There is no more delicious way to experience the soul of European culture, history and traditions than through its food. As you travel through Europe, you will find numerous gastronomic fairs, festivals and trails to taste the unique local products and dishes. Are you planning your holidays in Europe and are keen to know which food fairs and festivals will be around?

A new gastronomic portal, which went online today, enables visitors to do just that. Thanks to the cooperation between the European Commission and the European Travel Commission, the organization which embodies European national tourism offices, tourists now have a new tool to better plan their holidays. Tourism destination managers, on the other side, will get better visibility for their food events by uploading information about them on the portal.

According to the last United Nations World Tourism Organisation global report, food tourism is an emerging phenomenon due to the fact that over a third of tourist spending is devoted to food. One of the aims of the new portal is to help destinations and tourism companies better more aware of the importance of gastronomy in diversifying tourism and stimulating local, regional and national economic development.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=7290&lang=en