Food Museums as Cultural Institutions and Tourist Attractions: Evidence from Italy

In recent years, food museums have turned into popular attractions for tourists. Scholars and practitioners have emphasized their role as agents of preservation, education, and cultural heritage interpretation, but devoted little attention to tourism-related issues. To fill the gap, this article investigates Italian food museums in order to assess their characteristics, tasks, audience, and modes of engagement. Findings suggest that community engagement is an important task along with safeguarding and promoting food heritage. Creating or improving external relationships is crucial for public museums to get recognized for their role and value. For museums operated by private companies, engaging with local stakeholders and residents serves not just a branding purpose, but also in awakening their interest in past and present issues concerning the product (nutrition, safety, taste, cultural, and social values). The majority of Italian food museums mainly appeal to domestic travelers, which indicates the potential to reach a larger, international audience. Visibility and language issues remain crucial to reach international tourists but reframing the museum experience is also essential to meet new visitors' needs. Exploiting traditional exhibitions of food-related objects with multimedia technology and practical activities such as classes, workshops, and cooking shows can help in engaging the audiences.