gastronomic heritage research, it is essential to understand its evolution over time, as well as the main contributors and trends in the field. Likewise, identifying the main journals where these topics are published and analyzing the co-occurrence of keywords in the works of various authors can provide valuable information. In consideration of the aspects mentioned before, the following research objectives are proposed: 1. Analyse the evolution of research related to gastronomic heritage, examining trends and areas of interest over time. 2. Identify and synthesize the main contributions of prominent authors in the field of gastronomic heritage, highlighting their significant contributions. 3. Identify the main academic journals where research related to gastronomic heritage is published, providing a vision of the most relevant sources of knowledge in this field. 4. Carry out a co-occurrence analysis of keywords used by various authors in their research on gastronomic heritage, to identify thematic patterns and common areas of interest in the scientific literature using the VosViewer 1.6.20 tool.

2. Literature review

2.1. Gastronomy and Culture in Tourism Destinations

Gastronomy plays a relevant role in involving tourists with the local culture of destinations and as a result, increasing its economic development, in this manner, visitors and residents benefit culturally and economically respectively [ 1, 16, 17 ]. Thus, UNESCO promotes preserving the knowledge of gastronomy as an asset for destinations [ 18 ]. Authors use several terms to mention gastronomy in general, for example: “cuisine”, “culinary”, and “food” [ 1, 19 ]. Other authors refer to gastronomy in the specific context of tourism with terms such as: “food tourism”, “wine tourism”, “culinary tourism”, “local food”, “local gastronomy”, “local cuisine”, “traditional food”, “traditional gastronomy”, “culinary heritage”, “food heritage” [ 1, 20, 21, 22, 23 ]. Gastronomy expresses the culture of destinations and symbolizes the deep relationship between culture and food, which becomes a motivator for tourists [ 24 ].

There are a wide range of terms used to refer to traditional gastronomy, for example, culinary tradition, traditional cuisine, traditional gastronomy, traditional recipes, traditional dishes, local cuisine, local food, traditional food [ 3, 25, 26, 27 ]. It seems that the most common terms for gastronomy are the following: culinary, cuisine, gastronomy, and food. Even though traditional food and local food are used as synonyms, their concepts difer because the former refers to knowledge transmitted over generations in a geographical place, while the latter, excerpts the feature of transmission and it is involved only with the geographical place, which is local [ 28 ].

Traditional gastronomy represents the food produced, prepared, and served in a specific geographical place, that is transmitted from generation to generation [ 3, 8 ]. Although, Park et al. [ 18 ] mention street food as a traditional gastronomy that exemplifies the heritage of multi-diverse cultures that have settled in this place in a specific time, which implies that diferent generations could be combined in time and space to transmit gastronomic knowledge. This adaptation of local food confirms that gastronomy is a cultural representation, therefore, it changes as society transforms itself by aggrouping diferent cultures in an area.

Pavlidis & Markantonatou [ 22 ] link traditional gastronomy with products, dining places, and festivals, which implies a concept related to the supply chain. Chiu & Huang [ 25 ] analyze traditional gastronomy from the supply and demand perspectives which demonstrates interpretation diferences about the meaning of “traditional gastronomy” from both sides and between them. In this market context, the traditional gastronomy in restaurants is considered an attribute of satisfaction in tourism segments [ 29, 30 ]. Traditional gastronomy is important for tourism destinations because it attracts to visitors that value cultural heritage [ 26 ].

2.2. Traditional Gastronomy Vs. Gastronomic Heritage

Cultural heritage in food connects the history of a community located in a specific territory in a determined time [ 1 ]. Timothy [ 5 ] explains that heritage refers to tangible and/or intangible elements that a group of people receives from past generations. Thus, it suggests that traditional food could be a synonym for gastronomic heritage. Another aspect in common between traditional gastronomy and gastronomic heritage is authenticity. Diverse authors mention authenticity as a relevant attribute of traditional gastronomy and gastronomic heritage [ 5, 8, 22, 25, 31 ].

Although gastronomic heritage and traditional gastronomy seem to be synonyms, there is an attribute that makes the diference between them, which is how local traditions in gastronomy are perceived by the society. According to Dixit [ 1 ], culinary heritage means that the society, in general, recognizes the traditions of local cuisine. Gastronomy has been approached as an intangible heritage that requires planning to create unique tourism experiences for tourists who aim to increase their knowledge about cultures [ 3 ]. Hence, gastronomic heritage is a relevant concept to approach for planning a market position in destinations with residents who acknowledge traditional gastronomy as their own and give it value, and visitors who consider it significant to have this cultural experience.

2.3. Gastronomic Heritage and Cultural Tourism

According to diferent authors, gastronomic heritage is a specific element of a broad concept called cultural heritage [ 5, 9, 10, 23, 32 ]. Most of the authors also identify gastronomic heritage as “culinary heritage”, “cuisine heritage” [ 15, 25, 33, 34, 35, 36 ]. However, some authors in addition refer to gastronomic heritage, such as “food heritage” [ 8, 13, 34, 36 ]. Heritage is defined as the elements that are inherited over generations that allow to recognize of the identity of groups which represents the richness and diversity of cultures in tourism [ 33 ]. In this regard, to approach the concept of gastronomic heritage within the tourism context, it seems necessary to take into consideration the term known as “cultural tourism”.

Gastronomy is related to cultural tourism because, through food experiences, visitors may grasp the meanings of elements and activities that symbolize the lifestyle of residents in destinations [ 22 ]. For instance, Kokkranikal & Carabelli [ 21 ] explain that tourists’ experience local culture by learning about recipes, ingredients, and products that are used in culinary practices while they interact with locals. In this interaction, the main attribute for visitors is the authenticity in gastronomy, however, it could change due to the constant transformation of society [ 3 ]. In gastronomic heritage, the technique of storytelling is used to share the knowledge of culinary practices with visitors, and it should be relevant for tourist ofers in destinations [ 25 ].

Destinations that promote gastronomic heritage could benefit from sustainability due to its impacts on tourism demand and may give more value to cultural resources, such as traditions, recipes, and local ingredients, among others [ 5, 32 ]. Consequently, tourists would aim to protect social and natural resources, while their visit contributes with profits to destinations [ 9, 15, 25, 32 ]. In this sense, cultural aspects could be a key issue in understanding and approaching gastronomic heritage for sustainable destinations. According to Dixit [ 1 ], the treasure of gastronomy within tourism relies on its cultural characterization that could be an asset for residents who admit this representation and could become a motivator for tourists who value culture to visit destinations. For all the reasons mentioned above, this paper researches gastronomic heritage employing collectively the terms of “gastronomy”, “culinary heritage”, “cultural tourism”, and “cuisine”.

3. Methodology

The systematic literature review is one of the most common techniques to start researching, and the bibliometric analysis is a tool that applies quantitative approaches to examine and measure textual information, providing valuable data that complements scientific the scientific research and enriches the bibliographic evidence [ 37 ]. In addition, bibliometrics is a valuable tool to assess the efectiveness, development, and trends of academic disciplines, identifying general and popular topics in various ifelds of study such as management and environment [ 38 ].

This research establishes the methodology used in five stages: (i) search criteria, (ii) selection of database and documents, (iii) software and data preprocessing, and (iv) analysis of results.

3.1. Search Criteria

This section indicates the keywords used in this research. Given that this research focuses on a review of Cultural Heritage, this investigation selected terms related to it, such as: “gastronomy”, “culinary heritage”, “cultural tourism” and “cuisine. This group of words contributes to conceptualizing the intellectual framework of cultural heritage.

3.2. Selection of Database and Documents

The database selected for this bibliometric research was the Web of Science, owned by Clarivate Analytics. The data collection was carried out in February 2023 within the "Web of Science Core Collection" within the following fields: titles, abstract, and keywords. It is important to mention that within this search the Boolean OR operator was used with the following keyword combinations: “gastronomy*” (title) AND “culinary heritage” (author keywords) AND “cultural tourism” (title) OR “cuisine”. The result of this search was 2092 documents.

It is important to mention that all the documents used for this work were scientific articles written in English as it is the most common language in the scientific field. For the issue of cleaning the database, the first step was to open the file with the 2092 data and it was possible to find that there were repeated words diferently. For example, in some cases, the country appeared such as "UK", while in other cases, it was "United Kingdom", to tackle this issue, it was created a file called thesaurus.txt which corrects this type of error. This technique is carried out in the following way, the word "LABEL" was placed as the name of the columns and in the next column the word "REPLACE BY"; the next step was to examine the words that required to be changed, as the case mentioned above, it was placed LABEL = "UK" and REPLACE BY = "United Kingdom", and where the word UK appeared it was replaced by United Kingdom. This same work was carried out for the analysis of the main researchers in this subject.

3.3. Software and Dara Prepocessing

The file obtained was graded in a comma-separated values (CSV) format that organizes the information in columns such as title, authors, afiliations involved, title, and summary of the work, among others. For data analysis, two ofice tools were used: 1. Microsoft Excel: This program facilitates the processing and analysis of data, ensuring quality by reviewing and eliminating errors while examining documents, authors, and countries for the study of scientific research. For this study, the version of Microsoft 365 for businesses was used. 2. VOSviewer: It is a program to create and explore network maps, allowing to visualize and analysis of data in a detailed way, and ofering zoom and search functions with a moderate number of elements [ 39 ]. In this work, the version 1.6.18 was used.

4. Result

4.1. Perfomance Analysis

4.1.1. Contribution by Countries

This section examines the most outstanding countries in the investigation of topics related to gastronomic heritage in the world tourism context. For this, the data from 118 countries was collected through the WOS platform. Firstly, the 10 countries with the largest number of documents were classified (see table 1), and, secondly, they were grouped according to the citation relationships between the articles (see Figure 1).

The following table indicates that the country that leads the publications on gastronomic heritage issues is the United States with 365 publications and 6,711 citations. Secondly, it is the People’s Republic of China with 203 publications and 3,508 citations, and in third place, it was found Spain with 146 publications and 1,613 citations. The best South American country is Brazil, which is in the fifth position with 109 documents and 847 citations. Within this list, Ecuador is in position 37th with 18 articles and 68 citations (table 1). 1 United States 2 China 3 Spain 4 England 5 Brasil 6 India 7 Turkey 8 Australia 9 Italy 10 Japan Source: Web of Science (2024).

365 203 146 123 109 103 94 92 86 85

For a better understanding of this subject, the countries were classified according to their continents, as we can see in Table 2. Thus, the results indicate that European countries (40.7%) lead research in these areas of knowledge, particularly Spain and England. Secondly, it is the Asian continent (29.6%) led by China and India a little further away. Thirdly, it is the American continent (16.7%) where the United States leads this list, followed by Brazil. In fourth place, it is Africa (10.2%), which in the general list is South Africa as the country best located in position 35. Finally, there is Oceania (2.8%) with Australia as the country that leads the research.

4.1.2. Evolution of Gastronomic Heritage Issues

Within the tourist context, the first work presented regards gastronomic heritage, is by Swinbank [ 40 ] who studied the influence of women in traditional haute cuisine in Eastern countries where it is assumed that there is only the influence of male chefs. As of that date, 2092 articles have been found. To understand the development of this topic over time, this paper examines the data into the following decades: 2000 to 2010, 2011 to 2020, and 2021 to the present are studied.

From 2000 to 2010: the first years of the new millennium one of the first investigations on gastronomic heritage was presented by Turgeon & Pastinelli turgeon2002eat where they studied the diferent types of ethnic restaurants in Toronto and how visitors stop being foreigners and become part of the culture, being able to enjoy regional food.

From 2011 to 2020: at this stage, it is possible to find the work of Newling [ 41 ] who does a culinary ethnographic analysis of foods considered disgusting in Sydney such as animal heads and tongues. Despite this type of food, there is a growing number of tourists who want to experience local gastronomic heritage, which is why Fanelli [ 42 ] explores the culinary experience, health benefits, and social experience of tourists in Tuscany. Its main results show that respondents prefer traditional regional foods and drinks, and spending time outdoors in a rich culinary heritage. These findings coincide with those of Bukharov & Berezka [ 43 ] who mention the importance of a local gastronomic value proposition to increase tourist attractiveness.

From 2021 to present: in this last period, one of the articles that stands out deals with how markets are presented as places of congregation, cultural exchange, and, above all, a place for purchasing and consuming food from the region Sgroi [ 44 ]. The results show that tourists who go to the markets see it as a distinctive culinary heritage of the city they visit. For this type of activity to continue growing, it is necessary to promote culinary heritage, increase events and activities related to food, and improve physical and digital infrastructure (Staver et al. [ 45 ]).

4.1.3. Top 10 most productive authors

This section examines the contribution of researchers with a notable influence in the field of omnichannel. Table 3 shows 10 of the 563 selected authors, classified according to the number of citations they have received.

As evident, most of the authors come from China (3) and the rest of the authors are distributed equally. It especially emphasizes the outstanding contribution of Jacinthe Bessiere from the University of Toulouse, whose main research analyses the transformation of local identity in rural France through gastronomy and rural tourism, the meaning of food, and its relationship with the construction of heritage. and local development [ 46, 47 ]. At second rank, it is found Erik Cohen from the University of 108 Estados Unidos University of Pennsylvania

Country

France South Korea

China China Finland

China Singapore Canada

Institute/University Universite de Toulouse Kangwon National University College of 14 Business Administration The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel and Tourism Management National Taiwan Normal University Hanken School of Economics National Taiwan Ocean University Nanyang Technological University Brock University

HI 20 22 3 13 25 11 5 34 9 South Africa

University of Johannesburg Pennsylvania, who will not be the subject of analysis because his research focuses mainly on adventure and religious tourism. Thirdly, Yeong Gug Kim from Kangwon National University stands out, whose main contributions focus on the relationship between tourists and local food, considering variables such as motivations, demographic characteristics, and physiological aspects that influence the decision and the experience of consuming local foods and beverages during travel [ 48, 49 ].

4.1.4. Main Publishing Journals

This section allows us to discern the interaction between diferent fields within the study, as reflected in the journals that published fundamental research to shape the intellectual landscape of the creative economy [ 50 ]. Table 4 shows the 10 most prominent scientific journals from a group of 1000. These publications stand out for their influence and relevance in the academic community in publications made on gastronomic heritage. This table includes details such as the name of the journal, the number of articles published (CS), the percentage of contribution (%), the H-index (HI), SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), the quartile to which the journal belongs (Q) and CiteScore (IS). 1 Tourism Management 2 British Food Journal 3 Annals of Tourism Research 4 Food Quality and Preference 5 Appetite 6 Sustainability 7 International Journal of Hospitality Management 8 Sociologia Ruralis 9 Journal of Sustainable Tourism 10 Journal of Nutrition Source: Web of Science (2024).

CS 265 179 159 124 110 108 94 74 65 62

% 4,33% 2,92% 2,60% 2,02% 1,80% 1,76% 1,53% 1,21% 1,06% 1,01%

HI 236 94 201 144 168 136 151 97 127 97

SJR 3,561 0,645 3,426 1,161 1,187 0,664 2,928 0,818 2,966 1,269

Q

Q1 Q1, Q2

Q1 Q1

Q1 Q1, Q2

Q1 Q1 Q1 Q1

IS 15,35 4,09 11,74 6,54 6,32 3,9 13,62 4,03 13,72 5,45

When analyzing the table 4, it is highlighted that 4 of the 10 magazines shown belong to the tourism area (1, 3, 7, and 9), and another 4 belong to nutrition topics (2, 4, 5, 10), 1 magazine belongs to psychology (8) and one of these journals is multidisciplinary (6). Most journals are in Q1 except for the British Food Journal, which topics focused on food science in Q1 and business, administration, while accounting is in Q2. A similar case happens with the magazine Sustainability which is in Q1 except for Administration, politics, and Laws which is in Q2.

4.1.5. Authors Keyword Co-Occurrence Analysis

For this section, VosViewer 1.6.20 software was used to collect the 719 keywords per author. To categorize them, a criterion of minimum occurrence of 4 times for the articles was established. As a result of this methodology, 22 words grouped into 7 clusters were obtained. The results are presented.

Cluster 1: It is identified by red color and based on its grouping it was given the name “Cultural Identity”, it has 4 elements with 19 occurrences. This group of articles highlights the importance of understanding how gastronomy and culinary culture play a significant role in the formation of identity and the promotion of gastronomy in various communities and destinations. One of these articles investigates the impact of co-creation activities on commercial gastronomic tourism in an emerging destination, analyzing its influence on the culinary landscape [ 51 ]. This study provides clarity to the creation of new culinary proposals, the integration of visitors into the local gastronomic environment, and the expansion of local culinary perspectives. Ren and Fusté-Forné [ 52 ] explore the dynamics between food, national identity, and tourism in Greenland, illustrating how cuisine influences the formation of identity and promotes both tourism and gastronomic diplomacy in the nation.

Cluster 2: This cluster is called “Food Safety and Nutrition” and is represented in green color with 4 items and 27 occurrences. Globally, these articles address the connection between food, nutrition, and food security in diferent geographical and cultural contexts, as well as examining how agricultural practices, food history, and health policies can impact these aspects. This section describes how traditional food and gastronomic heritage have gained attention and recognition among both residents and tourists Almansouri et al. [ 4 ], despite the influence of globalization and the increase in industrialized food consumption [ 53 ].

Cluster 3: The cluster called “Gastronomic Cultural Heritage” is made up of 4 items with 30 occurrences and is represented with blue color. In general terms, these articles address the importance of gastronomy and food as essential components of cultural heritage, highlighting the need to conserve and safeguard this valuable culinary heritage. A specific example is presented by Benetiere et al. [ 54 ] in this research the authors explore "French gastronomic heritage" and how it has been studied, preserved, and transmitted for almost 50 years, highlighting its importance in cultural heritage. Following a similar perspective, Sõukand et al. [ 55 ] highlight the relevance of popular markets that, by adapting their gastronomy to satisfy local and foreign visitors, find ways to ensure their continuity.

Cluster 4: This cluster was called “Gastronomy and Local Tourism in Rural Development”, in the graph it is represented with the yellow color, it has 4 items with 24 occurrences. The documents grouped in this cluster study the factors that influence the consumption of local foods in tourism and regional development contexts. To investigate these factors, Kim et al. [ 48 ] developed a model that encompasses emotional, demographic, and physiological factors. The purpose of this approach was to gain a deeper understanding of food consumption behavior in tourist destinations. For their part, Mak et al. [ 56 ] propose a conceptual model that challenges the idea that globalization threatens local gastronomic identities. They conclude that, from the perspective of global culture theory, globalization can drive the reconstruction of local culinary traditions.

The Clusters 5 (pink), 6 (cyan), and 7 (orange) have 2 items each, with 25, 19, and 8 occurrences respectively. These groups generally deal with the consumption of traditional foods and food heritage in the tourism sector.

5. Discussion

Gastronomic heritage is an intangible asset in culture that represents the identity of a social group regarding culinary practices. In this regard, the contribution of this topic globally is spread in Europe, Asia, America, and Oceania; although, its main publishing comes from the United States and China. The academic interest in gastronomic heritage is internationally clear, which could increment that tourism destinations include heritage as a crucial aspect of gastronomy to gain competitiveness Dixit and Prayag [ 24 ], as is this one of the main motivators for visitors [ 26 ]. Moreover, the academic interest in this topic is related to sustainability to promote its benefits to residents, nature, and tourists [ 57 ]. This concern from the academic field could spread the attention to other meaningful stakeholders in shaping tourism such as tourism enterprises, residents, governments, NGOs, and visitors towards gastronomic heritage.

Over the years, since its first publication in a journal, the research on the topic of gastronomic heritage has evolved from investigating tourists interested in regional food (2001-2010) to the rise of tourists experiencing culinary heritage (2011-2020), then, giving a relevance of gastronomic heritage within the area of marketing to generate more visitors in destinations (2021 to present). The World Tourism Organization and Basque Culinary Center (2019) mention that heritage is a key element in promoting gastronomy in destinations since it symbolizes the identity of local culture through local material raw, utensils, recipes, cooking, eating, and drinking behaviors. In this sense, the meaning of these characteristics might contribute to engage stakeholders in local gastronomy and gastronomic heritage.

Likewise, this paper provides several thematic patterns in common areas of interest found in the research, for instance: “cultural identity”, “gastronomic cultural heritage”, “gastronomy and local tourism in rural development”, “traditional food” and “food heritage”. This result indicates that in tourism, heritage is a significant term related to local and traditional food recognized by residents as their own and appreciated by visitors. In this way, gastronomic heritage is the result of the acceptance of specific elements of cuisine that are transmitted over generations which represents the identity that is constructed through sharing knowledge [ 1 ]. Furthermore, the heritage of gastronomy in tourism destinations implies that this product of tourism is aligned with the social and cultural objectives of sustainability, by preserving, promoting, and sharing local culture [ 1, 9 ]. Thus, the research on the topic mentioned above from the perspective of residents and visitors could lead to identifying the elements of gastronomic knowledge of interest for competitiveness and sustainability in tourism destinations.

However, a wide range of academics declares the imperative to study gastronomic heritage for local competitiveness and sustainability [ 9, 18 ]. Culture is ever-changing which implies obstacles in preserving and sharing the heritage of local cuisine [ 1, 58 ]. Moreover, Zocchi et al. [ 59 ] explain that social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural aspects, influence in the features of gastronomy, such as material raw, production, consumption, and others. In tourism the changes are the result of some events such as technology, globalization, and the exchange of knowledge that occurs during the social interaction between visitors, residents, and other stakeholders [ 58 ].

Furthermore, from the psychological perspective, the behavior of residents is influenced by technological, social, environmental, and economic contexts, among others [ 60 ]. For example, making a few changes to the production or consumption of food in destinations due to current demand’s needs [ 18 ]. Not only, the behavior of residents is afected, but also, the behavior of visitors, who might be interested in new experiences that are not related to history. For example, eating healthy or organic, etc [ 1 ]. The gastronomic experience of tourists is also afected by their companions, which is a social aspect to consider when planning marketing strategies for local gastronomy [ 61 ].

6. Conclusions

Gastronomic heritage is a topic that has been researched around the world in several journals of tourism and food, which suggests that it is a theme of interest not only for academia but also for businesses, governments, and other stakeholders in tourism destinations. Although it is clear the relevance of gastronomic heritage in academic research, it seems that it is limited the produced investigation that has been done for most countries, except for the United States and China, which led to published articles about the topic mentioned above. Moreover, research in gastronomic heritage is published mostly in journals that rank in Q1 and Q2 which implies a selective process of the investigation and analysis that could be used significantly for planners in tourism destinations.

The research in gastronomic heritage has been focused on tourists who are interested or engaged in activities regarding local gastronomy that represent the identity of past generations. In this sense, it is crucial to research and understand the perceptions and meanings that are passed through residents over generations about their food, like production, consumption, raw materials, and other elements of interest. Thus, a better understanding of residents about their gastronomy could help them to promote the significance of their food to visitors.

Likewise, the academic attention to gastronomic heritage reveals thematic patterns in common areas of interest that could be further researched, such as: “cultural identity”, “gastronomic cultural heritage”, “gastronomy and local tourism in rural development”, “traditional food” and “food heritage”. These thematic patterns could be used for marketing strategies in tourism destinations. Although this paper investigates trends and areas of interest over time, it dismisses the methodologies used in articles, which could provide partial topics, especially if it only involves a few residents who have received knowledge over generations about gastronomy and the meaning it has in their daily routine.

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