Place promotion through food and

tourism: Rural branding and the

role of websites
Received (in revised form): 9th June, 2004

Steven Boyne
is a tourist specialist in the Land Economy Group of the Scottish Agricultural College’s Research Division, Edinburgh. His
particular research and publication interests lie in the fields of tourism and gastronomy, image, promotion and the internet,
and tourism and rural development.

Derek Hall
is Visiting Professor at Hame Polytechnic, Finland, and recently retired from his position as Head of Leisure and Tourism
Management at the Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruive. His interests include tourism, image, promotion and regional
development.

Abstract This paper examines the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) in promoting
food tourism initiatives in rural areas as the building blocks for the branding of those
areas. It argues that rural regions tend to be less place-specific than towns or cities,
often being sparsely populated, with dispersed activities, diverse landscapes and
varying perceptions held of ‘the rural’. But rural regions are, of course, usually closely
associated with agriculture and food, and given that gastronomy is a growth area in
tourism, it would appear to make sense to promote appropriate rural regions’ identities
through food- and drink-related images. But brand development is contingent upon a
number of prerequisites that, in combination, may be elusive. This paper examines the
employment of the intersection of food and tourism as the foundation for establishing a
rural brand, and the use of websites in promoting such identity. It highlights
inadequacies in the web-based promotion of food-related tourism initiatives in the UK,
due in part to the fragmented infrastructure for regional tourism development and
promotion in the UK. Practical recommendations are made regarding design factors for
the provision of web-based tourism information.

Keywords: Rural branding, tourism, gastronomy, World Wide Web, marketing,

promotion, regional development

INTRODUCTION geographically focused, albeit with a

Morgan et al. (2002: 4) claim that ‘places large number of spatially concentrated
Derek Hall
are potentially the world’s biggest stakeholders. The city region — an
Partner,
Seabank Associates, brands’. This paper argues that generally urban centre and rural hinterland — may
Seabank, 3 Turnberry Road, rural regions are explicitly less also have strong (urban) geographically
Maidens,
South Ayrshire, KA26 9NN, place-specific than towns or cities, defined parameters within which
Scotland. rendering the question of rural place connectivity, through commuting, service
Tel/Fax: branding potentially more difficult than provision and local government
⫹44 (0)1655 331 442;
e-mail:
that for urban places. The latter tend to administration, may provide a functional
derekhall.seabank@virgin.net be specific in their identity and coherence as a basis for brand

80 Place Branding Vol. 1, 1, 80–92 䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004)


development. ‘Independent’ rural areas
— those not directly influenced by an
adjacent major urban centre — present a
major challenge for the generation of
identity and brand development. Such
areas may be characterised by sparse
populations and activities, diverse
landscapes and varying perceptions held
of ‘the rural’ by both locals and visitors.
Such differences may also reflect
core-periphery conceptions of rural and
regional space. Furthermore, because of
their often perceived and projected
‘timelessness’, the branding of rural areas
is perhaps more vulnerable to the
impacts of even minor change processes
than is that of urban areas (eg Foley and
Fahy, 2004).
Nonetheless, rural regions are, of
course, usually closely associated with
agriculture and food, and given that
gastronomy is a growth area in
tourism, and gastronomic tourism is
seen increasingly as a means of adding
value to rural economies, it would
appear reasonable to suggest that the
promotion of rural regions’ identity
through food- and drink-related images
might offer the building blocks for
brand development. Indeed, powerful
food and drink concepts have been
harnessed in a number of countries to
assist the branding of rural areas (eg
Hall and Macionis, 1998; Bessiére,
2001; Sharples, 2003). But brand
development and success are contingent
upon a number of prerequisites that, in
combination, may be elusive. These
include, for example:
— strong geographical association, both
environmentally and socially
— associations of quality and local
availability.
This paper examines the employment of
the intersection of food and tourism as
the foundation for establishing rural
䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004) Vol. 1, 1, 80–92
Place promotion through food and tourism
brands, and the use of websites in
promoting such identity. It goes on to
highlight inadequacies in the web-based
promotion of food-related tourism
initiatives in the UK, due in part to the
construction and structure of websites
themselves and to the fragmented
infrastructure for regional tourism
development and promotion in the UK.
It is argued that for the UK at least, such
fragmentation provides a major stumbling
block in the production and promotion
of strong rural brands.
From a tourism perspective there is an
immediate paradox to be addressed here.
On the one hand, it seems that current
trends in the promotion of ‘new’ forms
of rural tourism and recreation are
moving towards emphasising the
branding and marketing of actual
activities rather than places. This partly
responds to the increasingly complex
segmentation of what is anyway a mobile
activity. The behaviour of tourists and
recreationalists is becoming less rooted in
‘places’ and more responsive to activities,
which, if not aspatial, certainly reduce
the extrinsic role of the place, perhaps
most notably in rural areas (Butler,
1998).
A second factor in this tourism trend
is the fact that places, as destinations, are
becoming more complex in terms of
needing to respond to different market
segments and at different times. Under
such circumstances, the wide range of
stakeholders with interests in a particular
destination may therefore find it difficult,
if not impossible, to agree on a place
brand, representative symbol, idea or
even strapline (Palmer, 2002). Yet the
development agencies of destinations, as
places, regions and countries, continue to
expend significant tourism marketing and
economic development budgets on
promotion of the destination as an
explicit and coherent geographical
entity.
Place Branding 81
Boyne and Hall
THE FOOD-TOURISM-PLACE
NEXUS: BASIS FOR
RURAL DEVELOPMENT?
With the restructuring of many rural
economies across Europe, increasingly
gastronomy-related heritage is being
employed to strengthen areas’ identity for
tourism and inward investment as
complements to or even partial
replacement of existing agrarian activity
(Roberts and Hall, 2001). In many cases
development initiatives explicitly seek to
deliver benefits for both the tourism and
food-related industry sectors by creating
and strengthening economic ‘back
linkages’ between these (eg Telfer and
Wall, 1996). In this way, high-quality
food and beverage products can be
employed to enhance a rural region’s
overall tourism image and visitors’
experiences. Tourism-related spending on
these locally produced goods can provide
economic stimuli to maintain or
reinvigorate the viability of an area’s local
identity and a sense of place through its
primary production and processing
sectors. Explicit local support — for
example through the growth of VFR
(visiting friends and relatives) tourism
whereby local people purchase greater
amounts of local produce with which to
host their friends and relatives (Boyne,
2001) — can assist the purpose and
potential of promoting food and tourism
as the basis for developing a rural brand.
At a strategic level, the
interrelationships between tourism and
food are being built upon by policy
makers and planners engaged in regional
economic development. A positive trend
to assist rural brand development is the
way in which the drawing together of
policy for tourism and food production
in rural areas represents a shifting
emphasis in the governance of rural
development, from a sectorally to a
territorially based focus for policy
integration. Yet, particularly in the UK
82 Place Branding Vol. 1, 1, 80–92 䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004)
context for focusing on the tourism-food
relationship, there are a number of
critical and interrelated sets of
shortcomings in the marketing literature
relating to ambiguities in the way
relationships between places and local
food production and consumption are
conceived by consumers and perceived
by marketers:
— there is a lack of empirical data
relating to the role of food in
consumers’ destination
decision-making processes, and to the
impact of place-based imagery
generated
— there exists a poor understanding of
leisure and tourism consumer
behaviour towards local and regional
food (Fields, 2002); only a limited
amount of work has been undertaken
investigating the ways in which
consumers perceive regional foods in
the UK (eg Kuznesof et al., 1997;
Tregear et al., 1998; MAFF/CA, 2000)
— analysis of the ways in which
regionally specific images are used in
the promotion of speciality food
suggests that concepts of quality and
regional images are socially
constructed and contestable (eg
Kneafsey and Ilbery, 2001)
— place marketing employing food
imagery to promote an ‘authentic
countryside’, as some bucolic Arcadia,
which may not exist, or may never
have existed, is likely to be both
counter-productive and ultimately
unsustainable (eg Clark et al., 1994).
Given these constraints, this short paper
examines briefly through exemplification
some of the ways in which food- and
gastronomy-related tourism initiatives are
being promoted, and evaluates the
relationship between tourism and food as
a vehicle for assisting and promoting the
place branding of rural regions, notably

Table 1: UK rural development strategy documents: Place-based perspectives
Country Document
UK DCMS, 1999: 67, 100
England DETR, 2000: 84
England ETC, 2001: 3
Scotland SE, 2001: 23
Scotland SE, 2002: 19
through the employment of websites. In
the UK context at least, inadequacies in
the web promotion of place-based
food-related tourism initiatives in part
can be seen to reflect the way in which
separation of product development and
promotion influences the structure of
institutional support for rural tourism
development.
As building blocks upon which
identity and branding can be based,
development initiatives where the
tourism and food sectors link at a local
or regional level provide benefits for
local producers, local residents and
visitors. Identifiably local foodstuffs can
enhance and strengthen the tourism
product and local identity, while at both
local and regional levels visitors can
expand the market for these products
both directly through immediate
consumption and indirectly through the
seeking out and purchase of such
products upon their return home.
Additional benefits can be generated
from the formation of external markets
for local produce, generated by such
tourist indirect or secondary demand, and
can be facilitated by creating locally
based strategic alliances among the food
production and processing sectors (Boyne
et al., 2002b). From UK experience, a
䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004) Vol. 1, 1, 80–92
Place promotion through food and tourism
Perspective
Encouraged British tourism businesses to source and promote
locally produced foodstuffs
Argued that tourism can help other rural industries and the
promotion of, for example, regional food and drink products, and
thereby improve the interest of an area to visitors
Emphasised the need to promote local produce and gastronomy
Recommended that rural land-based businesses seek new
opportunities through greater integration with the tourism
industry
Argued that to maximise tourism’s benefits, it is necessary for it
to build stronger links with such sectors as retail, food and drink
that have a major influence on the tourism experience and
which also benefit from tourism
number of strategy documents for rural
development, agriculture and tourism
have been supportive and encouraging in
this respect (Table 1).
The linkages between rural place,
tourism and food are also encouraged by
such agencies as the
government-supported Food From
Britain (FFB), which fosters development
of the speciality food and drink sector
(FFB, 2002) by working alongside
regional and county-based groups in
England and similar representative bodies
in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Although such local food and drink
groups have created tourism-related
promotional material, often in
collaboration, this alone may not be
sufficient to act as the nexus for
enhancing identity and imagery, and for
the construction of a place-related brand
through the conjunction of local
products and the (natural and social)
environment.
An interesting model in this respect
has been the ‘Tastes of Niagara’
programme in southern Ontario, Canada
(Telfer, 2000). The specifically
place-rooted promotion of this ‘quality
food alliance’ between the Niagara
region’s food producers, processors,
distributors, hotels, restaurants, wineries
Place Branding 83
Boyne and Hall
and chefs has raised the profile of
regional cuisine. While the name Niagara
is associated with one of the most iconic
natural images of North America, the
formulation and promotion of ‘Tastes’ as
a place-rooted quality gastronomy brand
has provided an important complement
for tourism and investment strategic place
marketing. Thus a quality gastronomic
identity has become an additional
component to the brand image of
(Canadian) Niagara.
Inclusiveness and common good
would appear to be essential ingredients
of successful brand development
(Placebrands, 2003) and, although
evidence of the reality of such qualities is
not always easy to gather and evaluate,
in the case of ‘Tastes of Niagara’ the
brand is based upon a partnership
approach to working and the presence of
some degree of strategic vision. As such,
it is claimed to have brought a number
of benefits for the local area. These have
included:
— improved communications between
members of the alliance and their
customers
— reduced economic leakages as a result
of greater reliance on local food
among food and beverage users
— smaller farm and non-farm businesses
have been assisted to overcome
barriers to direct marketing and to
improve their competitiveness
— new markets for local produce have
been stimulated by exposing
consumers to regional foods and
wines (Telfer, 2000).
But a return visit to the brand website
(Tastes of Niagara, 2002) revealed that,
although offered in eight languages, it had
not been updated for two years, and its
‘news and events’ page was showing no
news or events. This must raise questions
concerning the sustainability of the brand.
84 Place Branding Vol. 1, 1, 80–92 䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004)
While such initiatives to promote local
and regional food are often being
developed with an emphasis on attracting
the tourism market to the specific
destination centre or region, in some
cases the high-quality websites specifically
developed for the purpose often contain
significant shortcomings in the provision
of readily accessible information and a
clear place-rooted image. This may
indicate the absence of a key ingredient
for successful brand development, notably
an integrated sense of purpose and
strategic vision, often arising from a
fragmentation of the structures and
functions underpinning the initiative and
its positioning within the place-specific
context. In the UK, for example,
initiatives are often not suitably
represented on the websites of their
respective official local tourist boards. Yet
these are the sites that provide the point
of departure for many potential visitors
researching travel and holiday
destinations, and act to indicate a
place-rooted heritage. Shortcomings in
these websites can include the lack of
appropriate hyperlinks, or links that are
‘buried’ deep within the site where they
may not be readily discovered.
FOOD TRAILS: PLACE-BASED
VEHICLES FOR RURAL BRANDING?
Islands, with their geographically
bounded and determined identity and the
often romantic connotations that they
hold as tourism destinations (eg Baum,
1997; Lockhart, 1997), can be conceived
more easily by outsiders as a unity
compared to most rural areas, even if this
does not reflect the reality of their
inhabitants. As a consequence, islands are
likely to be better positioned for place
branding development than many other
types of rural areas. Indeed, it has been
suggested (Boyne et al., 2002a) that an
island’s geographical boundedness can
 Place promotion through food and tourism

Table 2: ‘Arran Taste Trail’ survey outcomes

Contribution to sustainable
Visitors Businesses development objectives

Prepared to spend more money Helped generate increased Is small scale

on meals consisting of locally
produced food
Had been encouraged to eat
out more often
Would be more inclined in future
to purchase locally produced
groceries
Indicated that the quality of
Arran’s food would be a positive
factor in their decision to make
a return visit to the island
turnover and profit
Contributed to increases in the
volume of food prepared and
sold
Contributed to increased
catering-related customer spend
per head
In one case had led to a
lengthening of the tourism
season by generating additional
interest about the island
Spreads the benefits widely
throughout the area’s economic
sectors
May contain an
inter-generational element
(through family succession of
businesses), thereby helping to
promote social sustainability
Fosters community participation
through the generation of
strategic alliances
Is ultimately based on a
renewable resource base —
locally produced foodstuffs

help to create positive conditions for
participatory community development as
it is easier for residents to conceptualise
‘their’ community.
The development of tourism-oriented
trails and circuits can be an important
tool in helping to bind rural areas
together, particularly in encouraging
cooperation rather than competition.
They can help to promote brand loyalty
and identity, and complement the
transient nature of mobile tourist
activities (eg Hardy, 2003). Islands may
be ideally situated for self-contained
circular trails, but less well placed for
linear ones unless easy access to and from
the island is available from points at both
ends of the trail.
The ‘Isle of Arran Taste Trail’
promotes local food producers in one of
Scotland’s most southerly ‘holiday’
islands. Developed during 1998, Argyll
and the Islands Enterprise (AIE) — the
local enterprise company responsible for
implementing the Trail — undertook a
survey of visitors who had purchased the
Trail guidebook (AIE, 1998). This survey
revealed that, having read the guidebook,
visitors to Arran were inclined towards
the outcomes noted in the first column
of Table 2. A complementary survey of
Trail members (undertaken by an
external consulting company on behalf of
AIE) reported a number of positive
outcomes for some local businesses, as
indicated in the second column of Table
2. Overall, it was concluded that the
initiative can be seen to contribute to
sustainable development objectives, for
reasons indicated in the third column of
Table 2. These attributes, if shared across
the local area, can provide the bedrock
for place branding development.
THE WEB AS A PROMOTIONAL
TOOL FOR PLACE BRANDING
DEVELOPMENT
The internet has developed rapidly
during recent years and has become a
potentially effective advertising and
promotional tool. The web is not
synonymous with the internet, but can
be described as that part of the internet
which can be accessed using web
browser software (Law, 2000). It is made

䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004) Vol. 1, 1, 80–92 Place Branding 85

Boyne and Hall
up of individual pages and sites (which
host a collection of related pages),
navigation through which is facilitated by
hyperlinks: internal hyperlinks move the
browser around one particular website,
while external hyperlinks link to other
sites.
Use of the internet for purchasing
goods and services online continues to
grow in a number of sectors of
economic activity, notably food and
drink, financial services and
leisure-related industries such as travel
and hospitality and gambling. For
tourism purposes the web is most often
used as a research tool by consumers
seeking out information and images
concerning potential destinations,
activities and services.
Thus countries’ and regions’ dedicated
tourism information websites operated by
or on behalf of national and/or regional
tourism authorities may often provide the
point of departure — albeit not quite
literally — in this respect. But in relation
to food-related tourism initiatives, in
many UK cases, although such an
initiative exists and has a dedicated
website, it can be difficult, or at worst
impossible, to find relevant information
about, or hyperlinks to, these websites
from the respective national or regional
tourist agency websites. Furthermore, in
some cases there is the potential problem
that if more than one site exists for the
same place/area there is the possibility of
conveying multiple and confusing images
and identities of that area for visitors and
potential investors.
An example of a food-related tourism
initiative in the UK and one example of
good practice from Italy are now briefly
evaluated. Recommendations are made
regarding ways in which links to
food-related initiatives can be improved
to enhance brand-building capacity. The
paper then examines the way in which
the structure of the institutional support
86 Place Branding Vol. 1, 1, 80–92 䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004)
systems for regional development and
tourism destination marketing in the UK
militates against coherent brand support.
In Scotland, the ‘Isle of Arran Taste
Trail’ aims to promote Arran as a niche
destination based on the quality of local
catering and produce. The Trail is based
around a guidebook that features
participating businesses that grow, make
or sell locally produced beverages or
foodstuffs (AIE, 1998). Additionally, the
guidebook contains background
information on the island’s ‘natural larder’
and recipes featuring local produce. The
Trail website (www.tastetrail.co.uk),
originally launched in January 2000,
details the content of the guidebook
with hyperlinks to other food-related
sites and travel information for visitors to
the island — which includes direct
external hyperlinks to websites of the
area, Scotland and UK tourist boards,
local enterprise company, airports and
ferry operator.
While this initiative is acknowledged
on the website of the area tourist board
(the Ayrshire and Arran Tourist Board —
AATB, 2003) (which also has a German
language version), and indeed, this site
does host hyperlinks to the ‘Arran Taste
Trail’, they are ‘buried’ to varying
degrees, and different access routes bring
different perspectives and pieces of
information.
— On the AATB website’s homepage is
a ‘Top itineraries’ internal hyperlink
where Isle of Arran is third in a list
of seven diverse items: Robert Burns,
Historic/Heritage, Isle of Arran, Golf,
Walking/Cycling, Kids, Rainy Day.
Clicking on Isle of Arran brings up a
description of Arran, links to three
pdf-format maps and a ‘View
itineraries’ link. The latter reveals
eight listed itineraries within Arran, of
which the food trail is the fifth
(following behind two explicitly

car-based trails). Clicking onto this
brings up five attractions on the trail,
each with a short paragraph of
description but no external hyperlink
to provide further detailed
information, either about the
attraction or its place within the trail
concept. Indeed, the trail as such is
not discussed at all, there are simply
five short descriptions and a
photograph with contact details and
opening hours. There is no associated
hyperlink to the Taste Trail website.
— On the AATB website homepage,
first in a list of hyperlinks is ‘Things
to see and do’. But there is no
mention of the Taste Trail here.
Clicking onto the Isle of Arran
hyperlink brings forth a webpage
which lists a selection of ten
attractions with short descriptions,
four of which are Trail members (all
food processors). There is only one
external hyperlink within this
three-page presentation, and that is
not connected with the trail
members.
— The fifth link down on the AATB
homepage is a ‘Useful links’
hyperlink. This takes the visitor to
two pages of lists under five headings:
Burns Festival, Sport & Leisure,
Travel & Transport, Useful
Organisations and Tour Operator
Category. Under the fourth of these
headings and listed ninth out of 20
(nestling between ‘Official Robert
Burns Website’ and ‘Taste of
Scotland’) is the Isle of Arran Taste
Trail, which finally links to the Taste
Trail website.
— Clicking on the AATB homepage
search site hyperlink for ‘Eating and
drinking’ takes the browser to the
Atomz Corporation search engine for
AATB internal links only. Of the 138
listed items, the Isle of Arran
hyperlink appears at number 25. This
䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004) Vol. 1, 1, 80–92
Place promotion through food and tourism
hyperlink takes the visitor to the same
page as accessed via the ‘Top
itineraries’ homepage link.
One example of good practice in terms
of providing coherent online information
and imagery is to be found at the Emilia
Romagna Turismo (2004) website. From
here, the website’s homepage, which has
an English language version, a
prominently displayed (albeit on the
bottom right and thus mostly lost if the
page is printed in standard A4 format)
internal hyperlink — Gustaci!/Taste this!
— directs browsers to Emilia Romagna’s
‘Le strade dei vini e dei sapori/The wine
and food routes’, located in
central-northern Italy. From this page it
is possible to select from the nine
sub-regional themed food- and
wine-related trails (there is a tenth, but
this appeared inactive when viewing was
attempted). This is accomplished using
an interactive map of the Emilia
Romagna region containing internal and
external hyperlinks to the individual
themed food and wine routes. Of the
nine active individual routes, three can
be viewed in English and Italian — the
remaining six are only in Italian.
Therefore, besides the fact that the
Emilia Romagna Turismo regional
tourism information website has a foreign
(English) language option, it also contains
a prominent hyperlink to the region’s
food-related tourism products — some of
which can be viewed in English as well
as Italian. It may be argued that the
relative sophistication of this region’s
promotional material results from the
longer history of development which
gastronomic and food-related tourism
initiatives have enjoyed in Italy in
comparison with the UK. The degree of
historical precedent is not, however, the
only barrier which exists in the UK with
regard to improving the provision of
information in this respect.
Place Branding 87
Boyne and Hall
The institutional support structure for
regional tourism-related development in
the UK is somewhat fragmented, in so
far as enterprise networks (local
enterprise companies — LECs — in
Scotland and regional development
agencies — RDAs — in England and
Wales) are responsible for support for
economic development while the remit
for destination marketing lies with the
network of national and regional tourist
boards. A number of difficulties arise
from this arrangement — such as, for
example, the lack of appropriate
information on tourist boards’ websites.
This would not be the case if the tourist
boards themselves were stakeholders in
the development initiatives. Elsewhere,
anecdotal evidence has suggested that
there are some cases where enterprise
companies have been unwilling to
provide financial development support to
food-related initiatives on the basis that
these contain a strong element of
destination marketing — the remit for
which lies not with the enterprise
network, but with the tourist board
network.
Other barriers which have become
apparent during the course of this
research relate to tourist boards’
requirements for appropriate quality
assurance systems to be in place before
they will endorse any particular initiative;
and an imbalance in the relative
prominence of reciprocal hyperlinks
between websites — for example,
tourism organisations may view food-trail
initiatives as just one of many
tourism-related developments which
compete for available space on their
information websites.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
BEST PRACTICE
From the authors’ broad examination of
the existing provision of web-based
88 Place Branding Vol. 1, 1, 80–92 䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004)
destination information on food-related
tourism initiatives as a means of place
promotion and branding, this paper has
evaluated just one example each of good
and less good practice. While it is
acknowledged that food-trail-type
initiatives are at an early stage of the
product development cycle in the UK,
and that the depth of relevant consumer
research which would guide a more
informed marketing philosophy approach
to promotion is not yet available, it is
possible to develop, from this exploratory
research, recommendations relating to the
way in which web-based visitor
information is provided.
Most obviously, gastronomy-related
information on tourism information
websites, as brand-building foundations,
must be provided in a conspicuous and
prominent manner. From the websites
which have been viewed by the authors
during the course of this research, several
approaches to providing food-related
links have been noted which have
significance for brand development and
which should be essential components for
a successful place-promoting website:
— the provision of a direct external or
internal hyperlink from the tourism
information provider’s homepage to
the food-related tourism information
webpage, pages or site
— availability of an internal hyperlink
from the tourism information
provider’s homepage to a ‘food and
drink’ or ‘eating and drinking’ section
of the website — from here there is a
direct external or internal hyperlink to
the food-related tourism information
webpage, pages or site
— the provision of an internal hyperlink
from the tourism information
provider’s homepage to an ‘itineraries’,
‘things to see and do’ or ‘activities’
section of the website — from here
there is a direct external or internal

hyperlink to the food-related tourism
information webpage, pages or site
— availability of a site search facility
which allows consumers to search the
tourism information provider’s website
for specific types of information; in
the authors’ experience, this
information-seeking strategy does not
often yield successful results, and in
particular in some cases a search has
resulted in no ‘hits’ despite the fact
that information relevant to the query
is contained within the website.
The site-search approach to information
provision has been found wanting in
several contexts. Site visitors will enter a
somewhat specific search term — relating
to the product or service that they are
interested in — however, no ‘hits’ are
forthcoming as that particular term does
not appear on the website or, worse, it is
there but there are technical limitations
or difficulties with the search protocol. It
is more productive to approach
information provision from the opposite
perspective whereby the visitor is
encouraged to move gradually towards
the information they seek by navigating
through a logical set of internal
hyperlinks — unless, of course, the
website is so extensive or poorly
structured that such an approach is not
feasible, in which case care must be
taken to ensure technical adroitness in
the associated search facility software.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
This paper has examined the use of the
web in promoting food-tourism
initiatives in rural areas as the building
blocks for the branding of those areas. It
has argued that rural regions tend to be
less place-specific than towns or cities,
often being sparsely populated, with
dispersed activities, diverse landscapes and
varying perceptions held of ‘the rural’.
䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004) Vol. 1, 1, 80–92
Place promotion through food and tourism
Thus because of often-projected and
perceived images of ‘timelessness’, they
are vulnerable to the impacts of even
small-scale processes of change. But rural
regions are usually closely associated with
agriculture and food, and with
gastronomy being a growth area in
tourism, it would appear reasonable to
seek to promote appropriate rural
regions’ identities through food- and
drink-related images.
But brand development is contingent
upon a number of prerequisites that, in
combination, may be elusive. This paper
has examined the employment of the
intersection of food and tourism as the
foundation for establishing a rural brand,
and the use of websites in promoting
such an identity. Through the
employment of case study
exemplification from Scotland and Italy,
it has highlighted inadequacies in the
web-based promotion of food-related
tourism initiatives in the UK, due in part
to the fragmented infrastructure for
regional tourism development and
promotion.
In the UK, various regions are
developing place-based food- and
beverage-related tourism initiatives, most
of which have developed a web-based
presence. Such initiatives should generate
a range of positive economic and social
benefits that can be subscribed to by
local people alongside place-based
imagery with the power to induce
‘liveability, investibility and visitability’
(Kotler et al., 1993: 99). These should
therefore be supported by effective
promotional activities. It has been the
authors’ experience, however, that from a
(potential) tourist’s perspective it can be
difficult or even impossible to find
hyperlinks from regional tourism
information websites to the food-tourism
initiatives’ websites.
While food- and gastronomy-related
tourism initiatives may be at a relatively
Place Branding 89
Boyne and Hall
early stage of the product development
life cycle in the UK, there are other
factors militating against the effective
web-based promotion of such
development initiatives. First, the
fragmented nature of the agencies
responsible for supporting regional
tourism development does not engender
an integrated approach to product
development and promotion and thus a
building block for brand development.
Secondly, the way in which tourism
information websites are designed can
have a critical bearing on the ability of
visitors to find the relevant information.
With regard to this latter point, the
authors suggest an approach for
positioning hyperlinks to food and drink
initiatives in such a way as to cater to
even those (potential) tourists who have
no expressed interest in local or regional
food and drink products or areas’
gastronomic heritage. Although these are
not explored here, there are also design
issues relating to consumers’ technical
and physical ability to access web-based
information (see, for example, Brighton
Freelance Web Design, 2002).
The fragmentation between policy,
planning and promotional support does
little to engender the effective
(web-based or otherwise) promotion of
regional initiatives. LECs in Scotland and
RDAs in England are chiefly responsible
for business support and development,
while destination information is provided
variously by national and area tourist
boards, local authorities, local and
regional organisations and local business
consortia.
This shortcoming can be argued to
stem, at least in part, from the tourist
boards lacking any ownership of food
tourism initiatives (also often there may
be problems with issues such as
initiatives’ quality standards and status of
participating businesses as regards tourist
board membership). In Scotland,
90 Place Branding Vol. 1, 1, 80–92 䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1744–070X (2004)
however, the strategy document ‘Tourism
Framework for Action 2002:2005’ (SE,
2002) provided some impetus for a move
towards the more effective joint working
of the gamut of stakeholder agencies
with roles to play in the coordinated
development of a robust, sustainable
destination brand. This impetus is rooted
in the way that the ‘Framework for
Action’ places the onus of responsibility
for achieving strategic goals directly with
the agencies referred to above (and
various others). Owing to the
inter-sectoral nature of the tourism
sector, it is perhaps not surprising that, in
many cases, the LECs and the national
(VisitScotland) and/or regional tourist
boards (area tourist boards) share
responsibility for achieving development
goals.
As this paper was in its final draft,
outcomes of the long-awaited review of
Scotland’s tourism services were
announced (Scotexchange, 2004).
Notably, from April 2005, the country’s
14 area tourist boards (ATBs) are
replaced by an ‘integrated’ (centralised)
VisitScotland network of 14 local tourism
hubs, which still correspond to the
previous ATB geographical areas (several
of which are contentious). Two
significant outcomes for place branding
development arise from this, neither
particularly positive.
— This outcome represents a likely
missed opportunity to align better the
geographical framework for the
delivery, marketing and promotion of
tourism services with the boundaries
of both LEC areas and local authority
areas in order to enhance
collaboration and effective service
delivery.
— While emphasising the need for
consistent quality across Scotland, the
new framework is likely to reduce
levels of sensitivity towards local areas’

own particular characteristics and
identities. Explicitly, the new structure
is product- rather than place-led
(Selbie, 2004), looking to strengthen
the (Visit) Scotland brand through
high-profile activities such as golf,
sailing, visiting castles — and, one
hopes, gastronomy — at the expense
of the identity and branding potential
of local areas and regions.
The authors of this paper further
recommend, therefore, that, in the
Scottish context at least, this opportunity
is taken by policy makers to define
(more) clearly the roles of the respective
agencies and the organisational and
communication structures which will
enable them to work more effectively
together. Clearly, the interrelationships
between food and tourism, branding and
place are complex, and deployment of
information technology further broadens
the range of issues to be addressed in the
place branding agenda.
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