Region of Gastronomy Award
The Region of Gastronomy Award aims to contribute to a better quality of life by raising awareness about the importance of cultural and food uniqueness, stimulating creativity and gastronomic innovation, educating for better nutrition, improving sustainable tourism standards, highlighting distinctive food cultures, and strengthening community well-being.
IGCAT experts developed the Region of Gastronomy Award to recognise the growing convergence of food, culture and tourism sectors and the exciting developments happening at a local level that could support regional development. The idea for the Award was then developed by IGCAT over a number of years together with 9 European regions to identify focus areas that could respond to the needs of regions.
In 2019, IGCAT Experts from around the globe met to discuss changes to the focus areas in order to make the Award worldwide. In 2020, IGCAT officially opened up the Award to world regions.
In designing the Award to stimulate gastronomic innovation and sustainable tourism, the regions identified the need to ensure longer-term benefits and thus the Region of Gastronomy Platform was created to underpin and support exchange of knowledge among the regions taking part.
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idding for the Award encourages stakeholders across sectors to come together and find shared solutions to regional development challenges.
IGCAT introduced to the Region of Gastronomy Award the concept of an interdisciplinary approach (gastronomy, culture, arts and tourism – and increasingly agriculture, education and health). In order to join the Platform and apply for the Award, regions must adapt to IGCAT service-learning model (making a regional stakeholder group of public, private, third sector and knowledge institutions) and through regular meeting identify the region’s challenges and propose actions to support capacity-building at a local level. This approach has been enormously successful already.
IGCAT encourages bids for the Region of Gastronomy Award from all continents.
