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Tuesday, 14 June 2016

Creative food clusters and rural development through place branding: Culinary tourism initiatives in Stratford and Muskoka, Ontario, Canada

Journal of Rural Studies
Volume 39, June 2015, Pages 133–144


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doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.05.001
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Highlights

•
Comparative analyses of two culinary tourism-focused branding initiatives in Ontario, Canada are presented.
•
Different organizational approaches of not-for-profit organizations (top-down vs. bottom-up) in the development of the food clusters are discussed.
•
Opportunities and challenges that are posed by the different organizational approach to place branding the creative food cluster are explored.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the place branding processes of two not-for-profit organizations that are engaged in promoting rural development based on the formation of food clusters through creative economy perspectives. Particular attention is given to exploring the nature of stakeholder collaboration and communication in relation to the contrasting organizational approaches of the organizations, Savour Stratford and Savour Muskoka in Ontario, Canada. The comparative case study, which was based primarily on interviews with key informants as well as the organizations' publications and web presence, illustrates how the differing processes of two emergent food clusters contribute to the successes and challenges of creative rural development.

Keywords

  • Creative food cluster;
  • Terroir;
  • Rural tourism development;
  • Place branding;
  • Bottom-up approach;
  • Top-down approach
Corresponding author. Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
1
Anne is originally from Seoul, South Korea and received her PhD in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management from the University of Waterloo. Prior to this, Anne also earned an MBA in Hotel and Tourism Management as well as Graduate Studies in Interdisciplinary International Development at the University of Guelph, Canada.
2
Her research has been focused on issues in organizational leadership as well as stakeholder collaboration and communication in sustainable urban and rural economic development (including tourism development) such as public/private partnership in the formation of food clusters. Anne has special research interests in territorial assets-based regional economic development (soft factors of cultural heritage and hard factors of natural environment) and the process of implementations through place marketing and branding.
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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