ABSTRACT

Cheese recently acquired a major role as a tourist attraction, cheese tourism appearing in parallel to the increasing regional impact of food tourism practices. As a means of valuing local produce, recovering cultural heritage and appreciating natural landscapes, cheese making became a significant activity for community development, diversification and innovation in rural areas. Here, tourism is an innovation process that allows the economic survival of local small agri-food companies. Drawing from phenomenological ethnographic fieldwork based on participatory observation, this research discusses the mutual relations between the innovative processes of artisanal cheese sector and food tourism in rural Catalonia. Results provide evidence on how innovation occurs through milk and cheese production in rural environments as, from their role as primary economic activities, they progressively became a crucial actor within the tourism industry. This research contributes to the understanding of the processes of diversification and innovation in rural and natural environments, based on the specific case of artisanal cheese making in the Catalan Pyrenees. In this sense, gastronomic tourism practices confirm the entrepreneurial role of local producers in economic and tourist development.

摘要

奶酪最近在旅游景点中扮演了重要角色，奶酪旅游与食品旅游业对区域的影响日益增加同时出现。作为珍贵当地产品，恢复文化遗产和欣赏自然景观的一种手段，奶酪制作成为农村地区社区发展，多样化和创新的重要活动。在这里，旅游业是一个创新过程，可以使当地的小型农业食品公司在经济上生存。这项研究基于参与研究的现象学民族志实地考察，探讨了加泰罗尼亚乡村手工业奶酪行业的创新过程与美食旅游之间的相互关系。结果提供了证据，证明了如何通过在农村环境中生产牛奶和奶酪来实现创新，例如，从其作为主要经济活动的角色开始，他们逐渐成为旅游业中的关键角色。这项研究基于加泰罗尼亚比利牛斯​​山脉的手工奶酪制作的具体案例，有助于理解农村和自然环境中的多样化和创新过程。从这个意义上讲，美食旅游实践证实了当地生产者在经济和旅游业发展中的企业家作用。