Abstract:

Food tourism is defined as a journey to a destination in order to discover a culture through its food. Special segments of culinary tourism have emerged during the last decades to valorize local products and drinks and award tourism value to food. This is the case of cheese tourism, which has been recently studied with increasing management and marketing implications. In this sense, planning and development of food-based marketing strategies represent a key factor towards the success of a niche tourism. In particular, this paper investigates the process of marketing cheese tourism in social media. Drawing on a visual content analysis focused on Instagram, the research analyses the virtual storytelling of Manchego cheese. Results showcase how cheese is communicated to audiences and reveal the potential of social media to create a cheese-based narrative. Both theoretical and practical implications of the study are described.

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