Abstract
Food heritage-based networks (based on food heritage and food communities of practice) are at the core of gastronomic tourism. This paper examines the complex process of networking between 15 farmers and nine hotel managers in the Italian Dolomites area of the Valle del Primiero and Vanoi. Research undertaken over 20 months included focus groups exploring the development of a collaboration between these two sets of actors and the emergence of a food heritage-based network (cheesescape). Considering the implications for gastronomic tourism, the study found that this collaborative process represents a fundamental step in developing an internal awareness (“heritage realisation”) for food communities of practice. This subsequently empowers local communities in relation to their role within the gastronomic offerings of the territory and supports emerging new food heritage-based networks between different actors of the destination (“rural recomposition”). Gastronomic tourism thus becomes an opportunity to valorize local heritage, and members of the local communities become protagonists in promoting their culture, heritage, traditions and place identity.