Zooming out — Local food at the border: the case of the Emsland and Veenland

Abstract

Straddling the Dutch-German border, the regions Veenland and Emsland are geographically and partially historically the same, but have undergone a different kind of tourism development. While tourism tends to be small scale on both sides, the German Emsland welcomes significantly more tourists than the Dutch Veenland. In connection with a project to foster Veeland’s tourism development respecting the local integrity and particularly the wish to integrate local food into the tourism value chain, this research was carried out for small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs of the Veenland. The aim was to find out to what extent local products — defined as food from raw materials to dishes — contribute to the tourism motivation and the tourism product of the region in the perception of the tourists. A questionnaire was given to tourists (including day-trippers), which yielded 406 valid responses in the Emsland and 594 in the Veenland.