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Maslow’s hierarchy and food tourism in Finland: five cases

Maslow’s hierarchy and food tourism

Irma Tikkanen Department of Business and Management, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland, and Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Helsinki, Finland

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Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the sectors of food tourism in Finland by using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the classification. Design/methodology/approach – Previous research on food tourism concentrates on the role of food as an attraction, as a cultural phenomenon, and as an experience. Moreover, food from productional and motivational viewpoints is reviewed briefly. The empirical data consists both of the secondary data and an interview. Findings – The findings introduce five sectors of food tourism where the needs and motivations are linked with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Practical implications – The practical implications are that the food tourism promoters could emphasize the needs and motivations when marketing food tourism services. Originality/value – Sectors of food tourism in Finland classified by the hierarchy of needs are presented, providing practical implications for food tourism promoters and thus offering motivations for food tourism. Keywords Food products, Analytical hierarchy process, Motivation (psychology), Personal needs, Tourism, Finland Paper type Viewpoint

Introduction Eating is one of our physiological needs even when outside our usual environment. In addition to our physiological needs, other needs and motivations exist with respect to food tourism. Food and beverage expenditures amount to one-third of overall tourist expenditures of the global tourism turnover (Meler and Cerovic´, 2003). Despite the importance of food as an input in the tourism sector, it continues to receive very little attention in the literature (Telfer and Wall, 1996). Fodness (1994) and Goossens (2000) stated that motivation is one of the least researched areas in tourism, both conceptually and empirically. The process of translating a need into the motivation to visit a specific destination or to undertake a specific activity is quite complex (Holloway, 1998). Holloway demonstrated a diagram, in which the consumer need forms the basis. The diagram indicates that the consumer forms a perception of what will satisfy a need. However, the consumer perception of the attractions is based on the actual attractions. Consequently, if these two agree, consequently a motivation to visit a destination will follow. In summary, the needs, motives, and drives operate as push factors in the consumer’s dispositions. The push motives have been useful for explaining, e.g. the desire to go on a vacation (Goossens, 2000).

British Food Journal Vol. 109 No. 9, 2007 pp. 721-734 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0007-070X DOI 10.1108/00070700710780698

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Research problem The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of food and its various roles in tourism. Moreover, the following research questions are investigated: RQ1. What is the link between needs and motivations in Maslow’s hierarchy, and how are they linked with tourism?

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RQ2. What are the roles of food in tourism research? RQ3. What are the sectors of food tourism in Finland when using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the classification? The research design can be described both as explorative and descriptive, and the research approach as deductive. Secondary and primary data is utilized. The viewpoint is that of a food tourism promoter. The present paper excludes fishing tourism, since it is outside the scope of the study. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and motivation Pearce (1993) (Prentice, 2004) identified three theoretical approaches to motivational psychology in tourism. One of those, namely the travel career ladder, is based on Maslow’s general motivational theory with hierarchy of needs, and is part of a broader theoretical application. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943) there are at least five sets of goals which we may call basic needs (Figure 1). These are as follows: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow believed that human beings aspire to become self-actualizing (Stephens, 2000). The needs that are usually taken as the starting point for a motivation theory are the so-called physiological drives. A person who is lacking food, safety, love, and esteem would most probably crave for food more strongly than for anything else (Stephens, 2000). Holloway (1998) calls these needs basic needs, e.g. food, water, air. Hjalager and Antonioli Corigliano (2000) add that eating is a physical necessity but catering services and food images are also very important ingredients of cultural tourism. If the physiological needs are relatively well gratified, consequently, a new set of needs emerge, which may be categorized roughly as the safety needs (Stephens, 2000).

Figure 1. Hierarchy of needs

The safety needs represent the desire to be free of danger (Seeley, 1988; Pearce, 1988, 1996); Lepp and Gibson (2003) hypothesized that more experienced tourists seek to satisfy higher order needs, while less experienced tourists are more likely to be occupied with lower order needs such as food and safety. Lepp and Gibson (2003) found that the mass tourists perceived strange food to be more of a concern than individuals favouring the other three roles. Furthermore, men perceived less risks than women. The respondents with the least experience perceived greater risks. Also, strange food was identified as a risk factor among the tourists most averse to novelty, namely the mass tourists. The perception of risk associated with strange food varied: the familiarity seeking individuals’ perceived higher degrees of risk. Griffith (2006) illustrates that food safety is a multidiciplinary problem. That includes food processing and legislation; management systems and organisational culture; microbiological, chemical and physical hazards; and human behaviour. Strategies and research in the future are likely to recognise not only the importance of food safety management systems but also the role of individuals working within a business food safety culture. Health risks stemming from poor food and water quality are perceived to be greater in Africa and Asia than in Europe and Australasia (Lepp and Gibson, 2003). WTO (2006) claims that every state should undertake necessary measures to improve food safety. If both the physiological and safety needs are fairly well gratified, subsequently the needs for love, affection and belongingness arise (Stephens, 2000). The belongingness or love needs of the individual represent a wide variety of needs from a sense of affiliation (group membership, clubs, churches, work affiliations, etc.) to friendship and love of spouses, children, and parents (Seeley, 1988). Holloway (1998) calls these needs social needs, e.g. affection, love, and friendship. All people have a need or desire for a stable, firmly based, high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the respect of others (Stephens, 2000). The esteem needs represent an individual desire for a feeling of self-confidence and adequacy. This may reflect internal feelings of strength, achievement, independence, or external desires of reputation, prestige, recognition, attention, etc. (Seeley, 1988). Even if all these needs are satisfied, we may still often expect that a new discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual has an inward vocation. In other words, what a man can be, he must be. This need could be called self-actualization (Stephens, 2000). Self-actualization indicates, in the most general terms, the desire to realize one’s full potential (Seeley, 1988). The needs above must be understood not to be exclusive or single determiners of certain kinds of behaviour. Not all behaviour is determined by the basic needs. We might even say that not all behaviour is motivated as there are many determinants of behaviour other than motives (Stephens, 2000). Holloway and Plant (1988) summarize the consumers’ travel and tourism needs and relate these to the Maslow’s hierarchy. Motivation for travel and tourism can be categorized as follows: holiday travel, business travel, health travel, visiting friends and relatives, religious travel, travel for an economic benefit, travel for educational purposes, and finally sports and activities travel. Holloway and Plant (1988) categorize all those activities under five basic needs: physical, cultural, interpersonal, commercial

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as well as needs related to status and prestige. Holloway and Plant (1988) also discuss how those needs relate to the levels of need in Maslow’s hierarchy. The physical needs are related to rest, relaxation, action, adventure, and health. In addition, the cultural needs include educational, historical/archeological, political, scientific/technical, arts, religion, and commercial needs. Tourists do not seek to satisfy one single need but a number of quite distinct needs simultaneously. As indicated above, the essence of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in this paper is that the five hierarchical levels have to be explored before a thorough understanding of food tourism is full and the analysis can take place. However, the food tourism in the developed countries, such as in Finland, is an interest of the wealthier inhabitants, for whom the lower order needs of survival are already fully satisfied. Thus, the applicability of Maslow’s hierarchy mainly lies in higher order needs. However, there are still some food product groups that attract food tourists also on the lower level of Maslow’s hierachy of needs regionally, nationally, and internationally due to taxes, prices, currency exchange rate or the quality of the foodstuffs. Needs and motivations in tourism research The process between the needs, motivations and visits to destinations is quite complex (Holloway and Plant, 1988). Fodness (1994) in his excellent article writes that while motivation is only one among many variables that may contribute to explaining the behaviour of the tourists, it is nevertheless a critical variable because it is the driving force behind all behaviour. A basic motivation theory describes a dynamic process of internal psychological factors (needs, wants, and goals) that generate an uncomfortable level of tension, which thereby satisfies the needs. The whole area of motivation and demand has been one of the least researched areas of tourism to date (Pearce, 1988; Fodness, 1994). The functional approach posits that individuals hold certain attitudes since such attitudes serve psychological needs (Fodness, 1994). Fodness integrated tourist motivation literature into a functional framework including six reasons for travel as follows: the ego-defensive function, the knowledge function, the utilitarian function/reward maximization, the utilitarian function/punishment avoidance, the value-expression function, and the social adjustive function. In the ego-defensive function attitudes that the individuals hold to protect themselves from unflattering or threatening truths are said to satisfy the ego-defensive needs. The knowledge function indicates attitudes that help individuals organize what they know and consequently helps them understand the world. Furthermore, the utilitarian function with reward maximization and punishment avoidance indicates attitudes that help to maximize rewards or to minimize punishments from the environment. A value-expressive function served by attitudes enables an individual to express an important value to others. And finally, the social adjustive function served by attitudes help the individual to maintain important interpersonal relationships. The reasons (the purpose of the trip) and motivations for travel are not the same for individuals as they are for psychologists and behavioural marketers: motivation must be related to needs and personal goals (Middleton, 1990; Fodness, 1994). Fodness (1994) states that a widely-accepted integrated theory of the needs and personal goals behind the reasons given for travel and, furthermore, the benefit sought from it is, however, lacking.

Pearce and Caltabiano (1983) used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a framework to infer travel motivations from the traveller’s experiences. The findings fit neatly within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Fodness, 1994). While the work of Pearce and Caltabiano (1983) is certainly a step in the right direction, the motivational theory upon which they focus – Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – has thus far proven resistant to valid and reliable operationalisation (Fodness, 1994). Later, motivation has been studied in different tourism contexts, e.g. market segments of push and pull motivations (Balogly and Uysal, 1996), tourism motivation and expectation formation (Gnoth, 1997), tourism motivation process (McCabe, 2000), visitor motivations (Stein et al., 2003), wine tourism behaviour (Alant and Bruwer, 2004), visits to the Swedish mountains (Fredman and Heberlein, 2005), adolescents’ and parents’ holiday motivations and desires (Carr, 2006), as well as senior tourism motivations (Hsu et al., 2007). The most significant contribution the literature review above has to the present study is that needs and motivations lie behind all behaviour. Motivations are thus seen either of behavioural or cognitive construct (McCabe, 2000). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can also be applied in various tourism contexts. Approaches to the role of food in tourism in previous research Food tourism is defined by Hall and Mitchell (2001, p. 308; 2005, p. 74) as “a visitation to primary and secondary food producers, food festivals, restaurants and specific locations for which food tasting and/or experiencing the attributes of specialist food production region are the primary motivating factor for travel”. This definition, however, seems rather insufficient in explaining all food tourism. Wine, food and tourism have long been closely related. However, it is only recently that the roles which wine and food play in attracting tourists to a destination have come to be explicitly recognised by the governments, researchers and by the wine, food and tourism industries. Food has become recognised as: . a part of the local culture, which tourists consume; . a part of tourist promotion; . a potential component of local agricultural and economic development; and . a regional factor that is affected by the consumption patterns and perceived preferences of the tourists (Hall and Mitchel, 2001; Misiura, 2006, pp. 207-208). In the previous research we can identify five approaches to food with respect to motivation for a visit. First approach is “food as a tourist attraction” (e.g. Hjalager and Richards, 2002), which focuses on Western tourism to well-developed Western destinations. On the other hand, “food in tourism as an attraction and impediment” (e.g. Cohen and Avieli, 2004) stresses the complications and impediments experienced by the tourists in the local culinary sphere in unfamiliar destinations. The study was conducted by integrating some such culinary notions in culinary sociology with the conceptions of the sociology of tourism. The second approach is “foodstuffs as a tourist product component”. There are multiple factors influencing the foodstuff volume and consumption structure as the tourist product component (Meler and Cerovic´, 2003). The third approach is “food experience in tourism”. Quan and Wang (2004) introduced the conceptual model of tourist experience with two dimensions, where

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peak tourist experiences refer to the experience of the attractions that constitute the major motivations for tourism. By contrast, the latter mainly refers to the experiences of gratifying basic consumer needs on the journey, such as eating, sleeping and transport, which do not constitute the major motivations for tourism. For a tourist consumer, the satisfaction of nutritional needs is not a mere act, but increasingly a culinary-gastronomic “experience” (Meler and Cerovic´, 2003). The fourth approach is “the role of food in culture” (e.g. Hegarty and O’Mahony, 2001; Williams, 1997; Quan and Wang, 2004), where food consumption is regarded as one of the most important factors in the destination marketing development. Long (2004, p. 2) writes that the scholarship relevant to culinary tourism derives primarily from the following three fields: anthropology of tourism, folklore, and food studies. There are frequent overlaps in the literature of the fields, and the interdisciplinarity, particularly of the latter two fields, tends not to only cross the boundaries between the humanities, arts, and social sciences, but it also bridges the academic, public or applied domains. Theories are put into action and translated into festival presentations, public displays, nutritional guidelines, and restaurant development as well as marketing and education. The fifth approach is “linkages between tourism and food production”. The relationships between food production and tourism range from the conflict over competition for land, labour and capital to a symbiosis where both sectors mutually benefit from each other (Telfer and Wall, 1996). Food and tourism are increasingly combined, e.g. in agri-tourism, wine tours and the sale of food products as souvenirs. However, the development and standards of food for tourists are not determined uniformly by tourism policies, but more significantly by national economic, agricultural and food policies (Hjalager and Antonioli Corigliano, 2000). Above the previous research in food tourism illustrates food as an attraction, as a product component, as an experience, and as a cultural phenomenon. Subsequently, a link with food production has been established. Moreover, the present study aims at adding the motivations’ and needs’ viewpoint into food tourism. Methodology This study has a multiple-case design (Yin, 1989). The case study enables us to build our understanding inductively from the data rather than deductively through theory testing. This method was selected because the evidence obtained this way is often regarded as more impressive and assuring (Yin, 1989). Descriptive research strategy was selected utilizing multiple-case design. In multiple-case studies every case should serve a specific purpose within the overall inquiry (Yin, 1989). The purpose and the use of the limited data is to illustrate the way the set objectives of the study are achieved. Five cases representing each type of need in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs were selected. The method of generalization is an analytic generalization, i.e. the empirical results of the case study are compared to the theoretical framework (Yin, 1989). The findings themselves are not claimed to be significant. The empirical data is collected from literature, studies, web sites, and furthermore, one interview has been conducted. The empirical part explored five sectors with cases. The role of the identified five sectors with cases is to interpret the case study findings with respect to Maslow’s

hierarchy of needs and its applicability into food tourism, i.e. whether the needs in each sectors match those in Maslow’s hierarchy (Yin, 1989). The sectors were classified by the main motivations of food tourists to visit a particular tourist attraction. The main motivations in each sector are analyzed on the basis of a theoretical discussion and the empirical data. However, food tourists may also have multiple motivations for their visits and, thus, the real motivations to visit the attraction can be explored only by asking the food tourist themselves. Empirical findings The following five sectors of food tourism in Finland were identified: food tourism based on physiological needs, food tourism based on safety needs, food tourism based on esteem needs, and food tourism based on self-actualizing needs. Food tourism based on physiological needs When physiological needs are the motivation for food tourism, food is then seen as a tourist attraction (Hjalager and Richards, 2002). For example, on cruise lines the quality claimed and the variety of the meals is attracting customers (Hjalager and Antonioli Corigliano, 2000). In Finland, international cruising food tourism dates back to the 1960s when cruising tourism started between Finland and Sweden. At that time the assortment of foodstuffs in shops was narrow, and the display was imperfect compared to that of today (Heiskanen, 2006). Tax-free alcohol shopping and excellent meals on the boat were the main motivations for the cruising. Both the plentiful food offered on boats and the reasonable prices attracted tourists. Since the mid-1990s cruising to Estonia became popular due to low local alcohol prices as well as on the boat. In 2005, there were about 17 million passengers cruising between Finland and its neighbouring countries: Case 1. Cruising tourism between Finland and Sweden/Estonia Passenger traffic from Finland to Sweden and Estonia explains most of the total passenger traffic between Finland and its neighbouring countries. Traffic to Estonia soared in 1994, when Finland became the member of the EU. In 2005 there were about 6 million passengers (Figure 2). Before Finland joined the EU, alcohol was one of the main motivations for the international cruising tourism between Finland and Sweden as well as Finland and Estonia (Heiskanen, 2006). The prices of alcohol in Finland are tree times higher when compared to Estonia, and the Finnish people still buy one fifth of their alcohol from Estonia (Norden, 2006). Alcohol, and especially beer, is in many cases the main motivation for the cruising trip to Estonia. Half of the alcohol drinks imported by the passengers were bought in Estonia and one third on the boats (STV, 2006). Also, the foodstuffs are cheaper in Estonia compared to Finland. In the addition to the physical needs (alcohol), a further motivation for cruising tourism is holidays. Since the 1960s there has been cross-border food tourism between Finland and Sweden. In the 1960s Finnish people travelled to Sweden to buy foodstuffs, especially butter. Now, in the 2000s the Swedish people buy spirits in Finland. Furthermore, there is also cross-border food tourism between Finland and Norway in the northern border. The currency levels between the Euro and both the Swedish and Norwegian crowns have had impact on the level of cross-border food tourism. The differences in the taxation on the foodstuffs between the countries have an impact on cross-border food tourism. (Heiskanen, 2006) There is also cross-border food tourism on a smaller scale between Finland and Russia, as the Russians organize shopping trips by buss or by car to Finland.

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Figure 2. Passenger traffic between Finland and foreign countries, 1960-2005, and traffic to Sweden and Estonia in particular

Strawberry picking tourism is concentrated on the Suonenjoki region, where there are about 650 hectares of strawberry fields. Every summer strawberry picking offers 3,000-4,000 jobs in strawberry farms (SSMY, 2006). In the Suonenjoki region, strawberry picking attracts people from Russian Carelia every summer offering seasonal income. Self-service strawberry picking attracts people locally and regionally on a smaller scale. Cloudberry picking tourism is concentrated in Ranua that is known from its cloudberry marshes. Cloudberry picking season starts at the end of July. Cloudberry markets are held in the beginning of August lasting four days. Also, Golden Cloudberry Festival was organized between late July and early August 2006 (Ranua, 2006). Most of the visitors were of Finnish nationality.

Food tourism based on safety needs Food tourism related to safety needs consists mainly of domestic and international food, as well as health and safety conferences, where participants are mostly university researchers, health officers, retailers etc.: Case 2. CIES International Food Safety Conference Food safety is an international concern. CIES International Food Safety Conference was organized February 1-3, 2003 in Paris, France. Over 400 specialists from around the world joined in for a unique annual event covering the latest trends and developments in food safety. One of the companies sending delegates to this event on an annual basis is Kesko, the second biggest retailer in Finland (CIES, 2006).

Food tourism based on social needs Food is becoming the focal point of festivals and special events that attracts tourists as well as local residents (Getz, 1991), and wine and food trails help the tourists to create their own experiences while “crawling” through agricultural landscapes. In numerous places throughout the world, the availability of special kinds of food, e.g. selected

wines, fruits, fish, etc., have given rise to festivals and other events (Hjalager and Antonioli Corigliano, 2000). Possible social motives for attending events are, e.g. social interaction with others, creation of a community spirit, status or recognition of achievement, and philanthropy or charitable contributions. Possible physiological motives for attending such events are, e.g. to eat, drink or to be entertained (Shone and Parry, 2004). Food and food events can be viewed as complementing the trip and contributing to the trip’s success, the tourist’s consumption experience, but they can also form a top event during the trip. Therefore, food and the activities linked to it may become the region’s core attraction (Levinsanomat, 2006). For example, the International Wine Festival in Kuopio collected about 50,000 visitors in 2003 (Kuopio, 2006); 15 beer festivals and events in 2005 and smaller local traditional food events attract mostly local residents. As to vineyard tourism, there are 12 vineyards and wineries in Finland (Santasalo, 2005), and the number of visitors in those vineyards and wineries was 176,536 in 2002: Case 3. Ollinmaki Vineyard Ollinmaki Vineyard is the biggest vineyard in Finland, measured by the number of visitors. It is surrounded by the great natural beauty of Anttola. Horticulture has been carried on since 1920s in the farm. The farmer couple of today continues the traditions by refining berries and apples into farm wines, liqueurs, ciders, and distillates. When the legislation made it possible to manufacture and sell the farm wines, the farmer couple travelled in order to search for professional knowledge in central Europe, where berry wine manufacturing is an old tradition. Ollinmaki’s old natural stone castle-type cowshed is now functioning as a wine cellar, a wine house and a restaurant (Ollinmaki, 2006). In 2004 there were 40,335 visitors in this vineyard (Santasalo, 2005).

Food tourism based on esteem needs Provincial a` la carte projects have been established to promote culinary food tourism. The projects have been organized in the following regions: Kainuu, Lake Finland, Lapland, Middle Finland, Northern Savo, Northern Carelia, and Ostrobotnia. One goal has been to increase information of the regional food tradition and raw materials and to utilize them in the modern catering services. Lapland a` la carte started in 1980 as the gastronomic special trips and annually organized special courses targeted to firms. Kainuu a` la carte project, which started in 1991, was based on Lapland a` la carte project. There are about 20 firms in Carelia in the a` la carte network, which was set up in 1991 as a part of Northern Carelia rural tourism development project. The Central Finland project started in 1994 and there are about 24-28 firms in this project. Ostrobotnia a` la carte project started in 1996 and it aimed at developing new Ostrobotnia dishes and menus using local raw materials. Furthermore, it was set up to build a producer network in order to serve restaurants and other catering organisations. Also, in Northern Ostrobotnia and Middle Ostrobotnia, there have been separate a` la carte projects. Savo a` la carte project started in 1996. Lake Finland a` la carte project, however, did not succeed (Kainuu, 2006). There are also foodways. In the survey of rural tourism theme group, the Italians are interested in breakfast foodways and the Finnish food, the Englishmen are interested in breakfast foodways and possibilities to have meals in the foodway, the Frenchmen are interested in good meal points as a part of foodway; and the Germans

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are interested in the meal points in rural area offering food prepared of local raw materials; the Danish are interested in the vineyards as a part of the business trips; and the Japanese are interested in study trips under the theme of food culture (Kainuu, 2006): Case 4 The building of Kainuu foodway started in 1998 in cooperation with Kainuu Rural Center, Vuokattiopisto, and Kainuu rural tourism firms. By training entrepreneurs to develop new products and services, a network including 13 firms has been built and it offers professionally produced food and meal services. Among the core products remains the Kainuu bread board and its variations based on Kainuu’s rich bread culture. Each firm in a network offers its own specialties to the tourists. In the network firms, most of the raw materials are produced in their farms, as well as in the neighbouring forests and lakes (Kainuu, 2006).

Food tourism based on self-actualizing needs Holloway (1998) categorised business to be the purpose of a visit in meetings and conferences. Food trade fair tourism consists of international and domestic food trade fairs. There are many international food trade fairs, e.g. BioFach – World Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, SIAL – The Global Food Market Place in Paris, France, and ANUGA – Trade Fair for Food & Beverages in Germany. International food conferences, such as Dietary Fibre Conference, attract food scientists to increase their knowledge. One annually organized domestic food conference is the Finnish Food Congress: Case 5. Finnish Food Congress The Finnish Food Congress has been organized annually since 1970 (ETL, 2006). It is the largest professional educational event for the food sector in Finland. Topics of current interest on food marketing, product development, food legislation, food processing, food hygiene management, etc. are focused on by the best domestic and international lecturers. The Food Congress, having a history of more than 25 years, is continuously increasing the number of participants. Finnish Food Congress 2006 collected 1,055 visitors (FFDIF, 2006). Most of the visitors are Finnish, and the foreign visitors mainly come from Estonia and Sweden (Heiskanen, 2006). There are a few domestic food trade fairs every year. For example, in Kauhajoki the Food Trade Fair had about 13,000 visitors during three days (Ruokamessut, 2006). Food experts, such as cooks, restaurant managers, food wholesale buyers, etc. are business tourists when they travel around the world in order to seek new kinds of culinary ideas and new food products.

Conclusion To sum up, the empirical findings indicate that when classifying food tourism by sectors, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and motivations can be used as the basis in the classification (Figure 3). Physiological needs are related to food itself and it is the main motivation for food tourism (alcohol, cross-border food shopping). Safety needs in the form of food safety and hygiene knowledge are the main motives when participating in the food safety

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Figure 3. Sectors of food tourism in Finland classified by the hierarchy of needs

conferences. Social needs including social interaction with other people relate to vineyard tourism and food event tourism, where food is one element in the tourism service product. Esteem needs become fulfilled in culinary food tourism (foodways; provincial a` la carte projects) by visitor’s experiences when they become familiar with new tastes in the new cultures’ culinary offerings. Self-actualizing needs become realized in the form of trade fairs and conferences that increase the visitor’s knowledge and competences related to food, and which heightens his/her self-respect. Past studies on the role of food in tourism viewed food as an attraction, as a product component, as an experience, as a cultural phenomenon, and as a link between tourism and food production. As the findings of this paper indicate, the role food plays in tourism may also be based on the needs of the tourist and thus constitutes the main motivation for tourism. However, the findings of this paper regarding the role of food in tourism cannot be referred to as significant. We need further research based on qualitative in-depth data and quantitative cross-sectional data in order to better understand the needs and motivations of the tourists in each sector. The future research areas within food tourism might concentrate on, e.g. the the role of spirits (tax-free, low price, normal price) as the motivation for food tourism. Tax-free spirits can be bought from the countries outside the EU, affordable spirits from the EU countries with a lower price level, and higher priced spirits within the EU to countries with a higher price level and currency exchange rates. The spirits as the motivation in food tourism offers thousands of jobs in cruising industry and cross-border retailing. Cross-border food tourism especially in the Eastern borders of the EU countries is also worthy of future research. People with high income outside the EU need high quality foodstuffs that constitute a motivation for cross-border tourism. Within the EU countries, food tourism based on self-actualizing needs in the form of taking part in meetings, conferences and trade fairs is worth investigating. The harmonization of the EU legislation, the increased competition between food industry

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firms and the food safety management systems will increase the number of the food tourists also in the future. As for managerial implications, those marketing food tourism services could also emphasize more efficiently the needs and motives in their marketing communication for the potential food tourists.

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