THE IMPORTANCE OF GASTRONOMY AND CULINARY PRACTICES IN CREATION OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE-BASED TOURISM PRODUCTS

Limited attention has been given to the potential of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in the role of tourism product, especially as regards gastronomy and culinary practices being one of the six UNWTO's ICH categories. Gastronomy and culinary practices represent an important and irreplaceable part of a national cultural heritage and as such serve as an element of tourism destination differentiation. Building on the theoretical alignment between heritage tourism, food and culinary tourism and differentiation of tourism products this research examined tourist perception of ICH categories and tourist participation in workshops as ICH-based tourism products in order to determine which category is the most suitable for the potential use of ICH in creation of tourism products. Preliminary research (group interview) was carried out with experts in the field of tourism product creation, promotion and public relations from the Zagreb Tourist Board. Tourist perception of ICH was collected via face-to-face survey. On the basis of primary research and data analyses using descriptive statistics, the results indicate that among six different categories of ICH, tourists were the most familiar with the Croatian gastronomy and culinary practices, but showed the lack of knowledge regarding preparation of Croatian traditional food specialties. Furthermore, the majority of tourists would extend the stay in the destination in order to participate in the ICH-based tourism workshops. This research results demonstrate considerable significance of tourist's interests towards ICH-based tourism products. However, the results indicate that ICH is not sufficiently employed in the creation of ICH-based tourism products as they hold large potential on tourism market. Limitation of this study is reflected in the fact that it was carried out in only one tourism destination in Croatia, the city of Zagreb. The possibilities of broader research perspective would include a research to be conducted on leisure tourists during summer months in the Croatian coastal tourism destinations.