GASTRO EVENTS, AN IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR PRESERVATION OF CULTURE, TRADITION AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT - CASE STUDY OF ŠUMADIJA DISTRICT

Abstract

Food in one country, region and even the local environment is the fruit of the tradition of its inhabitants, but also their culture, history, religion, geography (climate, terrain, land, etc.) and a number of other factors. The listed factors give food authenticity, which can be the basis for the production of desirable food products, meals in catering and tourism development. The subject of this paper is food in gastro-turistic events in the region covered by the Šumadija district. With the application of research methods appropriate to the subject of research, the paper aimed to analyze the representation of touristic gastronomic events, as important factors in preserving culture, tradition and regional development. The results indicate that these events are numerous and that tourists are happy to visit them to enjoy local food and drink, culture, tradition and natural beauty of visited destination. This confirms that local food plays an important role in the way of tourist experience of the destination, but also that tourists are willing to experience local food, as the main reason for coming to the visited environment. This successfully maintains the tradition and supports the local development of the environment. The following methods were used in the research - theoretical (definition, classification, induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis); - field research (interview of the management of tourist organizations of the researched area, using a questionnaire adopted by Condrasky et al., 2007, modified for this research) - statistical (statistical observation).
Key words: food, gastro-tourism, culture, tradition and local development.
JEL classification: Z1, Z32, Z39