Food and Travel

Food and Travel is Britain's leading gourmet travel magazine: a glossy consumer title built on the belief that food is the gateway to a destination's culture. Published ten times a year from London, it combines fine food, wine and destination features with seasonal recipes, news, reviews and competitions, aimed at affluent readers who plan their journeys around what they will eat and drink when they arrive. Launched in 1997, it has grown from a British independent into an international brand with local-language editions around the world, and it describes itself as the world's leading gastronomic travel title.

Launch and founder

Food and Travel was launched in December 1997 by publisher Gregor Rankin, who remains the driving force behind the title. It was published independently by Green Pea Publishing Ltd — later known as Green Publishing — at a time when food tourism was barely recognised as a category. The founding insight was simple but powerful: that travellers increasingly wanted to experience destinations through their cuisines, and that no existing British magazine served that desire properly.

The early success of the title validated the concept. Within a decade it had established itself as the UK's market-leading gourmet travel magazine, winning industry recognition including the PPA Independent Publishing Company of the Year and PPA Publisher of the Year awards in 2008 — a remarkable achievement for a small independent publisher competing against the industry's giants.

Frequency and format

The UK edition is published ten times a year as a full-colour glossy magazine. The rhythm — monthly with two combined issues — suits a title built around seasons: spring recipes and summer destinations, autumn harvests and winter escapes. Each issue mixes long-form destination features with food and drink writing, seasonal recipes, news pages, restaurant and hotel reviews, exclusive reader offers and competitions.

The production values are those of a premium glossy: beautiful food and travel photography is central to the title's identity, and the magazine has always invested in high-quality imagery to convey the sensory pleasures of its subject matter. By April 2025 the magazine had reached issue number 267, a testament to its longevity in a challenging market for print.

International editions

One of the most striking aspects of Food and Travel's story is its international expansion. The German edition launched in June 2010 as a bimonthly, with distribution also in Switzerland and Austria. The Mexican edition followed in June 2011, published monthly by Lyrsa Comunicaciones. A Turkish edition launched in October 2013, an Arabian edition in April 2014, and an Italian edition in November 2015.

According to the magazine's 2025 media pack, Food and Travel now boasts six local-language editions in key markets worldwide — a remarkable footprint for an independent British title, and the basis for its claim to be the world's leading gastronomic travel title. The international editions adapt the core formula of food-led travel journalism to their own markets while sharing content and brand identity.

Editorial philosophy and content

The magazine's editorial philosophy is summed up in its own description: travel and food are intrinsically linked, and food is the gateway to a destination's culture. Rather than thinking in terms of cuisines — Indian, Japanese, Italian — the magazine encourages readers to think in terms of cultural immersion: eating what and where the locals eat, whether in the next town or on the other side of the world, as the most enriching way to understand a place.

In practice this means destination features built around food cultures, from street food to fine dining; profiles of chefs, producers and winemakers; wine and drinks coverage; and seasonal recipes that let readers recreate something of their travels at home. The April 2025 issue, for example, ranged across Berlin, Kerala, Milan, Armenia, the Caribbean and European farm stays — the magazine's characteristic mix of the familiar and the far-flung, always with flavour at the centre.

The Food and Travel Reader Awards

In 2012, to coincide with its 150th issue, the magazine launched the Food and Travel Reader Awards — the first awards in its history, decided entirely by readers' votes. Nominations opened online at foodandtravel.com, with readers submitting nominations across categories synonymous with the title: destination, restaurant, hotel, tour operator, specialist retailer, airline, chef, book, cruise line and cookery school, before voting for the winners from a shortlist.

The awards were an immediate success, with the publishers reporting tremendous reader engagement and large numbers of votes. The second annual awards followed in 2013, and the Reader Awards have since become a fixture of the brand — a celebration of quality and innovation in the food and travel sectors, and a valuable barometer of the tastes of the magazine's knowledgeable readership.

Editors

The magazine's editors have included Alex Mead, who was at the helm for the 150th issue and the launch of the Reader Awards in 2012, and Guy Woodward, editor at the time of the second annual awards in 2013. Both articulated the same editorial vision: a magazine for readers with exceptional knowledge of restaurants, food and travel, written by people who share their passions.

The continuity of editorial vision across editors — food as culture, travel as immersion, readers as experts — has been one of the title's strengths, giving it a consistent voice across nearly three decades of publication.

Readership profile

Food and Travel's readers are, in the magazine's own description, passionate about food, wine and travel, and have come to trust and rely on the recommendations and insider tips in every edition. The media pack paints a picture of an affluent, influential audience: predominantly professional AB adults, with 66 per cent aged between 26 and 54, a 55:45 female-to-male split, and 95 per cent earning more than £50,000 a year — over a quarter earning more than £100,000.

The publishers describe these readers as innovative, trendsetting opinion-formers — people whose choices in restaurants, destinations and food and drink influence those around them. For advertisers, that combination of affluence, engagement and influence has long been the title's key selling point.

Digital presence

The magazine's website, foodandtravel.com, extends the brand online with destination content, recipes, news and the Reader Awards voting platform. A digital edition of the magazine is also available for readers who prefer to read on screens. The website was relaunched as part of the brand's expansion in the early 2010s, alongside the launch of the foreign-language editions.

Social media and email newsletters keep the audience engaged between issues, with competitions and exclusive offers providing a direct channel to the magazine's loyal readership. The brand's visual strength — food and travel photography — translates naturally to image-led social platforms.

Place in the market

Food and Travel occupies a distinctive position in British magazine publishing. It is more specialised than general travel titles such as Condé Nast Traveller or National Geographic Traveller, and more travel-focused than food magazines — its whole identity rests on the intersection of the two. As an independent title it has survived and grown in a sector dominated by large publishing groups, a tribute to the clarity of its concept and the loyalty of its readers.

Nearly three decades after Gregor Rankin launched it, the magazine's founding belief — that the best way to understand a destination is through its food — has become conventional wisdom across the travel industry. Food and Travel was there first, and it remains the definitive British magazine for travellers who plan their journeys around the table.