The Role of Metropolitan Areas in the Spatial Differentiation of Food Festivals

Abstract

Central places described in the literature as metropolitan cities or urban hubs significantly impact the socioeconomic development of their surroundings, hence the interest in their influence on the organization of local food tasting and promotion events. This paper aims to identify the spatial differentiation of food festivals in Poland, focusing on major metropolitan areas. The study presents a geostatistical analysis conducted with the use of spatial interpolation methods, with the aim of revealing the extent of the impact of metropolitan areas on the organization of food festivals, which are a determining factor in the development of a given area with the simultaneous initiation of the impact area’s own brand. The study consists of a literature review and spatial data collection regarding Polish geolocation of food festivals. Detailed analyses cover food festivals which, in terms of the number of visitors and their circumstances, could be classified as mass events, while considering their impact on the voivodship and ultimately, Poland as a whole. The results are compiled in cartographic, descriptive, and tabular forms. A synthesis was conducted separately for each voivodship. The study’s results confirm the hypothesis that the spatial autocorrelation of food festivals is related to the directionality of the major supply chains and the gradient of human movement intensity. The movements of people and cargo along this direction strongly determine key decisions regarding the organization of food festivals.