Book excerpt: Food and Wine Festivals and Events Around the World is a pioneering text that recognises the importance of this rapidly growing aspect of the tourism industry. Food and wine festivals and events play a significant role in rural and urban development and regeneration and the impacts of these events can be far ranging at a social, political, economic and environmental level. This innovative book recognises the development of food and wine festivals as a part of regional and national tourism strategies and uses international case studies to illustrate practice and contextualise theory. Bringing together an international contributor team of experts, this is the first book to study this profitable and expanding area of the tourism industry and provides a unique resource for those studying in the fields of tourism, event management and culinary arts.