Culinary tourism in Córdoba (Spain)

Purpose Gastronomy has become one of the key factors in the development and promotion of tourism, and offers the opportunity for certain locations to become specialised in culinary tourism. This paper aims to analyse the kind of tourist whose reason for travelling to a certain destination is to enjoy the local cuisine. In this case, the destination is Córdoba (Spain). Design/methodology/approach A list of restaurants and eating establishments offering dishes typical of Córdoba was compiled. A questionnaire was designed with the aim of analysing and defining tourists' opinions of Córdoba's cuisine. This questionnaire was filled out by a random sample of tourists in one of ten different restaurants. Of these ten establishments, four were classified as restaurants, three as tabernas, and three as a mixture of both restaurant and taberna. In each restaurant, the questionnaire was distributed randomly among Spanish and foreign tourists in the city on a daily basis. A total of 213 questionnaires was obtained. The fieldwork was carried out in October and November 2009. The tabling and analysis of the data obtained was carried out through the development of an appropriate database. The results were obtained using uni‐variant and bi‐variant analysis techniques (contingency tables, chi‐square contrasts and correlations). Findings The results of the study reflect the high level of education of the tourists surveyed, the length of their stay, the high percentage of foreign tourists, and the high level of satisfaction with both the local cuisine and with other tourist attractions Córdoba has to offer. Practical implications The results imply that there is scope for developing food tourism products which would attract such tourists and could be used to promote Córdoba as a centre for culinary tourism. Originality/value This paper is one of the first studies on culinary tourism to be carried out in an important destination for cultural tourism in Europe, namely the city of Córdoba. This paper also tries to create a profile of the “food tourist”, a tourist whose primary motivation for visiting a given location is to explore the local cuisine.