Language and cooking courses popular as Australians look for more from a foreign holiday

HOLIDAYS are less about R&R and more about learning for a growing number of Australian travellers.

BORED with sitting on a beach, sipping cocktails and churning through the holiday reading while your skin turns a special shade of puce?

If so, you might want to join the increasing numbers of Australians delving a little deeper into destinations during their holidays, with travel companies reporting a spike in bookings for cooking and language courses.

Overseas cooking courses are increasingly popular with Australian holiday-makers.

STA Travel has seen a 57 per cent increase in demand for their Local Living Trips, which offer travellers the opportunity to partake in activities like learning to speak a language or cook a cuisine as the focus of their holiday.

In particular, booking for Local Living trips in Italy increased tenfold in 2013, while learning Spanish in Ecuador experienced a fivefold jump in bookings.

France and Thailand were the next two most popular destinations, with the Southeast Asian nation particularly prized by people keen to cook its spicy cuisine.

STA Travel Australia managing director David Green said the increasing interest in combining a holiday with learning a new skill showed Australians were beginning to prize experiences over relaxation when they travel.

“This type of trip allows people to explore a destination in a much deeper way,” he said.

“You can be living with locals and you get to experience much more of a culture than when you are just travelling around.”

Students at the Blue Elephant cooking school in Bangkok. File picture

For travellers, options range from basing yourself in a Thai hilltribe village and learning about local farming techniques to staying in an Italian farmhouse and learning to cook like a local.

Many travellers also choose to attend language schools in places like the Guatemalan cities of Antigua and Quetzaltenango, while Vietnamese cooking classes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are also big with visitors to the country.

Mr Green said the increasing popularity of this form of tourism was a sign Australians were becoming more aware travellers.

“That Australians are wanting to know more about the places they visit and attempt to speak with the local in their own language shows how travellers from this country are becoming more aware and responsible people on the road, which is a very good thing,” he said.

Melbourne-based small-group tour operator Intrepid Travel launched a range of Food Adventures tours in February 2013, and has this year increased the number of departures from nine to 19 in response to their popularity.

The tours include top ‘foodie’ destinations such as Vietnam, Thailand, India, Spain, Italy and Morocco, but brand and product manager Dianne Muldoon said countries less well known for their cuisine, such as Peru and Cambodia, were also attracting interest.

While the trips typically combine homestays, cooking lessons and market visits with general sightseeing, she said learning about a country’s food provided a great way to understand its history and culture.

“Food is a very easy way into the cultural side of a country,” she said.

“A lot of countries have been colonies or have a mix of cultures and the different influences come through in the food,” she said.

“Look at Malaysia, which has large Malay, Indian and Straits Chinese communities.

“And when you look at a place like Sri Lanka, people expect the food to be just like India, but they are surprised by the differences,” Ms Muldoon said.