“Culinary Dimensions: Discovering Himachali Flavours with Augmented Realityâ€

In recent years, Augmented Reality (AR) has become powerful digital platform for education and marketing allowing brands to offer interactive, memorable experiences that engage customers in new and innovative ways. This paper explores to study Augmented Reality experiences for teaching Himachali cuisine reflecting cultural and culinary heritage amongst the locals and visitors combining AR technology with traditional culinary education. The research has been conducted using quantitative approach for tourists through an online questionnaire and qualitative approach for the stakeholders. Likert-scale was applied to assess their satisfaction, engagement and willingness to recommend the experience with the results analysed by Chi-Square test and t-Test in SPSS software. The results show that there is positive association between familiarity with AR and interest in AR-based culinary experiences. Additionally, the strong interest has shown by frequent travellers in AR-based culinary experiences. Thus, this paper examines the potential and beneficial effects of AR promoting food heritage tourism through virtual culinary experiences that may increase knowledge about local gastronomy among locals and visitors as well. Focusing on the current practices and modern AR technologies, the main issues relating to culinary learning and challenges faced in their implementation worldwide have been highlighted along with the future potential of AR in the preservation and promotion of regional food heritage.