The Role of Meeting Meals in Destination Image: Examples from the West of Sweden

Abstract: To date, food aspects in leisure tourism have been studied extensively, while in business travel, by contrast, the role of meals has been largely neglected both in academia and in business. Recent trends suggest that meals served at professional meetings (e.g. conferences, congresses, exhibitions, trade fairs, etc.) represent an untapped potential for the host destination marketing, especially in regions where business tourism generates substantial revenues. This study contributes to an emerging field of meeting meals by looking at Gothenburg and West Sweden, where business practitioners are already working with food as communication and PR medium. It is a qualitative case study based on multiple sources of evidence including interviews, observations and documents. The objectives are to describe and explain the meeting meals phenomenon and suggest recommendations for their use in destination image enhancement. Results indicate that benefits arise from exceeding guests’ expectations about the meal by serving locally sourced, seasonal, well-designed dishes with regards to healthier options. In the longer run such practice also allows for exports of national products, increases in tourist inflow and better awareness of the modern local (or national) cuisine overseas.