Negotiating place through food and drink: Experiencing home and away

Abstract

This study examines how food and drink-related practices mediate tourists’ experiences in destinations. Adopting an interpretivist approach, and drawing on content analysis of travel blogs, the article contributes to knowledge by demonstrating how the production and consumption of food and drink are used to negotiate feelings, memories and encounters in places. More specifically, we distinguish between three areas of practice: first, how situational control is established and articulated through familiarity with foods, but may also be challenged by exposure to disruptive consumption activities. Second, how sociability is performed and experienced, including through practices of ‘Othering’ that emerge through food and drink-centred encounters. Finally, how tourists construct new notions of home through eating and drinking routines. We argue that focusing on these areas helps to understand the intersections of food and drink-related practice and tourists’ experiences in places.