From cocoa to tourist experience: The Chocolate Festival and Tabasco identity

Abstract

The Tabasco Chocolate Festival has established itself as a leading platform for cultural and tourism promotion, highlighting cacao as a symbol of identity and gastronomic heritage of the region. Its importance lies in its role in showcasing cacao culture, boosting the local economy, and contributing to economic diversification by strengthening activities linked to gastronomic and cultural tourism. However, cacao continues to face challenges related to the limited coordination between the tourism, cultural, and agricultural sectors, as well as the need to generate greater benefits for rural producing communities.
In this context, the Chocolate Festival emerges as a strategic platform that integrates tourism promotion, gastronomic activities, cultural expressions, and community participation, becoming a meeting point for producers, visitors, artisans, and institutional stakeholders.
This study aims to analyze the perceptions of national and international visitors regarding the cultural, economic, and tourism impact of the festival, as well as to evaluate the extent to which this event contributes to the preservation of gastronomic heritage and the strengthening of regional identity. To this end, a quantitative approach is employed by administering a questionnaire to a sample of attendees from the 2025 edition. The expected results aim to demonstrate that this Festival not only boosts tourism and the local economy, but also reaffirms Tabasco's identity and preserves the cultural legacy of cacao, consolidating its position as a national benchmark in gastronomic and cultural tourism in Mexico.