The northern hemisphere’s long summer months are a time to relax and enjoy the great outdoors.  When it comes to food preparation and good food safety habits, however, being too relaxed can destroy a vacation or even terminate in hospitalization. Although no one has recently connected food safety to criminal acts or acts of terrorism, this has occurred in the past.  As we learned during the Covid-19 pandemic health is an important part of tourism security. Likewise, food safety must be an essential component for a sustainable tourism industry. We only have to review some of the problems that the cruise industry has experienced in the past to know that  the quality of our food and water, and the way we safeguard it, are essential elements of successful tourism and travel.   

The issue of food safety is especially important during the summer months when travel is at its peak many people tend to hold informal picnics, bar-b-cues and/or beach parties.  Millions of people around the world associate these hot weather informal summer gatherings with their vacation experience or with good and healthy fun.  It takes, however, only one instance of spoiled food or inadvertent food poisoning to ruin a person’s vacation or a locale’s reputation.

Food impacts our travel and vacation experience, and it has the ability to make our visitors either happy or angry.  For example, we might hypothesize that one of the many reasons that air travel is now often called “flightmeres” is among other reasons the poor quality (or absence of) airline meals.  In the post-Covid world of tourism travelers have also had to face inflated food prices and these high prices impact not restaurants costs but the total cost of a summer vacation.  Overpriced food not only raises the total cost of a summer vacation but impacts the way that visitors view the locale and their desire to return to that location. When we combine the expensive food with an issue of food safety or hygiene then no amount of marketing, at least in the short term, can repair a tourism locale’s overall reputation.  

To help you think about the impact of food on your section of the tourism industry, please consider the following.

-Meet with restaurateurs regarding the safety of salad bars and buffets. The first act of food terrorism in modern history took place in the 1980s in the State of Oregon. Too many people in the tourism and travel industry have not begun to think through this potential problem.

Work with local fairs and events. Most rural events and festivals serve food, yet rarely consider issues of risk management.  In most cases, the food problems that take place at a festival can be avoided with some extra planning and a bit of caution.  Tourism professionals need o ask themselves if the event/festival manager has taken a course in food safety, how much attention has been paid to risk management issues, and what policies and procedures would go into effect in the event of a problem.

-Work with local health boards.  A tourism industry can be destroyed by the public’s perception that eating there is unsafe.  Currently food trucks are very popular around the world.  Be sure that these trucks meet international food safety standards.  Check to see that drinking water and drinking fountains are safe. For example, several Latin American nations suffer from the fact that the public believes that they do not offer clean drinking water, wholesome food products, or that there is a general lack of sanitation. Whenever you see a health violation, report it to both the owner and to the proper authorities. Remember it takes very little to destroy a tourism industry.

-If you are a tourism officer, a hotel concierge, or a give visitors advice as to where to eat, be up-to-date.  Restaurants often come and go at a rapid rate and change of ownership is common in the restaurant business. Be accurate and up-to-date with your information. Be able to advise people not only by their likes but also by price range.

-Create multi-lingual menus. In places where there are visitors from many places, create multi-language menus. If there are no translators around, speak with your local community college or high school foreign language teachers.

-Train waiters and waitresses to be culturally and medically sensitive. If a person asks for no pork, do not bring a salad with bacon bits.  Teach your staff never to state: “it is just a little bit”.  Waiters and waitresses should be familiar with the content of menus and if that is impossible, then train them to ask rather than create an answer.  In a world with cultural, religious, health, and allergic restrictions, such a policy is essential.

Be aware of medical issues and make sure that all food service people are healthy.  For example, if a visitor is allergic to peanuts then be sure to inform a patron that peanut oil was used in the preparation of a particular food item. In the same manner, be careful of shellfish for those who are allergic and never challenge a patron who states that s/he cannot eat a particular food.  Also, many food servers are afraid of losing a day’s wages if they are sick. Provide enough sick-days so that a cook or waiters/waitresses do not handle food when sick.

-Educate tourism professionals on what is and what is not available. The public often seeks places that are out of the way or unique. Train personnel to steer people who desire such eating options to these types of places. Often, out of the way restaurants have special schedules and are hard to find. These moments are customer service moments. Taking the time to call for the visitor, giving directions or helping the person in some other special way, will become part of the dining experience.

-Emphasize your community’s special foods or dishes. Your community or attraction may not be Paris, New Orleans, or New York, but so what? To make a food-impact, all you have to do is to develop one local dish and then get it publicized. In a like manner, ambience can add a great deal to the dining experience.  In reality the type of ambience or décor is less important than the fact that it meets the public’s expectations.  For example, several lower New York City lower East Side restaurants have created an image of brashness bordering on rudeness that seems to fit expectations and has become its own sort of tourist attraction. The public will do the rest.

-From the perspective of tourism, the age of the rapid franchise might have hit its hay day. Tourism is about new experiences, and too many fast-food restaurants have not found a way to mix efficiency with the local cuisine.  Many of them have not only cut back on service personnel and also present a less hygienic look. Travelers simply do not want to eat what they can have at home. To add to this problem, too many fast-food restaurants are simply less and less efficient. As the fast-food industry tried to expand its menu, it lost its most precious resource: time savings.  To lessen this problem, work with your fast-food outlets. Help them to theme their restaurants, to drop specific items from the menu and to add others.

-Remember the last and first impression of a locale are almost always the most important. What is true of landscaping is also true of “urbanscaping” and “restaurantscaping”.  The types of food that is offered to incoming and departing visitors helps to set the entire trip’s mind-set. These then are the establishments that ought to receive the tourism and travel industry’s top culinary priority.

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The World Tourism Network’s Bali Five-in-One Think Tank Experience: It is more than a mere chance to learn and network in the world’s most hospitable location.

When: September 28-Oct 1, 2023 

If your business is related to travel & tourism then you can discover new experiences in a unique part of the world  in an entirely new format from other global travel tourism events – 

This out-of-the box unique experience will allow you to meet and network with the contributors who are shaping the future of our Travel Tourism Industry be more accountable and sustainable

Some of the topics to learn and discuss are: *Marketing to Indonesian tourists 

*Health and medical tourism  

*Cultural tourism, 

*How climate change is impacting SMEs around the world

*Resilience with Passion

*Ad-on tours of Bali

For more information go to < https://time2023.com>  or contact Mudi Astuti at <mudiastuti68@yahoo.com> 

Learn all about the World Tourism Network’s new cultural tourism program at

Cultural Tourism Regions Think Tank

You can become a member of this exciting program at: https://wtn.travel/join/

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The Art of the Assessment Study
Assessment studies are to tourism what medical check-ups are to people.  Every locale needs to have a full assessment study to determine both tourism strengths and weaknesses and to build a better industry and to avoid future problems.  Please contact T&M for full details.
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TOURISM AND MORE’S WIDE RANGE OF SPEECHES AND TRAINING SEMINARS

 For a complete listing of topics and information, please check our web page http://www.tourismandmore.com/contact or e-mail us at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com

Please contact us at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com for more information regarding costs and available dates.

All seminars and speeches can be presented in English, Portuguese, or Spanish.

1) Tourism challenges in a post-Covid world.
2)  Political advocacy through tourism: Using tourism to change the perception of your locale, business or nation

3) New forms of tourism: from agro-tourism to dark tourism

4) Tourism and Heath: Surviving the Next Pandemic.
5) Surviving man-made and natural disasters

6) Successful and failed tourism marketing strategies.
7) Avoiding tourism crises by using good risk management techniques
8) Dealing with over- and under- tourism, how to match the number of visitors to your locale’s capabilities
9) Tourism Confronts Terrorism: What You Need to Know to Maintain a Viable Industry in the Face of Terrorism
10) Training Your Police: Tourism Oriented Policing (TOPPs), how it works and why it is essential for a viable tourism industry.
11) Generational Marketing: How to market tourism to diverse age groups
12) Medical tourism: its advantages and the challenges
13) Something from Nothing: The Art of Creating New Attractions.
14) Dealing with the Media: Transforming the Media into your friend 
15) Selling to the Latin American Tourism Market: No, they are not all the same!
16) Selling to the US Market:  One country and lots of niche groups

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Books on Tourism in English 

Peter Tarlow’s Newest book: Available on Amazon

(Given in alphabetical order by title/Most of these books are available at Amazon.com or via the publisher)

 (see below for Spanish and Portuguese language books) 

1) A Supply Chain Management Guide to Business by BettyKildow@comcast.net

2) Beach Safety and the Law, Edited by Jeff Wilks published by Queensland (Australia) Law Society

3) Event Risk Management and Safety (ISBN 0-471-40168-4) by Peter E. Tarlow, published by John Wiley & Sons.  Presenting theory and practical applications. To purchase this book, visit http://www.wiley.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/. If you would like Dr. Tarlow to speak or train people in this area, please contact him at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com

4) Leisure Travel: A Marketing Handbook, by Stanley Plog, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004.  It’s available through the website of Pearson Prentice-Hall for $25.

5) Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism by Philip T. Kotler (Author), John T. Bowen (Author), James Makens Ph.D. (Author), Seyhmus Baloglu (Author) 7th editon. Available on Amazon.

6) Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis, by Eli Avraham and Eran Ketter Published by Elsevier

7) Personal Reconstruction, by Peter Tarlow, Tom Marrs, Nathaniel Tarlow & Eduardo Leite. How to prevent or recover from a personal crisis. Available at Amazon.

8) Personal Resilliance, by Peter Tarlow and Séverine Obertelli, Quest Publishing, Miami Florida

 9) Restoring Tourism Destinations in Crisis by Dr David Beirman: Published By Allen & Unwin (Australia & SE Asia) and CABI Publishing North America/ Europe 2003. For more information contact the author at david.beirman@uts.edu.au 

10) Sports Travel Security by Peter Tarlow, published by Elsevier

11) Terrorism and the Economy, edited by Karin W. Glaser, For more information please go to: http://www.elevenpub.com/law/catalogus/terrorism-and-the-economy-1#

12) The Economics of Tourism Destinations, by Norbert Vanhove, Published by Elsevier

13) The Ethics of Terrorism: Innovative Approaches from an International Perspective. Eds Thomas Albert: Publisher: Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Il; USA.  Mailing Orders may be obtained directly to use: books@ccthomas.com.

14) The Sage Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism; Three Volume Series, Published by Sage

15) Tourism Crises and Destination Recovery, David Beirman, Published by Sage Australia, For more information contact David Beirman at <David.Beirman@uts.edu.au>

16) The Tourism Gaze 3.0 by John Urry and Jonas Larsen.  An all new updated version of a great classic. Published by Sage.

17) Tourism: Principles and Practices, by John Fletcher, Alan Fyall, David Gilbert, and Stephen Wanhill.  Published by Pearson

18) Tourism and Mobility, Burns, P. and Novelli M. eds. (Wallingford: CABI

19)Tourism Development: Growth, Myths and Inequalities, Burns, P. and Novelli M. eds. (2008). Wallingford: CABI

20) Tourism Safety and the Security for the Caribbean, Drs. Andrew Spencer and Peter Tarlow, Published by Emerald 

21) Tourism in Turbulent Times. Toward Safe Experiences for Visitors. Edited by Jeff Wilks, Donna Pendergast, and Peter Leggart. Published by Elsevier.

22) Tourism Management: Analysis, Behavior and Strategy, edited by Woodside and Martin, published by Cabi, London, England

23) Tourism-Oriented Policing and Protective Services,Peter Tarlow, published by IGI

24) Tourism Security: Strategies for Effectively Managing Travel Risk and Safety by Peter Tarlow  published by Elsevier ISBN: 978-0-12-411570-5

25) Tourism Security & Safety, from Theory to Practice. Edited by Yoel Mansfeld and Abraham Pizam, published by Elsevier.

26) The 2020 Election: A Suvivor’s Guide: Peter Tarlow and Steve Vincent

27) Twenty Years of Tourism Tidbits: by Dr. Peter Tarlow and Dr. Tom Marrs.  The Book is now on Kindle and Amazon. Please go to
http://www.amazon.com/TWENTY-YEARS-TOURISM-TIDBITS-ebook/dp/B004Q9TIWW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1299276788&sr=1-2

28) 24 Sustainable Cultural Tourism: Small-Scale Solutions by Susan Guyette, Ph.D. ISBN: 978-0-9858788-0-1 On Amazon.com

29) 25 Marketing Strategies to Build Your Outdoor Recreation Business by Evanne Schmarder and Peter Pelland. Published by Train Rec Productions. Please contact E. Schmarder  evanne@roadabode.com on where to purchase this book or find it on amazon 

 Libros en español/ Livros em Português

1.  Abordagem Multidisciplinar dos Cruzeiros Turísticos (A Multi-disciplinary Approach to the Study of Cruises) by Dr. Peter Tarlow, Ericka Amorim, Cyntia Andrade, Nina Cardona and Valéria Mariotti. Please contact Ericka Amorim at email: erickaaa@msn.com.

2) Antropologia e Turismo. Teorias, métodos e praxis,  por Xerardo Pereiro e Filipa Fernande. Para comprarlo dirijase a  

<http://www.pasosonline.org/es/colecciones/pasos-edita/151-numero-20-antropologia-e-turismo?

3) Desarrollo del turismo en América Latina: fases, enfoques e internacionalización por Wallingre, N

Disponible en  http://eyapublicaciones.web.unq.edu.ar

4) Geografía y Turismo. Aspectos territoriales del manejo y gestión del turismo. Editorial Félix Varela. La Habana, 2013, 295 páginas Autor: Eros Salinas Chávez ,  contacto:  esalinas@ftur.uh.cu

5) Inversión Hotelera, by Alfredo Ascanio. Go to: http://etrillas.com.mx/trillas/busqueda/php
 
6).   La Nueva Fiebre del Oro. Las otras ciudades del turismo en el Caribe (Varadero, Bavaro- Punta Cana).  To obtain a copy of this book please visit: GGU-AGE: http://www.uib.es/ggu/publicaciones.html
OCDS UIB:http://cooperacio.uib.cat/digitalAssets/221/221991_Las-otras-ciudades-del-turismo-en-El-Caribe.pdf

7)  ¿Ocio o….Neg-Ocio?

Abelardo Pagani

8) Principios, Organización, y práctica de turismo, Ramón Martín, Editorial Felix Valela, Havana, Cuba

9) Productos Turísticos,  Medina, Santqamariana, y Salinas,  Escuela de Altos Estudios de Hoteleria y Turismo, La Habana, Cuba
 
10)  Turismo en el Caribe, por “Jesús Manuel González Pérez y otros.  Please contact Dr. Gonzalez for additional information: jesus.gonzalez@uib.es

11)  Turismo Sustentable por Alfredo Ascanio and Marcus Vinicius .Go to:  http://etrillas.com.mx/trillas/busqueda/php

_________________________________________

Some Upcoming Tourism Conferences

The World Tourism Network’s Bali  Five-in-One Think Tank Experience: It is more than a mere chance to learn and network in the world’s most hospitable location

When: September 28-Oct 1, 2023 

If your business is related to travel & tourism then you can discover new experiences in a unique part of the world  in an entirely new format from other global travel tourism events – 

This out-of-the box unique experience will allow you to meet and network with the contributors who are shaping the future of our Travel Tourism Industry be more accountable and sustainable

Some of the topics to learn and discuss are: *Marketing to Indonesian tourists 

*Health and medical tourism  

*Cultural tourism, 

*How climate change is impacting SMEs around the world

*Resilience with Passion

*Ad-on tours of Bali

For more information go to < https://time2023.com>  or contact Mudi Astuti at <mudiastuti68@yahoo.com> 

_________________________________________

About the Author:

Dr. Peter E. Tarlow is the President of T&M, a founder of the Texas chapter of TTRA and a popular author and speaker on tourism. Tarlow is a specialist in the areas of sociology of tourism, economic development, tourism safety and security. Tarlow speaks at governors’ and state conferences on tourism and conducts seminars throughout the world and for numerous agencies and universities.

If you know of anyone else who might enjoy “Tourism Tidbits,” please send his/her email address to ptarlow@tourismandmore.com, Please let us know of any topic that you would like to see covered by “Tourism Tidbits.” We invite others to submit articles for consideration for publication.

You are welcome to reproduce “Tourism Tidbits” or any part of “Tourism Tidbits” with proper citing.  We hope that you will see “Tourism Tidbits” as a place where tourism, visitor, and travel professionals exchange ideas and information. “Tourism Tidbits” does not offer or provide specific legal or financial advice. Our goal is to provide a “review” for industry personnel and discuss provocative issues. We remind all readers that every specific business decision should be made only after you have done the proper research. The author(s) accept(s) no responsibility for any loss due to any information published in “Tourism Tidbits.”

All articles sent to “Tourism Tidbits” and accepted for publication are owned by “Tourism Tidbits” and may be subjected to editorial review and rewriting (with permission of the author). All questions about “Tourism Tidbits”, suggestions, or cancellations should be addressed to Dr. Peter E. Tarlow at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com