Brand Equity, Tourist Satisfaction and Travel Intentions in a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy: A Case Study of Yangzhou, China

Abstract

Food is an indispensable part of destination tourism resources and attractions, playing a vital role in the marketing and promotion of the destination. Food can also be viewed as an important brand that the destination can develop. Yangzhou has been listed as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy since 2019, and the government aims to enhance the food brand for the city. This study attempts to assess the impact of a destination’s food brand equity on tourist satisfaction and travel intentions, and to evaluate the potential of developing food tourism. Questionnaires were conducted with 481 tourists, followed by semi-structured interviews with 29 tourists. A structural equation modelling analysis addressed the positive relationships among destination food brand equity, tourist satisfaction and travel intentions. A qualitative analysis contributes to further clarifying the relationships of the model. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed.

The effect of food tourism experiences on tourists' subjective well-being

“…This may be attributed to the fact that people in these age groups have savings, are easily influenced by social media, and have a high willingness to travel. In terms of educational level, junior college or bachelor's degree accounts for 68.3 %, which has an absolute advantage, which may be related to the expansion of higher education in China [ 9 ]. The majority of respondents (46.1 %) reported an income between 6001 and 9000 yuan, which may be due to the rapid economic development in China and the resulting increase in the number of middle-income groups.…”

“…Composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) are generally used to test the reliability of the scale [ 90 ]. As shown in Table 3 , the factor loading values of all items are greater than 0.5; Cronbach's alpha is greater than 0.8, which meets the standard of greater than 0.7, indicating that the scale has good internal consistency; CR values all exceed 0.8, which is greater than the standard of 0.7 [ 9 ]; therefore, it can be judged that the measurement scale has high reliability.…”

“…Experience is defined as the personalized feeling that an individual has in response to certain stimuli through the senses or the mind. Food experience is a fundamental need and desire of tourists [ 9 ], and it is also the most direct way to experience a city's culture and connotation through sensory contact and visual communication. Nowadays, due to the easy access to resources and abundant materials, food tourism has become a new tourism trend in the tourism industry [ 61 ].…”

“…Food is a crucial tourism resource and product in any tourist destination [ 68 ], it serves as the material foundation for tourists' activities [ 9 ]. Tourists' food experiences are highly related to tourists' satisfaction and subjective well-being [ 59 ].…”

“…Food is a key element of tourism destination marketing strategies [ [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] ]. It has a significant influence on tourists' choice of destination [ [7] , [8] , [9] ] and often the primary attraction for tourists [ 5 , [10] , [11] , [12] ]. As a result, many destinations strive to offer unique food experiences to gain a competitive advantage [ [13] , [14] , [15] ].…”