Peru's image as a culinary destination

Destination image is the cumulative product of individuals processing information about a destination over time. This image comes from different sources, like media articles intended to inform a general audience and promotional materials intended to persuade potential tourists to visit. Various aspects of a destination can provide the focal point for its image, including its unique foods. With the growing interest in food in the media and in tourism, the image of places around the world is increasingly centered on this topic. Peru offers a timely case study to investigate this issue; in recent years, it has gained an international reputation as a culinary destination. The research discussed in this paper examines both popular media articles and official tourism promotions to understand the devices used to construct Peru as a culinary destination. It uses quantitative and qualitative content analysis of magazine and newspaper articles targeted at an American audience and the U.S./English version of the Official Travel and Tourism Portal. This research finds that the image of Peru as a culinary destination is consistent between sources, but there are some differences in the meanings of this content based on type of source, intended audience, and expectations about that audience.