Food Intolerance and Customer Behavior Specifics as a Limiting Factor for Travelling

Abstract

Background: A wide range of food allergies is now more or less commonplace in many people. The number of people with these food restrictions has increased several over recent decades. When making purchases, these consumers ask and require non-standard and specific types of food. There are some limitations and risks associated with eating food while travelling. The specific food allergy, in this case, is gluten intolerance, which is used to show the behaviour of consumers in restaurants. Aim: The study aimed to identify the factors influencing the purchases of gluten-free foods, and to propose ways to tailor services in restaurants to the target group of consumers. There is a gap in the research in this area, and consumer behaviour and their preferences in public food establishments have not been determined. Method: Consumer behaviour by people with gluten intolerance and the availability of food following the principles of a gluten-free diet in the foodservice sector was studied using comprehensive comparative research combined with quantitative and qualitative research using individual interviews. The data was collected from October 2016 until June 2017. A total of 1,611 patients with coeliac disease were addressed. The availability of gluten-free meals (the availability of dining) in the public food service network was examined through a field survey from February to April 2017 in three types of foodservice units. A total of 370 food operations were visited. Results: The survey revealed very urgent demand from consumers (those suffering coeliac disease) to expand the range of meals in the foodservice units. In spite of the growing number of consumers who need a gluten-free diet, this situation is not sufficiently addressed by most restaurants.

Selected Aspects of Tourist Activity Among People Suffering from Celiac Disease

“…There are also studies concerning the main problems faced by tourists suffering from celiac disease in different countries, e.g. in the United Kingdom (Towers & Pratten, 2003), Turkey (Taşkin & Savlak, 2021) or the Czech Republic (Regnerová, Šálková & Varvažovská, 2016;Šálková & Tichá, 2020), which report similar findings. One of them is the lack of public awareness regarding food intolerances (including celiac disease), which is associated with a high perceived risk of eating out resulting from the lack of trust in the staff of catering facilities and a very limited choice meals for tourists with special dietary needs.…”

“…Reliable and credible sources of information are particularly important. Since such information is often not offered by service providers, as shown by other studies (Fuentes-Moraleda et al, 2022;Muñoz-Mazón et al, 2021;Šálková & Tichá, 2020), respondents have no choice but to rely on other sources, such as social media or special apps. It is worth emphasizing that this sense of uncertainty and high risk experienced by tourists goes against the idea of creating a hospitality space, which, according to Kaczmarek and Kaczmarek (2011), should feature, among other things, a system of clear and universally understandable information, should be fully accessible and offer a sense of security.…”

“…The empirical results obtained by the author and those reported in the literature suggest that awareness and sensitivity on the part of the staff are among the key factors affecting the way in which tourists suffering from celiac disease perceive the quality of customer service. Various studies emphasize the importance of training in this area (Fuentes-Moraleda et al, 2022;Muñoz-Mazón et al, 2021;Taşkin & Savlak, 2021;Šálková & Tichá, 2020;Regnerová, Šálková & Varvažovská, 2016;Towers & Pratten, 2003). As noted by Pietras-Mrozicka (2018), better knowledge about celiac disease and limitations faced by those who suffer from it could improve their participation in social life, facilitate self-fulfilment and prevent their life quality from getting worse.…”