CULTURAL POLITICS IN CULINARY TOURISM WITH ETHNIC FOODS

Culinary tourism features food as the primary attraction or motivation for travel (Boniface, 2003; Hall & Sharples, 2003; Hjalager & Richards, 2002; Long, 1998, 2004; Quan & Wang, 2004). It is a highly popular and profitable industry in both international and domestic tourism segments and has a significant impact on food-related businesses. The identification, selection, evaluation, and interpretation of the cuisines and dishes included in such tourism are issues of power, that is, cultural politics. Who gets to make those selections? Whose recipe is used to represent a culture? Whose definition of the cuisine is presented? Who is considered the authority, by whom, and how did they come to be in that position? Cultural politics become even more complicated when culinary tourism features ethnic foods, that is, cuisines, dishes, ingredients, belonging to a heritage considered outside the foodways of the mainstream culture. Ethnic foods are defined partly by how they differ from the foods of the dominant culture, and their place within that culture reflects a history of being “other.” Culinary tourism focuses attention on the food’s otherness, making that otherness one of its central attractions. It offers new tastes and an entry into strange new cuisines through those tastes. In the US, food businesses have historically offered one of the most accessible contexts for employLUCY M. LONG lucymlong@gmail.com

It asks whether culinary tourism can be channeled in such a way that it strengthens people's connections to their heritage and identity through food while also using that food for practical and entrepreneurial benefits. Furthermore, it offers a humanities perspective on these issues, emphasizing the ways in which meaning shapes people's behavior. Cultural politics recognizes that interpretations of meaning reflect questions of power over whose voice is heard and listened to.

DEFINITIONS
The phrase "cultural politics" is used differently in different disciplines. Within cultural anthropology, folkloristics, cultural studies, and other fields with a base in the humanities, it refers to the understanding that all cultural practices are shaped by power structures. It includes the practical ramifications of those structures, as well as the more intangible questions of authority over defining a culture. Jordan and Weedon (1995) summarized the major questions asked in cultural politics: whose culture is considered the official, normative one and who gets to represent it; whose history is recognized; whose voices are heard; and so on. Studies of cultural politics trace the history of power structures to identify who benefits and in what ways from the exercising of that power. They frequently focus on one practice to explore how its meanings and uses are shaped by various historical and contemporary conditions. Cultural politics applied to food refers to a similar range of approaches. Anthropologists James Watson and Melissa Caldwell use the phrase in their 2005 reader to explore "food as a window on the political… [beginning] with the premise that food practices are implicated in a complex field of relationships, expectations, and choices that are contested, negotiated, and often unequal." (Watson & Caldwell, 2005, p. 1) In this sense, the cultural politics of food refers to the practical implications of power, such as geographic access to food or its pricing. Watson, Caldwell, and others also recognize that cultural politics encompasses issues, such as who has the authority to define the meanings and representations of food and eating, how that authority was established, and how it is being exercised. For example, the volume Political Meals by folklorists and ethnologists further addresses these questions, allowing also for individual agency within larger power structures (Bendix, 2014). This perspective recognizes the complexity of human beings, who act upon a diverse set of motivations and do not always act in what would seem to be logical ways.
Using cultural politics as a lens for observing culinary tourism and ethnic foods highlights the role of power in how those concepts are defined and applied, both by scholars and the general public.

CULINARY TOURISM
The tourism industry has begun to recognized food as a primary attraction and motivation for travel only since the late 1990s and early 2000s (Hall & Sharples, 2003;Long, 2004;2012;2013). The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), using gastronomic tourism in place of "culinary tourism", defines it as "tourists and visitors who plan their trips partially or to-tally in order to taste the cuisine of the place or to carry out activities related to gastronomy" (WTTC, 2017, p. 7 Travel to such locations for food, however, was not considered tourism, and might actually be more accurately thought of as pilgrimage, in which the traveler holds an appreciation and respect for the food and are seeking it in its authentic form (Long, 2012).
Such travelers usually have prior knowledge of the cuisine-enough to know what they are looking for-and tend to represent an elite group within their society. In this sense, culinary tourism as an industry grew out of wine tourism, expanding that niche to include meals, restaurant visits, tours of farms and markets, and cooking classes that represented the chosen cuisines.
Once the tourist industry became aware of the potential for food as an attraction and destination, it began expanding beyond the accepted canon of worthy cuisines to include a larger number of food cultures and regional and ethnic specialties within those cultures. The industry also began recognizing other aspects of foodways beyond simply consumption in restaurants to include production (agritourism and farm tours), procurement (tours of markets and groceries), and preparation (cooking classes; cooking demonstrations), and even conceptualization about food (museum exhibits and lectures). Culinary tourism initially appears to be a highly beneficial industry that can bring money to communities while also affirming their food culture. However, aside from the usual problems with tourism, in general, in its potential harmful impacts on local environments, economies, and societies, cu-linary tourism raises questions about the understanding of food itself (Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Heldke, 2003;Long, 2013). Food becomes valued for its potential to attract tourists, entertain them, and satisfy their aesthetic sensibilities. It is then treated as a source of revenue, as a commodity, rather than as a carrier of memory and identity.
Emotional connections to a dish or ingredient may be threatened or manipulated as the dish is put on display for tourists.
Definitions of the industry tend to emphasize the "exotic" quality of the food neces- These issues of cultural politics can be clarified by applying the original scholarly definition of culinary tourism. (Long, 1998; This humanities-based definition emphasizes that the perceived exoticness of the food is one of the primary motivating factors for tasting it. It draws from tourism scholarship pointing to curiosity as an essential quality in tourism, so a cuisine, dish, ingredient, or other aspect of foodways needs to be different enough to warrant leaving home (Urry, 1990;Hall & Sharples, 2003). Culinary tourism in this sense can be negotiation of exotic and familiar.

ETHNIC FOODS
This leads us to the question of what is meant by "ethnic" within the framework of culinary tourism (Long, 2014). The term is frequently used to refer to a culture other than one's own. For example, Ray (2004) states in his study of Bengali-American foodways, that "ethnic food is other peoples' food." (p. 78) Implicit in that definition is the idea that "ethnic food" is more than just foreign or international food. It reflects a social status of being Other, and of existing within another larger, more dominant culture. It is the foodways of a cultural heritage perceived as not belonging to the mainstream culture. This means that another culture is understood as the normative one, and the ethnic one is evaluated and defined in relation to that culture. A differential identity emerges around the ethnicity in that the characteristics recognized as defining it are those that differ from the dominant one (Lockwood & Lockwood, 1991).
Similarly, foods that seem "different"  Just as with restaurants, the existence of a tour organized by members of an ethnic group does not necessarily mean that they speak for all other members and that they will ensure that the community benefits. Cultural politics comes into play again.

FESTIVALS AND "TASTINGS"
This category of culinary tourism takes a variety of forms, ranging from festivals to expos or "taste of the town" events promoting local food businesses to tastingsofferings of samples of food, usually accompanied by discussions of the culture of that food or how to evaluate its aesthetic qualities. Since these events are public and oftentimes commercial ventures, they raise issues similar to other those for other forms over the selection and presentation of dishes as well as the representative image of the ethnic group. These events are frequently fundraisers, so foods are selected partly for their potential to first attract, and then, please visitors. Foods become a commodity, and their experience, a business transaction, although it may also serve other functions.
Food expos and "tastes of the town" events are the most blatantly commercial of these events. Oftentimes organized by local governing or civic organizations, they promote local food businesses, providing a venue for them to show off their specialties. They purport to stimulate local economic development and oftentimes contribute to creating a "brand" for a geographically specified area (neighborhood, town, city, county, or state). That brand or image created is used for mar-keting the area to bring in culinary tourists, as well as new businesses and residents. These events usually promote what the organizers consider to be "the best" of what is available-an idea that automatically brings up cultural politics. Ethnic food businesses might be included in these events, if they exhibit the "best" characteristics, as defined by the organizers. They frequently need to have Americanized their menus, recipes, and settings to an extent that they are not considered too foreign or exotic for mainstream tourists. They also frequently need to address more elitist notions of "good food," catering to individuals interested in fine dining and the culinary arts. Entrance prices for tourists are usually high enough to be prohibitive to many, and these events usually charge a fee from the participating businesses as well, again an obstacle to a full representation of the ethnic foods available in an area. Cooking demonstrations are similar to cooking classes in the issues they raise.
They differ in the participation of the audience, making these events more "touristic" than classes. Tourists are passive viewers, and the lack of hand-on experience with the foods being demonstrated means that their full engagement with that food will depend a great deal on the prior experience and interest they bring to the event.
Depending on the type of culinary tourist in the audience, the authenticity of the dish is oftentimes emphasized.
A different type of food demonstration is intentionally educational and attempts to convey a deeper understanding of the dish itself as well as the cuisine and culture surrounding it. The food is a vehicle for engaging the audience and uses a cultural form considered universal-cooking-so that audiences can then relate the demonstration to their own interests and experiences. While restaurants and food businesses may also offer such demonstrations, they are especially popular in museums, particularly "living history village" and "folk park" types of venues, as well as cultural and educational institutions. The model is frequently presented as a tourist attraction but expects audiences who are motivated by curiosity about that particular or are just curious about the event or venue. The organizers, then, must address a wide range of interests and previous knowledge in the audience.
The Smithsonian Institution, for example, has developed models for such demonstrations at their long-running Folklife Festival (Long, 2015;Long & Belanus, 2011). These demonstrations are given by a "community scholar," an individual considered knowledgeable and representative of their ethnic community. Such individuals can range from home-cooks to restaurant owners to famous chefs who have gained attention from mainstream or "foodie" audiences. The question of who best represents a community is discussed among the organizers and community members, allowing for as many voices to be heard as possible. The same process is used to select the dishes being presented.
The demonstration itself occurs in a public space with a "presenter" who introduces the cook and the food being presented, helps to mediate questions from the audi-ence to the cook, and may fill in with additional information, as needed. The purpose is to give audiences a sense of the historical, contemporary, and personal meanings of that dish. Culinary tourists, individuals motivated by an interest in food or curious about a particular food culture, are frequent audiences to these more educational events, but the events also try to reach audiences who do not hold those motivations. Issues of cultural politics frequently arise in the manner in which these demonstrations are presented, in the selection of individuals representing the community, and in the interactions with diverse audiences. The organizers are frequently scholars from folkloristics, anthropology, or other ethnographic disciplines and tend to be well aware of the presence of these issues and the need to negotiate them. One approach is to explain the issues to the tourists themselves, so that they also have a voice in that negotiation.

CONCLUSIONS
This overview of cultural politics in relation to ethnic food within culinary tourism suggests the complexity of those issues. Culinary tourism industries, ethnic food entrepreneurs, and other providers of food-related hospitality services need to juggle the demands of business with sensitivity to the nature of food and power.
Culinary tourism projects trade in food as more than a commodity. They draw upon the meanings and emotional associations that food has for individuals and cultures.
They emphasize food as carrying identity and history. As such, defining and representing food highlights the variety of interpretations that can be given to those meanings. Selecting interpretations then reflect issues of power, that is, who has the authority to make those decisions and why.
Ethnicity further complicates the issues.
A number of culinary tourism initiatives, organizations, and businesses are aware of cultural politics (Hall & Gossling, 2012;Long, 2013;Parasecoli & Abreu e Lima, 2012). Sustainable tourism offers perspectives and strategies for tourism providers to address some of the issues.
The UNWTO proclaimed 2017 the international year of sustainable tourism for development and included in their 2017 report the following statement: The intangible cultural heritage of gastronomy differs from that of traditional sites and monuments in that it evolves and develops alongside its respective culture. Thus, we must take into account the emergence of new cultures and traditions and recognize gastronomic tradition as a process of continuous evolution. (Perdomo, 2017, p. 14) A first step in addressing cultural politics is recognizing that food itself is complex, intertwined with all aspects of life, and carries multiple meanings (Long, 2015;. A recognition of the complexity of ethnic identities is also needed. Ethnic groups are not homogenous, but made up of individuals with diverse experiences and interpretations of that identity. That diversity carries over to food. Culinary tourism needs to recognize that diversity, enabling the variety of voices to be heard, and have a role in the selection and representation of ethnic foods.