The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Basque Culinary Center (BCC) are co-organizing the 5th UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism, on 2-3 May 2019 in San Sebastián, Spain. The Forum is supported by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain, the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the City Council of San Sebastián, a city that has hosted the Forum every other year since its first edition, in 2015.

The main content and objectives of the Forum were presented at a press conference at the UNWTO headquarters, presided by UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, Spain’s Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Oliver, and the Director of the Basque Culinary Center (BCC), Joxe Mari Aizega. They were accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Trade of the Basque Government, Isabel Muela, the Deputy for Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sports of Gipuzkoa, Denis Itxaso, and the First Vice-Mayor of the City of San Sebastián, Ernesto Gasco, representing the key partners for the holding of this international event.

Through the World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism, the UNWTO and the Basque Culinary Center aim to promote the exchange of experiences among tourism and gastronomy experts, and identify good practices. The objective is to promote gastronomy tourism as a factor for the sustainable development of countries, by virtue of its close links with local products and culture. Consequently, it is a driver of professional training, job creation, and community development. This focus is the reason behind the partnership between UNWTO and the Basque Culinary Center.

Thus, the 5th Forum will analyse the skills and knowledge that gastronomy tourism will require in the future and highlight gastronomy as one of the main motivations for travel. In addition, the event aims to identify favourable frameworks that promote entrepreneurship and the creation of ecosystems that, in turn, stimulate connections among emerging companies throughout the gastronomy tourism value chain. The Forum will also address the potential of gastronomy tourism to promote better inclusion of disadvantaged groups and raise the quality of work environments. It will address some of the main challenges facing the sector, such as the gender wage gap, the employment of persons with disabilities, youth unemployment and the problem of seasonality, among others.

Entrepreneurship and sustainable development

The Forum will serve as the setting for the announcement of the winning startup of the 1st Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition, launched with the support of Promperu. To date, the competition has attracted gastronomy tourism startups from 65 countries around the world, united by their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. The deadline for the submission of entries is 5 March 2019.

The winning startup will be invited to take part in the Culinary Action accelerator programme during the second semester of 2019, where it will benefit from the mentoring and advice of the network of experts of BCC Innovation, a workspace in LABe’s Digital Gastronomy Lab project incubator, and a grant of up to 5,000 euros to cover the cost of accommodation and travel during this period.

The five finalist startups will be announced on 1 April and will be invited to present their projects to the sector’s investors during the Forum, as well as at the Ibero-American Gastronomy Fair (Miami, USA, 9-11 May 2019).