Slow Food Travel: Tourism according

At Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, September 22 to 26 in Turin, Italy, Slow Food presents a new project promoting a new way of traveling. Slow Food Travel provides a wealth of knowledge and experience from Slow Food and the Terra Madre network to create a new model for tourism.

Paolo Di Croce, Slow Food International Secretary General, says: “Behind every travel destination are stories, traditions, flavors and craftsmanship that people have built and preserved over centuries, creating long-standing local cultures and identities. Gastronomic experiences are an integral part of the tourism experience, yet it is not always possible to truly capture the authenticity of local cultures. Slow Food Travel allows us to discover products, places of production and landscapes in direct contact with producers, chefs and hosts that truly value their cultures.”

Slow Food Travel, the launch of the pilot project and the development of the concept were made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Carinthia region (Austria), which promoted it internationally and implemented the first Slow Food Travel areas in the Gail and Lesach valleys.

“This initiative is about a longing for the original. With our abundant offering of artisanal food in the Gailtal and Lesachtal Valleys, our guests are guaranteed satisfaction. We’re tremendously happy to be the first Slow Food Travel destination in the world,” says Christian Kresse, CEO of Kärnten Werbung Marketing & Innovationsmanagement GmbH.

The Slow Food Travel project involves training activities, the promotion of products, education and communication tools. Producers, farmers, artisans, chefs and owners of restaurants and farms will be involved along with institutions and other civil society organizations (tourist offices, eco-museums, cultural associations).

This is the focus of the Terra Madre Forum Slow Travel at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto (September 24, from 13:30 to 15:30, Torino Esposizioni, Sala Blu, Corso Massimo D’Azeglio, 55). Speakers at the forum include Paolo Di Croce, Slow Food International General Secretary, John Kariuki Mwangi, coordinator of Slow Food activities in Kenya and for the Slow Safari Project, Eugenio Barra of VIB Viaggiare i Balcani, Natalia Acosta Rivera of MINCETUR (Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism) in Peru. Further, Christian Kresse, CEO of of Kärnten Werbung Marketing & Innovationsmanagement GmbH (Carinthia region) and the representatives from the project Slow Food Travel Alpe Adria Kärnten in Austria are going to present the experience of the very first Slow Food Travel project.

The Forum will be animated by Barbara van Melle, Florian Sengstschmid and Artur Cisar-Erlach, the Slow Food Travel team from Vienna, who – in close collaboration with Slow Food International and the local Austrian partners – have developed a model for good, clean and fair tourism over the past two years.

For more information, please contact:

Slow Food, +39 329 83 212 85, [email protected] – Twitter: @SlowFoodPress

Region of Piedmont, +39 011 432 2549, +39 335 7586327, [email protected]

City of Turin, +39 011 01121976, +39 3421100131, [email protected]

Terra Madre Salone del Gusto is made possible with the help of several bodies, among which are the Official Partner: Lurisia, Pastificio Martino, Radeberger Gruppe Italy, Lavazza, Sapori, Iren, Intesa San Paolo, Elpe; the supporters of the Terra Madre Foundation and Slow Food: Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT and the Association of Banking Foundations of Piedmont, Coldiretti. With the support of IFAD, the European Union and CIA. 

Slow Food is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet.  Slow Food involves over a million activists, chefs, experts, youth, farmers, fishers and academics in over 160 countries. Among them, a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members are linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide, contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize. As part of the network, more than 2,400 Terra Madre food communities practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.