Local Focus: Farmers’ Markets as an Approach to Sustainable Tourism

Current global challenges, including climate change, pandemics such as COVID-19, and over-consumption, have led tourism scholars to rethink the (un)sustainability of the mass tourism model and its effects on communities and environments. A local focus, many argue, could bring about better outcomes for the economy, society, and the environment where tourism encounters occur. In this chapter, we explore the connection between farmers’ markets and sustainable tourism, conceptualising local food as a driver of sociocultural, economic, and environmental value. We argue that as a by-product of their contribution to the sustainability of the local food system they are embedded in, farmers’ markets can also offer authentic, social activities that support more sustainable forms of tourism and travel, such as proximity and slow tourism. We illustrate our arguments with findings from a case study of a farmers’ market held weekly in Tasmania, Australia. Our findings indicate that farmers’ markets contribute to a shift towards conscious consumption and more sustainable tourism behaviours in regional communities, including support for local businesses and local produce, enhancement and preservation of cultural, gastronomic heritage, and stimulation of slow and proximity forms of tourism as alternatives to mass tourism and other forms of (un)sustainable tourism activities.