Abstract
Gastronomy is a key element of popularity and attractiveness of any destination which should be incorporated into the promotion and marketing campaigns of the given site. Good gastronomic image can increase the probability of not only visiting a tourist destination, but also a repeated stay.
However, catering for tourists is also one of the main aspects of the environmental sustainability of a destination. In general, food production accounts for about 25% of global greenhouse gas production, which is more than global transport.
In addition, during the tourist stay, people usually eat a larger amount of food, waste significantly more food and prefer environmentally less sustainable gastronomy. Leading actors in the environmental sustainability of destination are therefore food service establishments, whose offer determines the impact on the environment of the consumer behaviour of all visitors in destination.
The aim of this contribution is to quantify the extent to which there is a spatial clustering of food service establishments near the most popular tourist areas in selected world destinations, where high demand and, thus, an excessive use of natural resources is concentrated. Spatial analysis is uses geolocated photographs and coordinates of accommodation facilities in order to delimit the finite space of destination, which determines the consumption of tourists, and also coordinates of food service establishments.
Finally, options for mitigation of negative environmental impacts are discussed. Results of this contribution will help to reveal in more detail and highlight the importance of food service establishments in the area of environmental impacts.
Conclusions are especially useful for policy makers and stakeholders who can mitigate by their decisions the impact on the environment of the entire destination.