Food tourism as a new season for sustainable regional development of Gotland, Sweden

Abstract: The island of Gotland, one of the most popular summer destinations in the Baltic Sea region, has the vision to become northern Europe's most sustainable and attractive destination by 2027. Therefore, all-year-round tourism is encouraged by the municipality and the Tourism Association to reach this goal. Food tourism is introduced as one of the main strategies due to its high potential to be used as a competitive advantage to attract visitors in the low season and enhance regional development all-year-round. Therefore, this research aims to explore local stakeholders’ perceptions of developing food tourism as a new season on Gotland and understand its contribution to the regional sustainable development’s goal. Qualitative methods were used for the data collection which are ethnographical study and semi-structured interviews among different stakeholders in food tourism on Gotland. The results represent that Gotland has a high potential to develop food tourism as a new season to attract a new group of travelers. The establishment of food tourism in a new season can contribute to the sustainable regional development in terms of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. However, Gotland must overcome its challenges of providing primary facilities to accommodate tourists and residents, developing a long-term food tourism collaboration, and create efficient tourism plans to avoid the negative impacts of mass tourism.