It was founded in 2016 as the Food Trekking Awards, the awards program was the industry’s first and is today the industry’s largest, program that recognizes excellence and innovation in food and beverage tourism.

The award is run by World Food Travel Association (WFTA), founded in 2003 as a non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO), and today is regarded as the world’s leading authority on food and beverage tourism. WFTA’s mission is to preserve and promote the awareness of culinary cultures through hospitality and tourism.

Culinary travel was officially recognized as a niche industry in 2001 with the publication of a white paper, “Culinary Tourism: The Hidden Harvest.” Since then, the industry has experienced tremendous growth in both the quantity and quality of products and experiences for food- and beverage loving-travellers.

Currently, the award consists of six categories:
1. Best program to promote culinary culture to visitors
– This category is open to any business, organization, tourism office or government that has a program that helps to preserve its own culinary culture(s) while simultaneously promoting it to visitors
2. Best sustainability solution in a culinary tourism experience
– This category is open to any business, organization, tourism office or government with a sustainability solution that solves some issue relating to culinary tourism. For example, the program could deal with recycling, reuse of food waste, living wages, DEI, overtourism, etc.
3. Best beverage experience for culinary travellers
– This category is open to any business, organization, tourism office or government that elevates the visibility of and emphasizes local beverage production as a crucial part of the culinary tourism experience.
4. Best agricultural or rural experience for culinary travelers
– This category is open to any business, organization, tourism office or government that elevates the visibility of and emphasizes agricultural production as a crucial part of the culinary tourism experience.

5. Best wellness or health experience for culinary travellers
– This category is open to any business, organization, tourism office or government that elevates the visibility of and emphasizes wellness and/or health as a crucial part of the culinary tourism experience.
6. Best use of technology in a culinary tourism experience
– This category is open to any business, organization, tourism office or government that uses technology in an interesting way to teach or support culinary travellers. Be sure to show how technology benefits food- and beverage-loving travellers.

The judging process
All entries are fairly judged by a confidential panel of international industry experts. Each judge is an expert in at least one of the included categories and is typically already known in their industry. Judges review each entry based on the criteria provided for that category. Their votes are compiled to create a short list of winning candidates. The judges then deliberate the final winners. First-place and runner-up winners are selected in each category.

The benefits of the Awards to the winners
Businesses of all types, organizations, and destinations of all sizes are welcome to enter to the Global Culinary Travel Awards conducted annually.
a) World-wide recognition-Winners of our Global Culinary Travel Awards enjoy the global spotlight and exposure to our network of nearly 200,000 food tourism professionals each year.
b) Excellence & innovation-the Global Culinary Travel Awards are the world’s benchmark of excellence and innovation in culinary tourism from the world’s leading industry authority.
c) Prominent visibility-Display trophy in your business & digital winner badge on your website. Enjoy mention from the award’s social media, press releases, and in our industry newsletter.

To learn more visit https://worldfoodtravel.org/

The following are the winners of the award.