Culinary tourism or food tourism is experiencing the food of the country, region or area, and is now considered a vital component of the tourism experience. Dining out is common among tourists and "food is believed to rank alongside climate, accommodation, and scenery" in importance to tourists.

Culinary tourism is defined as the pursuit of unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences. Culinary tourism differs from agritourism in that culinary tourism is considered a subset of cultural tourism (cuisine is a manifestation of culture) whereas agritourism is considered a subset of rural tourism, but culinary tourism and agritourism are inextricably linked, as the seeds of cuisine can be found in agriculture.

Culinary tourism is not limited to gourmet food. This is perhaps best illustrated by the notion that culinary tourism is about what is "unique and memorable, not what is necessarily pretentious and exclusive". Similarly, wine tourism and beer tourism are also regarded as subsets of culinary tourism.