'Twas a time -- say, back in the days of sailing ships -- when to be a "culinary tourist" might have meant that you landed on an island inhabited by cannibals and didn't make it home alive.

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But these days, "culinary tourism" is all good -- and one of the hottest trends in travel and food.

Today's culinary tourists are, basically, people who travel to places and try to eat them. You will be hearing more about culinary tourism, even right here in Pittsburgh, as tourism agencies cook up programs and promotions to feed that appetite.

"This seems to be the new 'eco-tourism,' " says Lisa Gensheimer, a documentary producer and travel writer. She lives in North East in Erie County but will eat and drink just about anywhere, whether it be eau de vie at the winery up the road or seafood in Seattle.

She recently started writing, for the social networking site Gather.com, a twice-weekly column about those delicious trips called "The Culinary Tourist."

She calls culinary tourism "a new name for something that people have liked to do for a long time, but didn't really put a name on it."

Culinary tourism was defined as "travel to learn about or enjoy unique and memorable eating-and-drinking experiences" in a survey of 2,364 U.S. leisure travelers released last month by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA).

The study, cosponsored by the National Restaurant Association with Gourmet magazine and the International Culinary Tourism Association, shows this "emerging phenomenon" is "taking hold in the American vocabulary," according to the restaurant group. It noted that one quarter of all leisure travelers say food is central to picking their destination, and that number increases to 51 percent for "culinary travelers" ("those engaging in culinary activities during leisure trips").

Some of what the survey found is no surprise. That most leisure travelers and culinary travelers like trying new restaurants most nights on trips? Well, where else would they eat?

But it is interesting that out of all leisure travelers, 17 percent -- that'd be about 27.3 million people -- have participated in food/wine activities (cooking classes, farmers markets, winery tours, food festivals) on trips in the past three years.

Of these, 46 percent, or 12.6 million, are "deliberate" culinary travelers, for whom such activities are the key reason for the trip or figured in to the choice of destination. And these "deliberate" ones eat and drink a chunk of their travel dollars.

This led International Culinary Tourism Association (of course there's an association) president and CEO Erik Wolf to comment, "Culinary tourism has reached the tipping point as a niche and an industry."

Because culinary tourists also take eats home, where they might want to keep buying them, the potential for economic gain can extend beyond the trip, he said. "Every community should be looking for ways to promote its unique food and drink experiences."

In fact, many local and regional tourism groups helped co-sponsor the survey, including Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism and the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.

Among the top 15 destinations for food-related travel visited by respondents to this survey, Pennsylvania ranked 10th. The top nine in order were California, Florida, New York, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Illinois and Nevada.

Among the top 10 wine destinations, Pennsylvania ranked sixth -- after California, New York, Missouri, North Carolina and Oregon, but before Washington, Virginia and Florida.

Reached earlier this week while traveling in the car, Pennsylvania's Deputy Secretary for Tourism Mickey Rowley said his office's excitement about culinary tourism centers on finding ways to enhance travelers' experiences in this state with unique foods that reveal Pennsylvania's history and character.

That could include local specialties such as ham and leek soup, a firehouse dinner staple in Potter County in the so-called Pennsylvania Wilds. The tourism department is considering ways to put on more diner menus the soup, as well as its story. "We want to unearth those things," Mr. Rowley said.

The tourism office is making other forays into food. Did you know that Pennsylvania produces some 60 percent of the domestic mushroom crop? The tourism office recently awarded a grant to Drexel University in Philadelphia to help grow our mushroom story -- as Mr. Rowley puts it with a laugh, "make mushrooms to Pennsylvania as tomatoes are to Italy."

The tourism office also plans to meet with dozens of chefs who own and/or work at Pennsylvania inns to share ideas on local foods. Down the road, the tourism office may even seek foundation support to start an online marketplace where folks could buy local Pennsylvania treats.

Local tourism offices already ply visitors with vittles. The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau last year started a campaign celebrating that region's acclaimed agriculture and distinct foods -- shoo fly pie anyone? -- called FlavorFest. On its Web site (www.padutchcountry.com, prospective visitors can download a "Foodie's Guide" filled with culinary trails (such as the "Sweet 'n' Salty Trail" to six candy and snack factories), market towns, recipes and more. And over Memorial Day weekend 2008, FlavorFest will become a two-day blowout with foods from across Pennsylvania.

Bureau spokeswoman Cara O'Donnell points to the proliferation of food magazines, cooking shows and celebrity chefs and says travellers are eating up this stuff, too. "Who doesn't have fun eating while traveling?"

Here in Pittsburgh -- cradle of the Big Mac and Italian wedding soup -- Visit Pittsburgh, the regional tourism agency, already is jumping on this trend. Later this month, it will take meeting planners and trade-industry writers on a culinary tour, including a special alchemy dinner at the Bigelow Grill, lunch at Lidia's Pittsburgh (with a demonstration by Lidia Bastianich herself) and a walking tour of the Strip District.

And later in the month, the bureau is hosting a summit of the region's hotel and attraction marketing directors for a culinary focused meeting, and meal, at the Inn on Mexican War Streets.

Spokeswoman Beverly Morrow-Jones says this could lead to a local culinary tour and who knows? It's still early, she says, but, "We're looking to market the richness and variety of the foods we have."