Follow the Food: The Rise of Food Tourism

September 19, 2025·43 min·3 clips

Food tourism is projected to surge from $1 billion to over $3.7 trillion globally by 2032.

Have you ever been on a food walk? Sheila Dillon opens with that plain question, then heads through Bristol and Melton Mowbray, where tasting becomes a way into place. The stops do the work without much fuss: smoked salmon from John's own smoker, cheese with a pairing, barbecue pork belly bites and a turn toward vegan food. Then the walk picks up a bit of theatre. A figure dressed from neck to toe in rich green appears as the Somoza Wallah, part food seller and part family story. His account begins practically. He remembers business-to-business selling, Mrs. Shake, and how quickly hot samosas went whenever he brought them to groups. The next step sounds half planned, half lucky: a food marketeer tasted the samosas, found them very, very tasty, and helped turn a popular bite into a brand. The story is bigger than a snack, though not in a grand speech way. The Somoza Wallah describes himself as half Indian and half English, with the food carrying both sides. That is where the episode finds its shape. Food tourism here is not a list of places to eat. It is a way of noticing what a town makes, what people bring with them, and what sits behind the sleepy surface. The programme widens out through Professor Una McMahon-Beattie, one of the voices explaining why food trails are appearing across Britain. The guests keep circling the same idea: people want something close, walked, tasted and told, not a detached set of restaurant tips. By the end, memory matters most. Molly and Andrew talk about family time and having enough stuff, making shared experience feel like the thing worth taking home. Guy Haywood of the Pilgrim Trust gives the episode its quiet closing thought: food can be re-enchanted when people pay attention to what grows, moves and is prepared around them.

As heard by us

A warm, wandering food walk through taste, place, local pride, and the memories built around a shared bite.

The Food Programme follows food tourism through Bristol and Melton Mowbray, where a walk can mean smoked salmon from a local smoker, cheese pairings, pork belly bites, a vegan stop, or the happy collision of pork pies and samosas.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a tasting trail that reveals how a place is put together.

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