Dimensions of gastronomic experience affecting on sharing experience: place attachment as a mediator and length of stay as a moderator

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of gastronomic experience on sharing experiences, as well as place attachment as a mediator and length of stay as a moderator.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative method was used in this study. The paper conducted an online survey from 717 international tourists who visited Phuket, a city of gastronomy.FindingsThe result revealed that four dimensions of gastronomic experience – entertainment, escapist, education and aesthetic – affected sharing experience. The mediating role of place attachment was documented. As expected, the length of stay moderated the effect of the gastronomic experience on sharing experience through place attachment as a mediator.Practical implicationsThese results could help destination managers to develop tourist experiences and enhance customers' length of stay and place attachment. On the other hand, this research contributes to the understanding of the factors that affect sharing experience in the tourism industry with a special focus on the city of gastronomy.Originality/valuePrior research shows that tourism experience provides a future tourist behavior based on effective attitudinal variables. At the present, this research provides researchers with information on how to narrow the behavior gap through a range of marketing. This study gives additional insights into the indications of what visitors will transfer into behavior and why an area that has not been addressed previously in this context.

Precedence analysis of customer engagement dimensions for tourism destinations: an evidence-based modeling using RIDIT-GRA approach

“…Respondents believe INT4 for interaction is more important than INT5, which is less preferred. Such findings indicate that the respondents appreciate interacting with people about their experiences at the destination, like hospitality and attributes (Soonsan and Somkai, 2021). But participating in destination-related promotional activities may seem a bit hectic to them due to the degree of physical presence involved in it.…”

“…The functional aspects of a tourism destination, such as cost-leadership or service quality, are considered significant by tourists when deciding on a destination (Bhattacharya and Kumar, 2017). With a growing number of travel destinations, tourists have several options to choose from, further increasing the competition among the destinations (Soosan and Somkai, 2021; Arica et al , 2021). Therefore, marketing-mix decisions for a tourism destination must be tourist-centric and address CE's dynamism to optimize destination performance and sustain the competitive advantage (So et al , 2021).…”

“…CE reflects customers' repeat purchases based on the twoway interaction between customers and firms (Kanje et al, 2020) and is considered as a strong predictor of customers' behavioral intentions (So et al, 2020(So et al, , 2021. The remarks of engaged customers are more valuable than those who are not engaged (Soonsan and Somkai, 2021;Kumar and Kaushik, 2020). The extant literature provides various notions of CE.…”

Gastronomic experiences on tourists’ life satisfaction and happiness: The case of Porto

“…However, today it has grown beyond just a need for survival to include the need to enhance the holiday experience (Adongo, Anuga, & Dayour, 2015). Scientific research has also shown that food tourism is a means for tourists to participate and discover the geography and culture of destinations other than the familiar (Lin, Marine-Roig, & Llonch-Molina, 2022;Soonsan & Somkai, 2021). de Jong and Varley (2018) divide gastronomic tourism research into two broad areas: (1) gastronomic heritage, where aspects of cultural, local community opinion and food festivals are pursued, and (2) gastronomic experiences, where aspects connected with tourists' attraction are linked with the destination's gastronomy.…”

Determining food attributes for measuring and evaluating a gastronomic destination's appeal to visitors

“…Additionally, Phuket housed regional food capitals, most notably the geographic indication item such as Phuket pineapple products. In recent years, as a result of its efforts to preserve the authenticity and creativity of Thai cuisine, Phuket's gastronomic city has risen to prominence as one of Thailand's most popular gastronomic tourism destinations (Chaiyasain, 2020; Soonsan and Somkai, 2021).…”