Digital Gastrodiplomacy: Transforming Culinary Diplomacy in the Post-Pandemic Era for Nation Branding and Sustainable Tourism Development

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-908-7_2How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digital gastrodiplomacy; Culinary diplomacy; Soft power; Nation branding; Sustainable tourism

Abstract

Gastrodiplomacy has undergone significant transformation in the post-pandemic era, evolving from conventional approaches toward more adaptive and sustainable digital strategies. Despite increasing academic interest in gastrodiplomacy as a soft power instrument, existing literature remains fragmented and lacks comprehensive exploration of digital transformation in culinary diplomacy. This research aims to examine the evolution of gastrodiplomacy within digitalization contexts, identify transformative strategies, and analyze their effectiveness in strengthening nation branding and sustainable tourism development. A systematic literature review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 protocols, analyzing 62 documents from Scopus database spanning 2018–2025. Analysis employed bibliometric approaches and thematic synthesis using Braun & Clarke framework to identify patterns, trends, and core themes in digital gastrodiplomacy literature. Analysis revealed exponential growth of 367% in digital gastrodiplomacy publications during 2018–2023. Three main thematic clusters emerged: Digital Gastronomy Tourism and Economic Recovery (54.8%), Culinary Heritage Preservation in Digital Era (28.4%), and Digital Nation Branding through Soft Power Gastronomy (16.8%). Findings demonstrate that digital gastrodiplomacy effectively enhances nation brand equity (effect size: d = 0.82, CI: 0.64–1.00), strengthens cultural understanding (r = 0.71, p < 0.001), and drives sustainable tourism recovery with 2.3–4.1 times return on investment. Digital gastrodiplomacy represents a novel paradigm in cultural diplomacy integrating technology, sustainability, and cultural authenticity, enabling countries to project soft power more effectively while building sustainable competitive advantages in the global cultural economy. Successful implementation requires multi-platform strategies, local community engagement, and long-term commitment to cultural authenticity preservation for maximizing diplomatic and economic outcomes.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Asep Maosul
AU  - M. Syaom Barliana
AU  - A. Ana
AU  - Sri Subekti
AU  - Cica Yulia
AU  - M. Muktiarni
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/07
TI  - Digital Gastrodiplomacy: Transforming Culinary Diplomacy in the Post-Pandemic Era for Nation Branding and Sustainable Tourism Development
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Innovation in Food Science, Culinary Art, and Fashion Technology (INNOFATEC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 7
EP  - 23
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-908-7_2
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-908-7_2
ID  - Maosul2025
ER  -