Tourism pressure and gastronomy: a comparison between Italy and Croatia

Gastronomy is widely recognized as a strategic resource in destination branding and tourism marketing. While existing research has mainly focused on how food influences tourists’ motivations and experience, less attention has been paid to how tourism, in turn, reshapes local culinary systems and destination identities. This paper explores how tourism pressure affects gastronomic identity and the projected destination image from the perspective of local hosts. The study adopts a qualitative comparative approach, analyzing through 24 semi-structured interviews with chefs and restaurant owners, two Adriatic destinations characterized by different forms of tourism pressure: Venice (Italy), affected by overtourism, and Istria Region (Croatia), marked by strong seasonality and peak demand. Findings reveal that tourism acts as both a direct and indirect driver of transformation. Directly, tourists’ demand for standardized or iconic national dishes encourages menu homogenization and deviations from local traditions. Indirectly, structural constraints, such as limited availability of local ingredients, workforce erosion, and rising costs, further reshape restaurateurs’ practices and identities. Nonetheless, some actors adopt resistance strategies, including market-based daily menus and collaborative networks promoting local sourcing or take the opportunity to innovate traditional dishes. The study contributes to debates on destination identity and brand co-creation by highlighting tourists’ ambivalent role in transforming local gastronomic identities.