Costa Brava Culinary Tourism Routes and Relational Dynamics

Costa Brava Culinary Tourism Routes and Relational Dynamics

Tourist destinations are usually associated with certain images that are based on main attractions. The development of new products is one of the most commonly adopted strategies when the destination product and its images have reached the critical stage for survival in the product life cycle (Butler, 1980). Gastronomy is becoming an important attribute in the development of niche travel and niche destinations. This paper from the focus of the agents (private suppliers, tourism associations, governmental organizations) analyzes the case of the two touristic routes about the culinary tourism on the Costa Brava (Catalonia, Spain), which is now trying to establish a new image other than the sun and beach. One is a route of the wine and other one is a gastronomic route. By it, from an external data collection, has been realized a social network analysis (SNA) of the relations generated in the networks by the agents involved with the development of these routes. This analysis has confirmed the importance of the social networks generated by the public and private agents involved with the development of a new touristic product created with the same aim, so that there is one relationship between the relational dynamics generated by these networks and the level of development of this tourism in a destination.