The synergy between food and agri-food suppliers, and the restaurant sector in the World Heritage City of Córdoba (Spain)

The tourist-catering subsector plays an important role in the consolidation and attraction of tourism products and services offered. This research aims to ascertain the importance of synergies, and proactive collaborative and co-operational relations between agri-food suppliers and the restaurants. This is a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive methodology, data source triangulation, information processing using NVIVO12 software. This study identifying that the city of Córdoba offers a variety of gastronomic products and services, and that the supply sector is semi-structured and still in need of improvements of quality, safety and having a wider commercial network. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, suppliers have reinvented themselves and created new market opportunities to benefit from rapid growth in some sectors; furthermore, they are in a position to offer restaurants a competitive advantage in post-pandemic recovery.