The Peruvian government has sponsored various gastronomy-centered campaigns to attract global attention. New culinary campaigns give the Peruvian government an opportunity to rebrand the country, pushing away from previous associations with political instability. The Peruvian government strives to create a nation brand with food as the foundation to promote Peru’s food culture as both “world-class and distinctly Peruvian” (Wilson 13). National branding campaigns are an outlet for countries like Peru to pour funds into, to support goals like increasing trade and investment and increasing tourism revenue (Wilson 14). Peru’s Export and Tourism Promotion board launched such a campaign with “Peru Mucho Gusto” in 2006, a campaign funding the production of cookbooks, the organization high-profile food festivals, and the recognition of commendable Peruvian restaurants globally (Singh). Campaigns focused on building Peru’s reputation as a top culinary destination might overlook cultural nuances of regional cuisines in order to form a more condensed picture of Peruvian cuisine. Condensing Peruvian cuisine into several readily identifiable images makes Peruvian cuisine more easily recognized by outsiders. Despite intentions to lift up Peruvian food culture as a whole, the government branding campaigns rarely give minority groups in Peru explicit credit for contributions to Peruvian cuisine. The campaigns depict indigenous people and Afro-Peruvians, but the groups’ influences on cuisine are not the focal point of the groups’ roles in campaigns. In 2011, a new branding campaign called Marca Perú released a video in promotion of Peruvian food culture; however, the video never depicted indigenous people and AfroPeruvians as cooks or contributors to cuisine, only as artisans, dancers, and musicians (Matta, “Cocinando una nación” 55). In line with the video depiction, the cuisine most frequently presented in campaigns, criollo cuisine, is a result of a process of substituting ingredients in dishes in order to make the dishes less native and more European (Hinostroza 82). Glossing over the role of minority groups in Peruvian cuisine in branding campaigns produces an incomplete picture for outsiders of the cultural influences on Peruvian cuisine. However, the campaigns have found success, making the government agencies creating campaigns less inclined to change tactics in order to continue bringing in profits from culinary tourism. The number of tourists coming to Peru specifically seeking gastronomic experiences has risen since the beginning of the gastronomic revolution. In regards to culinary tourism, the Peruvian government’s gastronomy-centered branding schemes seem to have persuaded international travelers to visit Peru. PromPeru, the Commission of Peru Promotion in Exports and Tourism, completed a study that claims between forty-two and forty-three percent of tourists arriving in Peru have gastronomic motivations for choosing Peru as a destination (Hurtado and Salas). Receiving prestigious awards like the World Travel Award for Best Culinary Destination for four consecutive years, promoting gastronomic travel routes, and offering culinary experiences like cooking classes all place Peru in tourists’ culinary consciences (“Peru Tourism Sector”). Strong interest in Peruvian cuisine creates real economic impact in Peru from activities such as culinary tourism, an estimated $1.4 million industry in 2015, almost double the 2013 amount (Singh). The staging of Peruvian cuisine for tourists also has the potential to incite pride in Peruvians for the national cuisine as something valuable enough to promote internationally. However, with swelling outside enthusiasm for gastronomic experiences in Peru, locals will seek out new ways to package Peruvian cuisine to hold tourist attention.
Bibliography
Bannister, H. B. (2017). Gastronomic Revolution: Peruvian Cuisine’s Journey from Cultural Entity to Commodity. Public Knowledge Project.
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