By Vincenzo Velletri
As previously announced Terra Madre Salone Del Gusto 2022 will be held in Turin from the 22nd to the 26th of September. One of the hot topics will be Slow Travel. This project was launched in 2018 in collaboration with Carinthia Region (Austria) to promote a new way of traveling by using the wealth of experience from Slow Food and the Terra Madre network to create a new model of tourism.
This model doesn’t look only at the landscape but aims at including stories, traditions, flavours and craftsmanship that people have built and preserved over the centuries, creating long-standing local culture and identities where gastronomic experiences are an integral part.
This model is made up of meetings and exchange with farmers, cheesemakers, herders, butchers, bakers and winegrowers who, along with the chefs that cook their products, will be the narrators of the local areas and unique guides to the local traditions.
This project offers territories the chance to become high-quality, unique, sustainable food tourism destinations where travelers interact with artisan food producers, farmers and restaurants to get an understanding of the local cultures, identities and gastronomies and create an alliance to preserve local quality food production and local food biodiversity.
Slow Food Travel is already operating in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, North Africa and the Philippines just launched this project this year.
In Australia we could start implementing this model of travel by connecting our local small food producers, artisan food and indigenous food producers as they are the ones that are preserving our food culture and biodiversity.