from slow food to slow tourism

FROM SLOW FOOD TO SLOW TOURISM Alica Lacková, Vanda Rogovská

Abstract The work presents a comprehensive view of the Slow Food movement, which was founded in 1989 in Italy as one of many movements and initiatives seeking an alternative to the unsustainable trends of contemporary culture mainstream, respectively rapid consumer society. The objective of the Slow Food movement is creating a new „culinary science“ and „new model“ of food systems. The aim of the second part is to trace evolution of Slow Tourism and synthesis of the existing Slow Tourism definitions. Is Slow Food and Slow Tourism way to sustainability? This study can serve as a valuable starting point for a variety of economic analysis.

Key words: Slow Movement, Slow Food, food, Slow Travel, Slow Tourism, tourism, sustainability 1.

SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

1.1

Characteristics of Movement

Slow food is the food or foods, which are produced in the traditional way from regional ingredients. Slow food, however, it is more than just a meal, it's a movement that has as its primary objective of protection traditional, local food, preserve the culture of food, its preparation and dining. Slow food struggles against food globalization and giant fast food chains that radically blurred specificity of national cuisines. Slow Food movement („slow food“) was founded in Italy in 1986 at the initiative of gastronomy Carlo Petrini as a direct response to the increasingly popular fast food restaurants (fast food) and fast lifestyle in general. The official creation of the international Slow Food movement dates back to 1989, when at the founding meeting in Paris was signed Slow Food Manifesto by delegates from 15 founding countries (www1). Slow Food has currently over 1500 different local associations – convivia, records worldwide more than 100 000 members, 1 million volunteers and supporters in 150 countries - people with an interest in food products, ways in which they are placed on our table and method in which they are produced and processed, as well as the regional and national culinary heritage and food traditions. The headquarters of the movement is in Bra, Italy. Movement is funded by membership fees and donations from sponsors. The symbol of the Slow Food movement is a snail. The main priorities of Slow Food (www2) represent three words referred to as the three objectives of the movement: 1. Purity (Clean) - especially cleanliness of the environment and its preservation, 2. Quality (Good) - maintaining the quality of the product, 3. Fairness (Fair) - preserve the honor of producers and a reasonable return on investment in the region. 1.2

Initiatives and Projects Movement

The main activities of the Slow Food movement are to protect food biodiversity, connecting Slow Food producers and consumers and increase awareness of the urgency of the issues relating to the food system (Baldereschi et al., 2014). These initiatives are organized by local

convivia, major projects, campaigns and events are coordinated by the National Desks and international Slow Food headquarters. Movement specified the following main areas of concern: - Protection of food biodiversity, - Education and training in food, - International events, - Current issues. 2.

FROM SLOW FOOD TO SLOW MOVEMENT

Quick tempo of our living is one of the effect of globalization. This pace is visible in all aspects of life: work, shopping, travel, etc. and it has serious negative consequences. It was confirmed that stress and speed generate serious medical issues. Modern food and eating habits have taken their toll on our health. However, some people have begun to argue for a new kind of lifestyle. Based on the ideas and philosophy of Carlo Petrini started a new movement in gastronomy – Slow Food. The philosophy of the Slow Food movement expanded in several directions: Cittaslow, Slow Travel and Tourism, Slow religion and Slow Money etc (Paul, 2014). Slow Movement is one of many movements and initiatives seeking an alternative to the unsustainable trends of contemporary culture mainstream, respectively rapid consumer society. It seeks to challenge the process known as "progress" and "development", under which it is justified with the destruction of cultural and biological diversity. Finding alternatives to the concept of "progress", respectively „development" leads the glorification of a high standard of living than the ideal inclination to quality of life, and national satisfaction, well being. The real benefit is the movement reversal attention to rural sites and their potential as well as the potential of small towns, the search for alternatives to the unsustainable pattern of behavior and unsustainable trends of modern society (the global market, intensive agriculture etc.). Activities and philosophy of the movement are not superficial, is a set of sophisticated ideas. It is necessary to maintain and nurture the next generation is in this spirit, and it would be appropriate to present its ideas already in primary schools. As the next generation will develop since childhood in the spirit of Slow Food, will therefore appear interested in healthy, tasty, quality and sustainable products and dishes will conserve biodiversity and the landscape for future generations. The movement has gradually become a sociopolitical effort to counter the influence of large food corporations and chains on the existence of small business owners, cultural diversity and biodiversity. Slow Food is committed to social and environmental responsibility presenting with an emphasis on local employment, the preservation of traditional crafts and small farms, to preserve a wide variability of local varieties of fruit, vegetables and legumes, and also the maintenance of the diversity of local varieties and breeds and environmental protection. The instrument of this effort is to support local production of traditional production methods and recipes. On the initiative of Slow Food to the early 90s specific subculture from which the movement developed „Slow Movement“ (Tomková, 2011). Slow Movement has three objectives being: 1. The co-largest database activities Slow Movement, also called „Slow Planet“, 2. The department training platform on the activities and philosophy of Slow Movement, 3. Make a mark „Slow Production“.

Institute slowness should provide an idea called „Slow Planet“ and try to provide inspiration to slow down and why. It Slow Planet is the name of the open virtual communities slowsupporters. It's a service that is run free and open to the public. According to the official website of the Slow Movement Institute creates professional platform and according to your own website reserves the primary role in promoting and generating slow philosophy. The declared common goal of the slow planet and the World Institute slowness is called„Slow Revolution“, which should have a global character. The following activities are part of Slow Planet: - „Slow Cities“- not only support local food, but also the craft products that are rooted in local culture and traditions, to highlight the uniqueness of the city and promote economic selfsufficiency area. - „Slow Production“- trying to change the mode of production, bring it closer to human scale. Declaring approaches slow production should be simplicity, awareness of origin, its production and transparency in terms of disclosure of origin and manufacture of products. Slow production has lead to a new setting of the economy and change the economic model. - „Slow Money Movement“- the central idea is redirecting investors and donors to finance projects that are local in nature, thus, for example, small businesses with food producers in organic agriculture and local food systems. The investor will also require rapid return on investment in terms of its rapid financial recovery, but it will be benefits for environmental and socially sustainable development of local communities and the gradual return of investment. -„Slow Design“- set trends in design, placing particular accent on production using local materials, technology, tradition and experience one of the methods as ecodesign, which in order to minimize the impact on the environment uses waste as feed stock, renewable materials, reducing the amount and volume of packaging production approach the point of final consumption. Another way is to support the development of the car repairers or leasing. - Training in Slow Food / „Slow Slow Schools and Education“ - a concept first counted only to the supply canteen of products and materials derived under Slow Food principles. Gradually, however, began to expand and created a theoretical platform on which basis should come to the restructuring of the education system (the concept of environmental education, where students are introduced to non-violent principles, values and attitudes and Slow Food is an important part of the practical training). - „Slow travel“/“Slow tourism“- in sustainable tourism for the quality, not the quantity of travel. Emphasis is placed on sufficient time spent perception of what is around us, not the headless consumption and efforts to visitation of as many sights as soon as possible. It is a contrast to the standard catalog tourism, respecting cultural integrity of the country. Another type of spending holiday preffered by members of Slow Motion is so-called „Voluntarism“ tourism for voluntary contributions (volunteering at a local school, hospital, drop-in centers, non-profit organization). 3.

SLOW TOURISM/ SLOW TRAVEL

3.1

Charakteristics

The philosophy of the Slow Food Movement can be easily applied to tourism. „Central to the meaning and concept of Slow Tourism is the shift in focus from achieving a quantity and volume of experiences while on holiday towards the quality of (generally fewer) experiences.” (Heitmann et al., 2011). Gardner (2009) author of „A manifesto for slow travel” considers that slow travel „is about deceleration rather than speed“. From the perspective of Dickinson (2009), slow tourism consists of fewer vacations and longer stays, air travel is not

used, but other forms of transport which are more environmentally friendly, and transport becomes part of the tourist experience. At first glance, it might appear that Slow Tourism is synonymous with Soft Tourism that was coined in the 80’s (Broggi, 1985; Krippendorf, 1987) and used as a way to differentiate alternative types of tourism which are perceived to be more environmentally and socially acceptable (e.g. rural, eco, green, agricultural, individual, smaller scale) from the ‘harder’ forms of mass, packaged or large-scale tourism (Slee et al., 1997; Snowdon et al., 2000). The 30-year-plus antecedents of slow travel are examined. A literature review shows a concentration on four key features: slowness and the value of time; locality and activities at the destination; mode of transport and travel experience; and environmental consciousness. Links to the slow food and slow city movements are discussed, and evidence that slow travel is an important emergent form of tourism in Europe, accounting for 10% of the holiday market, is provided (Lumsdon and McGrath, 2011). The World Travel Market Euromonitor Global Trends Report in 2007 predicted that ST would be the new trend in Western Europe. They said that it will continue to grow in popularity, becoming an alternative to more traditional beach and culture holidays and that the main beneficiaries would be Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, and France. They also noted that the trend of ST was spreading to the U.S. and Latin America. Hall (2011) views slow tourism as a macroeconomic concept and it compares it to steadystate tourism, rather than a form of tourism. Also, slow travel can reduce the pressure on climate change, as it „could help create a modal shift in transport to the least polluting systems. Given that one such modality is rail, shifts may not be as difficult as imagined”. (Burns and Bigging, 2009) Hall (2006) also noted that the issue of mode and distance of travel inherent in Slow Travel is problematic and that rural areas that are not within a day-trip radius from metropolitan areas would suffer from lack of visitors. The journey is an integral part of slow travel. Ceron and Dubois (2007) question whether consumers will have the propensity to change behaviour to low-carbon forms of tourism, thus making a clear association with environmental impact. In Journal of Sustainable Tourism terms of benefits and time in relation to journeys is up to five to six hours. Walking and cycling are forms of tourism transport that offer so much more than the car in terms of perceiving the environment in far greater detail, and allowing other senses to share in that perception – experience the sounds, the touch, even the taste and the smell of the natural world and cultural landscape. In transport for tourism terms, therefore slow is beautiful. Caffyn (2007), defined slow tourism as „tourism which involves making real and meaningful connections with people (i.e. local community, your companions, yourself), places, culture, food, heritage and the environment. The current reality is that most travelers do not care what they are labeled by others and they plan and execute their travels based on multiple, and complex motivations. Some of their trips may be short and fast while other trips may be long and slow or some other combination. They may also utilize various forms of transportation to reach their destination or while staying in their destination. This reality was also supported by the findings of Dickinson (2009), Hall (2006), and Molz (2009).

A report undertaken by Mintel (2009), for example, refers to slow travel as overland travel including the car. The exclusion of the car is a problematic issue that is discussed by the participants in the primary research. Slow Tourism is a type of special interest tourism that can occur in both rural and urban settings. It is an outgrowth of the sociopolitical ideology and consumption practices of the Slow Food Movement and has developed as an alternative to or push-back against the fast paced, unhealthy, and unsustainable lifestyle of modern society. In other words, ST is also a form of political consumption and a new form of sustainable tourism development that is based on the push-back from fast lifestyle, ideology and consumption practices and not as an alternative to mass tourism (e.g. the „soft/hard” dichotomy). In addition, this study identified three important aspects of Slow Tourism Development: (1) it is more fully developed in countries with high concentrations of CittaSlow designated cites such as Italy; (2) it develops in different ways in different countries and cities; and (3) it develops in stages. Choosing a ST type of holiday at a CittaSlow designated city would be similar to purchasing „certified” organic or fair trade products. Numerous Governmental Agricultural Bureaus/Departments as well as media sources report that the demand for organic, fair trade, and locally produced products are increasing. Yoeman et al. (2007) described this trend as consumers need for the „real or authentic” and noted that the „rise of the Slow Food movement has a direct correlation with people changing their diet across all social grades, indicating a growing health consciousness and also a desire to change their ordinary lives to accommodate something that is perceived as incorporating more goodness for their bodies”. ABTA (2011) reported that sustainability issues are vital to the travel industry and they developed a Traveling Sustainability System that can help travelers make informed choices when choosing ethically motivated holidays . They also reported that a third of senior executives in the tourism sector believe that over the next five years there will be an increase in the number of environmentally aware types of vacations. Euromonitor International in 2010 noted that consumers are reevaluating and changing their lifestyle and consumption practices in order to have a better quality of life as well as enriching experiences and describe this as a change from conspicuous consumption to calculated consumption. 3.2

Slow Tourism vs Slow Travel

Slow tourism and Slow travel was from the start used simultaneously, but the reality is quite different. Travel includes the shift from point 1 (home) to point 2 (destination). That means, the slow component is primarily observed in the means of transportation: avoiding air travel, and insisting on walking, hiking, cycling. This is different i the case of tourism. Because of its complexity, the slow component in tourism can be observed in several fields: transportation, accommodation (small scale guest-houses), food (the principles of slow food) and culture (local culture and traditions). So, slow travel is essentially a part of slow tourism. CONCLUSIONS The slow philosophy has a few inherent defect, unfortunately. We are not able through Slow Food principles feed 7 – 8 billion people (2014). By consuming local products consumers avoid imports from developing countries and agriculture might represent the only economic activity for these. Next, the Cittaslow eliminates from the start cities with population over 50.000 inhabitants, that means this concept is not suitable for large human settlements. The high level of concentration of the member cities (more than 50% of the members come from Italy) is another problem. Slow travel and tourism are increasing, but by avoiding air transport, several far-destinations (for example the Small Island States) will have to face a

decrease of the number of tourists and this will reduce the economic benefits for countries, from which are many also developing (Paul, 2014). Slow travel became a sociocultural phenomenon with focus on holiday making but also on day leisure visits, where personal time is used differently. Slowness is valued, and the journey is integrated to the whole experience. The mode of transport and the activities undertaken at a destination are increased by the richness of the experience through slowness. The experience of locality counts for much, as does reduced duration or distance of travel. Slow travel can therefore be best described as a different type of holiday which has the potential to reduce environmental impact. In this sense, it is allied to an ongoing discourse in Journal of Sustainable Tourism in relation to the modern concept of time and the crisis of ecology as discussed by Adams (2004). To the most important motivation in the case of slow tourism is promoting sustainable tourism. Either through helping the needy or supporting local businesses and traditions or protecting the environment sustainable tourists get a higher level of satisfaction from their holiday experience. Nevertheless, slowness in general and slow tourism in particular can be advantageous as means of implementing sustainable development principles, at least partially. Because of its complexity, we can’t hope to find a single solution for all the issues in the world, but slowness might be the start. In conclusion, we consider that the slow movement with all its components represents one of the few actions of individuals towards a sustainable civilization. But, it is not the solution for all the world’s problems and it cannot be applied worldwide. The post has been developed under the project VEGA No.1 / 0635/14: Status and prospects of development of the organic food market, traditional and regional food in Slovakia. Bibliography  Adams, W. M., 2004, Against Extinction: The Story of Conservation, Oryx International Journal of Conservation, 38, 4, 461-467, DOI: 10.1017/S0030605304000869.  ALCHUSOVÁ, L., 2011, Analýza aktuálnej marketingovej situácie firmy s filozofiou Slow Food. in Interakcia masmediálnej a marketingovej komunikácie, eds. D. Petranová, R. Rybanský, Zborník z medzinárodnej vedeckej konferencie: Nové trendy v marketingu, Trnava, 2011. pp. 8-13. ISBN: 978-80-8105-334-4.  Baldereschi, F., Ciocola, S., Gianni, E., Milano, S., Ponzio, R., 2014, Slow Food Presidia. Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, 85 p.  Caffyn, A., 2007, Slow tourism. The tourism society journal, isme 133: 12.  Broggi, M., 1985, Sanfter Tourism: Schlagwort oder Chance für den Alpenraum? Vaduz: CIPRA  Burns, P.M. and Bibbings, L.J., 2009, The end of tourism? Climate change and societal changes. 21st Century Society, 4 (1): pp. 31-51.  Ceron, J. P., Dubois, G., 2007, Limits to tourism? A backcasting scenario for a sustain-able mobility in 2050 in P. Burns and M. Novelli (eds) Tourism and Mobility, Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.  Dickinson, J., 2009, Slow Tourism Travel for a Lower Carbon Future, available online: http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/icthr/PDFs/rgsnontech.pdf.  Dickinson, J., Lumsdon, L. 2010, Slow Travel and Tourism. London: Earthscan.  Gardner, N., 2009, A manifesto for slow travel, Hidden Europe (March/April), available online: http://www.hiddeneurope.co.uk/a-manifesto-for-slow-travel

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www sources www1: http://www.slowfood.com (20. 11. 2014) www2: http://www.kruhzivota.sk/ekonomika-daru (20. 11. 2014)

Contact: Alica Lacková Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave Obchodná fakulta Dolnozemská cesta 1 852 35 Bratislava Slovakia tel.: +421-944-587 315 email: [email protected]

Vanda Rogovská Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave Obchodná fakulta Dolnozemská cesta 1 852 35 Bratislava Slovakia tel.: +421-2-672 91367 email: [email protected]