Culinary Heritage as an Opportunity to Make Lubelskie Voivodeship’s Tourist Offer More Attractive (E Poland)

Bordering Ukraine and Belarus, lubelskie voivodeship is located in Eastern Poland. For centuries most of its area has been used as arable land due to exceptionally fertile soils (loess black earths, black earths) and a favourable climate. Arable land covers above 70% of the area and forests account for approximately 23% (Rolnictwo… 2017).

Presently, the studied area is thought to be one of the most important agricultural regions in Poland, however, the traditional agricultural function of the voivodeship coexists alongside specific socio-economic conditions. Approximately 52% of the inhabitants reside in the countryside. Approximately 80% of all farms are small with the area ranging from 1 to 10 hectares. Farms’ fragmentation and the fact that they occupy insignificant areas make it difficult for farmers to achieve economically satisfactory results. This in turn results in mass migration of young people to the cities and abroad, which causes villages’ depopulation. Country areas in the lubelskie voivodeship have average population density of merely 47 people km⁻² (whereas the general population density in Polish country areas is 53 people km⁻²).

The current position of the region is also influenced by factors such as the lack of significant industrial centres, peripheral location and the neighbourhood of even more weakly developing border areas of Ukraine and Belarus. Consequently, the voivodeship, which is third largest in Poland in terms of the area and the eight largest when it comes to the number of inhabitants, has the lowest level of economic development in Poland and the EU (Michoń 2017).

In this context, the lack of natural resources for the development of industry and intensive agricultural production causes the development of tourism to be one of the most important functions in the voivodeship. The development of tourism is facilitated by the local (specific) resources which makes this territorial unit special and unique. As Bański (2017: 55) emphasizes, specific resources create competitive advantages of the region, which are difficult to duplicate in other places because they are inseparable from their origin. They are deeply rooted in the local space and in the local community.

Such advantages in the case of the lubelskie voivodeship include rich and diverse natural environment that has relatively been hardly transformed and the region’s multicultural heritage. The aforementioned resources in the researched area share the culinary heritage based on the traditional farming as well as regionally produced articles.

The said issue is therefore in the vein of research into culinary heritage and ways in which it may be employed in the territorial marketing (e.g. du Rand, Heath 2006, Okumus et al. 2007, Ivanova et al. 2014). Generally, it is the development of food tourism, culinary tourism, and gastronomic tourism that is particularly interesting for researchers worldwide, especially increasing attractiveness of an area and its promotion through culinary products (e.g. Hall et al. 2003, Rand et al. 2003, Schlüter 2012), creating a positive image of a region (e.g. Ab Karim, Chi 2010, Lertputtarak 2012), building a strong brand of a region (e.g. Boyne, Hall 2004, Tellstrom et al. 2006, Berg, Sevon 2015). Publications that bring out such advantages are also more and more common in Polish literature of the subject (cf. e.g. Stasiak 2007, Majewski 2008, Gębarowski 2010, Olszewski-Strzyżowski 2010, Sokół 2014, Duda-Seifert et al. 2016, Milewska et al. 2017).

The main aim of this paper is to present the possibilities to make lubelskie voivodeship tourist offer more attractive via culinary heritage. The research aim is a recognition of the perception by Polish citizens’ knowledge of the lubelskie culinary heritage. The main problem is supported by research tasks: –

characteristics of the present tourist offer of the voivodeship,

The findings shall allow to draft opportunities for developing the offer of culinary tourism in the region. They will also facilitate choosing the right resources on the basis of which new products ought to be created or which old ones should be further developed.

Primary and secondary materials were used to achieve the aims of the paper. Employing secondary materials included studying relevant statistics from the Central Statistical Office, scientific publications on individual factors, and characteristics of the tourist office from the lubelskie voivodeship, as well as strategy and planning documents in the field of developing tourism in the area, and finally studying the websites concerning the subject. In this context, the meaning of the culinary tradition was analysed as well as opportunities for using it for creating the region’s tourist offer.

Primary materials were collected using the preliminary research method, an inventory, and a diagnostic poll. A pilot study was administered during international and national tourist fairs in Warszawa, Wrocław, Łódź, Katowice, and Szczecin from November 2017 to June 2018. The research cohort was comprised of randomly selected respondents from outside the lubelskie voivodeship. The study material of approximately 600 questionnaires was collected. For further analysis 493 were used, which were obtained from people who visited the region. Empirical findings which were collected and studied empirically using statistical and cartographic methods.

The preliminary research into scientific publications, strategic documents and statistical data shows that lubelskie voivodeship has been developing its tourist offer relatively dynamically and in multiple directions in recent years. These developments have been facilitated both by specific resources and the activity of local governments and institutions involved in the tourism business.

Lubelskie voivodeship is privileged to have diversified unique natural and cultural qualities. Natural values include highly diversified area between the Vistula and the state’s eastern border. The region encompasses three natural regions. Their geological, soil, hydrological and floral diversity is reflected in the diversity of the landscape. The northernmost and north-eastern part is mostly comprised of lowland areas – meadows, marshes, peatbogs and lakes. This area includes the Mazovian Lowland, Polesie Lubelskie, and Łęczna-Włodawa Lakeland (the only Polish lakes to have originated in the karst). The middle area is comprised of plateau macroregions – the Lublin Upland and Roztocze – these are built of Mesozoic and Cenozoic calcareous-siliceous rocks, which are partly covered with loess. It is there that greatest denivelations (even up to 100 m) are situated as well as the area with the greatest concentration of loess gullies in Europe (11 km per 1 km²) – in the vicinity of Kazimierz Dolny and Szczebrzeszyn. The upland area is nearly devoid of forests and is instead covered with the characteristic farmland checker. The southern part of the voivodeship is a sandy and marshy plain (a fragment of the Sandomierz Basin) with extensive forest areas – the Janowskie Forests and the Solska Forest (Harasimiuk, Świeca 2006).

The most valuable elements of the natural environment are protected in the forms of the International Nature Reserve M&B Western Polesie, two national parks – Roztocze National Park, and Polesie National Park, 17 landscape parks, 17 areas of protected landscape, 87 nature reserves, and nearly 1300 natural features of historic importance (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Lubelskie voivodeship also boasts extremely rich cultural resources which are inextricably connected with its multinational and multi-religious history. Due to its border location and turbulent political, economic, and social history, the area has been inhabited by Ukrainians, Jews, Germans, Lithuanians, and also Italians, Armenians, the Dutch, Scots, Austrians, the French, Greeks, the English, and Tatars (Skowronek et al. 2006).

Despite the region’s turbulent history, many elements of the material and non-material cultural heritage have survived. The largest group of surviving elements are the buildings of various purposes: dwelling premises (villas, manor houses, palaces and village homesteads), economic, and industrial (factory buildings, craftsmen’s workshops, windmills, granaries), ritual (churches, chapels, monasteries, synagogues) and public buildings (schools, hospitals, offices), as well as so called small architecture (e.g. roadside shrines, figures, and roadside crosses). Spatial planning, both urban and rural, is also very interesting. Memorial places make up a separate category of objects: battle places, war and civilian cemeteries of various faiths and places of martyrdom. The voivodeship has significant non-material heritage apart from elements of material culture, inter alia traditions and customs, diverse folklore and cuisine (Szczęsna, Gawrysiak 2009).

Most valuable elements of the cultural tradition in the described region have been appreciated and protected in the nationally and internationally. The old town in Zamość was included in the UNESCO national heritage list (1992). Furthermore, five Monuments of History were established: Kazimierz Dolny and Kozłówka – palaces and park complexes, Lublin – a historic urban architecture complex, Janów Podlaski – a horse stud, Zamość – historic city complex within 19^th century city walls (Fig. 1).

Current tourist offer of the lubelskie voivodeship has been shaped on the basis of currently existing resources. Sightseeing tourism, holiday tourism, and active tourism are the leading types of tourism for which the greatest number of products have been prepared (Krukowska 2012, Skowronek 2012). Health and business tourism have been added in the last decade. Planning and strategic documents that set the trends for developing offers in the analysed region account for all the aforementioned types of tourism. These documents include: the Spatial Programme Concept for the Development of Tourism and Recreation in the Lubelskie Voivodeship (2008), The Tourist Audit of the Lubelskie Voivodeship (2015), The Development Strategy for the Lubelskie voivodeship for 2014–2020 (2015), the Zoning Plan for the Lubelskie Voivodeship (2015), the Strategy for Sustainable Growth of the Country, Agriculture, and Fishing for 2012–2020 (2012). Moreover, some of the documents specify the forms that might expand the offer highlighting specific natural and cultural resources. According to the adopted guidelines, the following products are likely to function successfully in the lubelskie voivodeship: sightseeing tourism products – including forms such as touring, cultural tourism, nature and culinary tourism; holiday tourism products – agrotourism and rural tourism; active tourism products – trekking, bike riding, water sports, horse riding and others (e.g. angling, hunting, aviation). Furthermore, health (health resorts, medical services, spa and wellness) and business tourism, which have already been mentioned, are also referred to.

It needs to be noted that the region has not yet been fully discovered by tourists despite having such a significant potential. Pursuant to the data from the Eurostat from 2016, the region was at the end of the rank of all European regions with merely 1.8 m tourists (level NUTS-2).

According to the data published by the Central Statistical Office, the number of lodgings provided in 2016 in the lubelskie was merely 1.97 m, which placed the region on 12^th place in the country (Statistical Yearbook for Voivodeships for 2017). However, recent statistics prepared by the Central Statistical Office inform that the lubelskie voivodeship was visited by 1 mln foreign tourists and 2.2 mln Polish tourists, which proves there has been a growing interest from tourists in the attractions of the region (Central Statistical Office data following Buczak 2018). The abovementioned statistics point to a significant share that foreigners have in the tourism traffic in the region. This tendency is to be envied by other Polish regions. Consequently, there is a need to keep developing the current tourist offer.

Findings from the preliminary research show institutions and organisations responsible for developing tourist offer in the lubelskie voivodeship to have been doing their best to take into account current development trends in Polish and international tourism. Many authors highlight mechanisms for local and regional development based upon the promotion and developing natural and cultural heritage, accentuating regional identity (Nizioł 2016). In this context, one should appreciate even more the attempts at creating the voivodeship brand on the basis of the resource that has not been tapped into – i.e. the culinary tradition. The significance of such activities has been underlined by inter alia Majewski (2008), Sala (2008), Sieczko (2010), Kołodziej (2011), Sokół (2014), Duda-Seifert, Drozdowska (2015), Stasiak (2015), Duda-Seifert et al. (2016), Fabisiak, Jaworski (2017).

It is the local government of the voivodeship that was the first in Poland to notice and take action geared towards building the image and the recognition of culinary products originating in the region. Special attention was paid to regional products defined according to Winawer and Wujec (2010) as (…) those whose quality is considerably higher than the average and which are inextricably bound with the place of origin as well as traditional production methods (Adamczuk 2013). Such attempts were possible owing to specific features of lubelskie farming and its products, which are perceived to be healthy, ecological and based on the region’s traditions. Consequently, brand building was based on the place of origin concept. Both theory and practice show it to be a difficult task, however, it contributes to an increase in the products’ value triggered due to products’ place of origin and it solidifies a positive image of the area. It is assumed that guaranteeing the origin of original products (including obtaining appropriate certificates) is more important for visitors (tourists) than for local inhabitants. Final consumer behaviours are also influenced by many other factors, inter alia by a customer’s country of origin, consumer’s awareness, certificate type, fashion, current promotional actions, and even the type/specific nature of a food product (cf. Van Ittersum et al. 2003, Luceri et al. 2016, Charters et al. 2017). Such correlations have been present in the marketing of many countries (regions) worldwide. Only few voivodeships have lately begun to consciously use the place of origin concept in their promotional activities in Poland (Stasiak 2015, Duda-Seifert et al. 2016, Milewska et al. 2017). This group includes the lubelskie voivodeship (Bekier-Jaworska, Bochenek 2014).

Several dozen nationwide marketing campaigns have been administered since 2008, including: Lubelskie’s great for a weekend (2008), Lubelskie – turn off your tensions, turn on your power! (2009), Lubelskie – let the moment last! (2010), Lubelskie. Taste life! (2011), The Lubelskie Brand (2011), The Tastes of Lubelszczyzna (2011–2012), Lubelskie – for a moment or longer (2014), Lubelskie. Best because it’s ours! (2015), The force is in us! (2016). Regional government used these campaigns to encourage to purchase and consume products made in the lubelskie voivodeship. Moreover, the aforementioned actions were to equate the region with the high culture of taste by accentuating the image of Lubelszczyzna as the to-go place for ecological food. The campaign also stressed that the point was not only to taste a rich variety of culinary products, but also to sample the culture, use the nature and opportunities to realise one’s passions. The campaigns cost 2.5 mln Euro in total, most of which was paid from European funds. The activities included: placing billboards throughout Poland, advertising spots broadcasts in state and private TV (nationwide and regional), internet campaigns on popular information portals and on Facebook, radio campaigns (nationwide and regional), press campaigns (nationwide and regional), promotion during national and international tourist fairs as well as promotion in selected airlines operating from the Lublin airport (Skoczylas 2012).

Advertising spots from two campaigns won prizes at International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT). Lubelskie – let the moment last! won 6 awards in 2011 at CIFFT festivals in Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Russia, the Czech Republic and Austria (it won the Grand Prix). Moreover, Lubelskie – for a moment or longer was appreciated in 2014 at CIFFT festivals in Berlin, Riga, and Warsaw.

The scale of the campaigns’ influence through the media (radio, TV, press, Internet) covered all Polish voivodeships. Furthermore, large billboards and city lights were placed in greatest Polish cities: Warsaw, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Poznań, Kraków, Katowice, Łódź, Wrocław, Rzeszów.

Promotional activities were also undertaken abroad, inter alia through airlines flying to the cities with which Lublin is connected, these included Dublin, Stockholm, Glasgow, Brussels; industrial spots and advertising boards in mass media, in BBC News channels: Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East; advertising spots were seen at international CIFFT festivals; events promoting regional brand products in Brussels (in 2011 and in 2012).

Gradual introduction of regional food products into the nationwide List of Traditional Products overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was another important activity. Presently, lubelskie voivodeship is third in the country with its 204 products. Cebularz lubelski (Lublin onion cake), which is one of its most famous specialities, was registered in 2014 as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).

The aforementioned activities are all in the vain of a fast developing trend in the worldwide tourist market, which is connected with consumers’ interest in the offer of culinary tourism, especially based on the culinary heritage. It needs to be stressed that this form of tourism gives great opportunities for promoting places and traditional, regional, and local products. The number of tourist offers connected with gastronomy and culinary offer has been growing dynamically. The fact that the voivodeship boasts numerous regional products has facilitated its growth. However, internal competition has been growing quickly, which is an important signal that the offer from the lubelskie for tourism based on culinary heritage needs to be diverse and unique in comparison with others. According to Stasiak (2015: 147), it needs to be remembered that preparing an attractive tourist offer for foreigners is still a hugely important challenge. It is the voivodeships that shall promote and use their rich culinary tradition for creating broad arrival packages that will be successful. Otherwise, culinary tourism may only turn out to be nothing but a short-lived fad.

The assessment of respondents’ familiarity with the lubelskie voivodeship and its culinary heritage was made on the basis of results obtained by means of the diagnostic poll method. The first stage included testing the perception of the lubelskie voivodeship within the domain of general connotations as well as the natural environment features and landscapes, whereas the second leg of the assessment consisted in checking the knowledge of the lubelskie products as well as its regional dishes. On this basis, the level of effectiveness of the promotional campaign conducted was assessed.

Respondents’ familiarity with features of the lubelskie voivodeship

Both the people who had visited the lubelskie voivodeship (71%) and those who had never been there (29%) expressed their opinions with regard to general connotations with the region, features of its natural environment and landscapes. The former mentioned tourism as their main visiting aim (49.2%) (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

Answering the question: What do you associate lubelskie voivodeship with?, the respondents pointed to its rich history and multicultural heritage (15.4%), well-developed agriculture (15.2%), and tourist attractiveness (14.4%) (Fig. 3). All the answers received may be grouped into three major categories: 1) elements influencing the development of tourism (rich history and multicultural heritage, tourist attractiveness, diverse and well-preserved nature, hospitality (52.25 answers in total); 2) well developed agriculture and healthy food (24.0%); 3) the region being underdeveloped (peripheral location, poorly developed industry, backwardness and poverty (20.3%) (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

Respondents’ answers with respect to the features of the natural environment show them to be associating lubelskie voivodeship mostly with nature landscapes (24.3%), agricultural landscapes (18.7%), forest landscapes (16.1%), rural landscapes (13.3%), and tourist landscapes (10.3%) (Fig. 4). As many as 77% of the total of number of the surveyed people consider lubelskie to have been only minimally affected by anthropogenic transformations.

Fig. 4

Such perception of the voivodeship may influence respondents’ trust in regional food products, which are considered to be healthy and tradition-based.

Assessment of the actions’ efficacy within the scope of products’ and regional dishes’ recognition

Efficacy of actions undertaken for the sake of promoting the voivodeship through foods and regional products were assessed on the basis of analysing their recognition by inhabitants from other regions of Poland. The first stage consisted in presenting all the respondents with a selection of products and dishes and asking them to choose those which they thought to originate in the lubelskie voivodeship. Research results point to respondents’ relatively good knowledge of food products originating in lubelskie. This was confirmed by the average number of indications (approx. 3) for each dish. Respondents most often selected cider (13.8%), cebularz/onion cake (13.7%), honey (11.5%), dumplings (9.6%) and sękacz pie (8.4%). Rape oil, Biłgoraj pierogi/gryczaks, tripe soup, cranberry tincture (żurawinówka), kulebiak pie, and steamed dumplings (parowańce) each obtained less than 5% of indications (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5

The second stage consisted in querying respondents whether they knew dishes or regional products from the lubelskie voivodeship. Over a quarter of all respondents (26.8% in total) gave a positive answer. These people were then asked to give examples of regional foods. The analysis of the answers obtained proved the following to be the most popular regional products: Lublin onion cake (cebularz lubelski) (28.3% of all answers), Biłgoraj pierogi/gryczaks (8.9%), Lublin cider (6.3%). Other positions were also mentioned: vorschmack, dumplings, rape honey, kartacze, kulebiak pie, breads, regional oils, gallimaufry soup (bigos), raspberry tincture (malinówka), sękacz pie, drop scones (racuchy), kutia, and bałabuchy pie (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6

It needs to be pointed out that all by five products and dishes (Lublin cider, kartacze, gallimaufry soup [bigos], kutia, bałabuchy pie) have been entered into the List of Traditional Products kept by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and cebularz lubelski (Lublin onion cake) was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).

Furthermore, it is because of their production mode that the dishes respondents are familiar with are unique in Poland. They are produced on the basis of traditional recipes/procedures, and are made with ingredients that are typical for the region of lubelskie (buckwheat groats, potatoes, onion, marinated cabbage, beans, poppy, honey, milk, apples, mushrooms and forest fruit, wheat and rye flours). They are also associated with the multicultural nature of the region relating to various communities: Jewish (cebularz, vorschmack), Russian/Ukrainian (kutia, Ukrainian borsch), Old Russian/Slavonic (kulebiak), Celtic/French (cider).

In conclusion, the findings from the diagnostic poll show lubelskie voivodeship to be wellknown nationwide. Naturally, this does not mean that the level of recognising and being familiar with gastronomic specialties’ is fully satisfactory and cannot be considerably improved in the future. Nevertheless, research results allow to conclude that the promotional activities described proved effective and the culinary heritage of the lubelskie voivodeship is an important factor in the region’s tourist offer. It should also be used for creating the region’s brand.

The growing number of tourists visiting lubelskie voivodeship proves the interest in the area to be increasing year by year, but it should also be a motivation for undertaking further actions aimed at improving its tourist offer.

Recent years have seen the culinary offer and food products to have an ever growing influence of making the tourist offer more attractive and building/creating the region’s brand. Products that can be described as regional and traditional have proved especially important in this field. Krupa (2010) and Orłowski (2016) described the significant potential of the culinary heritage and opportunities for improving the tourist attractiveness of the region through developing culinary tourism in the lubelskie voivodeship. They emphasised originality and uniqueness of taste qualities in traditional dishes and food products, which stems from the multicultural heritage, original recipes, the ingredients and the production procedures. Results obtained by the authors of this study showed that the abovementioned features of the regional products have been recognised among tourists visiting the lubelskie voivodeship. These features that are identified with the region made tourists remember it so well. Furthermore, the products are associated with a good state of the natural environment, which was confirmed by respondents’ opinions connecting the lubelskie voivodeship with healthy food.

The region is recognisable among Polish inhabitants both with respect to its tourist attractiveness, its products and regional dishes. Therefore, promotional activities ought to be continued and intensified in this field. Not only should the culinary heritage be promoted, but also protected through activities like attempts at listing e.g. Biłgoraj pierogi/gryczaks, Lublin cider, honeys, oils, and regional liquors in the protection system of the European Union’s regional and traditional products. Such actions are suggested by the research findings.

Furthermore, the voivodeship’s offer ought to increase the number of its culinary heritage-based products, especially the products belonging to the following categories: –

object (e.g. Museum of Cebularz in Lublin and/or others museums connected with culinary specialities, exceptional gastronomic premises, open food-production plants),

Assuming that the offer of the lubelskie voivodeship shall account for arrival packages for foreign tourists, it may become an important component in creating the regional brand both nationwide and abroad.

This study belongs to the few Polish scientific investigations whose research findings show the lubelskie voivodeship’s recognisability, especially the perception of the geographic environment and regional products among inhabitants of other voivodeships. The findings presented here should therefore be treated as preliminary because the problem should also be continued with respect to other Polish voivodeships as the significance of the culinary tourism in Poland and abroad is increasing. Such studies would consequently help work out research methodology, comparative analyses, and comprehensive conclusions.