Assessment of food heritage to improve virtuous cycles

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute the advancement of knowledge on food heritage and indigenous entrepreneurship in a non-Western country, specifically in the Persian gardens as the touristic destination for increasing the tourism and food businesses in Iran. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological approach adopted is based on qualitative and quantitative approaches to compare two representative gardens named as Bagh-Chehel-Sotoun and Bagh-Fin, as famous examples of a Persian garden in Iran. The methods supported the research to explain the lack of strategies for improving virtuous cycles in Persian gardens despite their potentials as the main places to attract many tourists. Findings: Regarding local food and the quality of servicing, most of the visitors and tourists (85–90%) had interest to test local and traditional foods around both gardens, but they had no sufficient awareness of Iranian traditional foods. According to the tourists’ interests, the authors concluded the lack of servicing and facilities to present and introduce local and traditional food for tourists. Research limitations/implications: Despite the limitation of local food services and lack of awareness of tourists about local foods, the implication of the study offers possible avenues to promote local food business. Practical implications: The results could be useful for cultural heritage and tourism organizations and for investors in the economic sector due to more exploitation of the tourism industry. Originality/value: The paper is the first work evaluating the Persian garden with a new perspective of local foods in Iran.