FOOD TRAVEL SPECIAL ...................A Taste for Travel

A Taste for Travel





Indians are getting hungry for gourmet vacations, and countries and companies are tapping into that interest

Anne Kennedy could be Elizabeth Gilbert, if the writer had stayed on in Italy to eat, pray and love indefinitely. Especially eat.

Like Gilbert, Kennedy has done her fair share of wandering, living in Bali, Kenya and Venice in a quest for various life goals.

But unlike Gilbert, who eventually got back home to a Hollywood deal, Kennedy continues with her travels and discover ies. For now, when she is not on the road, she lives in a tower, with three rooms, one on top of the other, in a tiny, medieval vil lage near Rome. And she knows all the lo cal secrets. So one April evening, as she leads us into a grotto (cave) bang in the centre of the Eternal City to sample typical Roman pizzas and café concerto -oper atic pieces sung by waiters -no one is re ally surprised. Café concerto, literally concert in a café, has been a popular Italian tradition. It combines the pleasures of two of the country's biggest art forms, food and music. The pane (breads) and pizza that come our way are typically of Lazio, the region where Rome is located: the crusts are yeasty and thin. There's the pizza bianca, the white one, without the tomato sauce smothering it, which is impossible to find outside Rome. The music is classical: dramatic and emotional. Café concerto, however, is a dying legacy even in a city where history is so much a part of the living. An ordinary traveller, gasping at the sight of the Pantheon or St Peter's, or even a more experienced one, who has partaken of the bohochicness of Trastevere, may not stumble upon a hidden, underground establishment dishing out classical food and music in a combo deal. Unless, of course, there's a local -or “mother“, as Kennedy refers to herself -showing you the way.

If trapezing around the world resulted in a bestselling book for Elizabeth Gilbert, for Anne Kennedy it has resulted in a job as a tour director with Insight Vacations, one of the largest experiential travel companies, chalking up itineraries that allow travellers to get a peep into local cultures and cuisines. This March, the company, a subsidiary of the travel and leisure behemoth The Travel Corporation with a footprint across 60 countries, announced its entry into the Indian market for the outbound business. And food is big on its agenda.

Not the Parantha Traveller

“Our research found that Indians are no longer travelling for just shopping and sightseeing. We have witnessed a lot of demand for gourmet food and beverage experiences, which offer more of an insider's perspective for the traveller,“ says Rajeev Kohli, vice president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators and managing director of Signature Tours, which has brought Insight Vacations into India.

This is a significant change from even three-four years ago, when the typical Indian traveller was mocked at for travelling with his khakra or parantha packets even as he went about ticking sights from an aspirational bucket list. That a large, massmarket travel company is training its eyes on India as a market for food-centric vacations confirms a trend that has been quietly growing in our midst.

While specialised companies selling gourmet vacations to a niche market of foodies have existed worldwide, a big change has been in how food experiences are shaping more mass tourism. In the age of Instagram-prompted sharing of food pictures by young consumers, and an increased interest in food as a lifestyle choice, it is perhaps inevitable that travel companies and tourism boards should look at gourmet experiences as a key marketing strategy.

The global recognition that food-centric vacations are driving tourism across the world came four years ago, when the United Nations World Travel Organisation published its pathbreaking Global Report on Food Tourism. Among the most interesting findings of the survey was that more than 88% of participating countriesdestinations considered gastronomy as a strategic element in defining their brand and image. The report quoted The World Food Travel Association estimate that gastronomic tourism generates an economic impact of $150 billion annually. It said that an interest in dining has been key to driving tourists to San Sebastian, Scandinavia and countries in Asia and South America.

Are Indian travellers, deemed notoriously conservative, unadventurous and inhibited by dietary restrictions, jumping on to this bandwagon? Are they beginning to seek out unusual food experiences as a means to discovering another country and culture? The surprising answer is: Yes.

All for Food

VisitBritain, the British tourism body, has conducted a survey for the Indian market and one of the interesting statistics is the propensity of Indians to dine in restaurants while on business or holiday. The survey found that 80% of Indians on a business trip like to visit restaurants, much higher than the average of 50% from all other countries. Also, 70% of Indians on a holiday visit restaurants as opposed to an average of 60% from all other markets.

“We have been increasingly seeing that Indians want to go and try out new restaurants when they visit London or other areas in the UK. They are not sticking to old-fashioned food either. There is a lot of buzz around new chefs and restaurants from all over the world opening places in the UK. There are Peruvian places and quirky offerings like chocolate kebabs. Luxury restaurants such as The Ivy, which has just opened in Bath, too, draw people. Indians like to try these things,“ says Ritushri Dhanker, who works with VisitBritain.

Thailand is one of the most popular destinations for Indians. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) now reports that, aside from shopping and spa vacations, among the “new, increased demands from Indians are cooking classes and fruit carving“, says Aso Lori, from TAT's Delhi office. Short courses in cooking schools, such as the luxury Blue Elephant, are quite popular. It is not surprising that a pad thai-making video launched as part of a tourism-marketing initiative has gone viral.

Geetika Jain, a Delhi-based art curator who likes to go on solo vacations, says she decided to spend a couple of months in Thailand learning to cook Thai -this despite her being a veg etarian who cannot stand nam pla.

Australia, another popular destination for Indians, has been relying heavily on food to promote tourism. The success of TV shows like MasterChef Australia in India has been an indicator of how young Indians are eager for global food experiences. Apart from food-centric events like Taste of Melbourne or even the setting up of Rene Redzepi's Noma as a pop-up in Sydney, things like bar and cafe crawls and wine tours are becoming the centrepieces of Down Under vacations.

“Indian travellers are becoming more discerning and see the value in spending on quality travel experiences as the expenditure fig ures have reached an all-time high, increasing by 30% over last year,“ says Celia Ho, regional manager, South & Southeast Asia, Tourism Victoria. The Yarra Valley wine tours in Australia, for one, are quite popular with Indian foodie travellers.

Salt Mine Dinner & Glacier Buffet

Would you like to dine in a 13th century salt mine, 327 metres below the ground in Wieliczka near Krakow, Poland? Or, perhaps visit a Gothic cafe in Malbork that only serves medieval food? Or, how about some soulful New World barbecues? Columns of smoke and the irresistible aroma of pork cooking over a wood fire in southeastern US?
Or, you could quench your thirst with a tour of 180 breweries making Belgian craft beer. Or, gobble down a giant Obelix burger at the Comics Cafe in Brussels.

If your appetite for adventure is even higher, as are your budgets, you could settle down to an open-air buffet on a glacier in British Columbia in Canada. Guests and food are both dropped down by a helicopter courtesy of the Four Seasons resort. If you thirst for culture, you could seek a bespoke experience by way of dining on stage at the Hungarian state opera house.

Travelling to eat has never been more exciting and by all accounts there are at least a few people seeking these unusual pleasures. Trishul Man dana and Sabita Uthaya live between Bangalore, Zurich and London, both pursuing highpressure corporate careers. The couple travel extensively for work and play, and when it is the latter, “food and friends“ are the only things on the agenda. They travel every month, trying Michelin-starred or Zagat-rated restaurants. “We would never arrive somewhere without having spent a significant amount of time researching the restaurants.We are also trying to work our way through the world's 50 best restaurants,“ says Uthaya.

They admit to having flown, for just lunch or dinner, to Noma in Copenhagen or Gaggan's in Bangkok after friends managed reservations, and they couldn't take the time out for longer holidays. But it is not just restaurants they are interested in. “Every season, we go trufflehunting in Piedmont and, every few weeks, I cook the Florentine steak when we have friends over,“ says Mandana. It's a lifestyle dictated by travel miles and food choices.

Others may not be quite as adventurous or fortunate to be able to travel all the time to indulge in gourmet pleasures, but there is a growing taste for it. Parul Mehta, owner of Destination Globe, a boutique travel company, led a group of 20 to Italy last year, picking out luxury gourmet experiences. This ranged from Barolo wine tastings with cheese and opera to a cooking class at Il Borro, a luxury hotel near Florence, owned by the Ferragamo family. “That was the centrepiece of the 10-day trip that cost about 3,000 per person,“ says Mehta. This year, she is set to repeat the experience with a group of 12 women from Mumbai families in diamond trade.

The Ferragamo estate is quite well known.What is less known is the Machiavelli farm, also off Florence, on the old road to Rome.This is where The Prince was apparently written, when Europe's equivalent of Chanakya was exiled. The old desk where the manuscript was supposedly penned still stands, part of a museum now. There are some ancient cellars and a modern trattoria, where you can sit down to eat. Everything is owned by the Gruppo Italiano Vini wine cooperative, so chianti is flowing and some prosecco bottled with blue curacao. The blue sparkling is a drink aimed at the tourists: a thirst-quencher for those who have come searching for their next exotic high.

Anoothi Vishal

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