Habitus and food lifestyle: In-destination activity participation of Slow Food members

Abstract

A common theme in the tourism literature is that tourists are motivated to travel to escape from ordinariness. This may lead to the assumption that the activities tourists choose to undertake in a region are motivated by the same desire for the extraordinary. On the other hand, some studies have found travellers who are highly involved in a particular recreational activity are likely to participate in it both at home and while on holidays. This study examines the travel motivations of, and destination activities undertaken by, Slow Food members and finds that they undertake similar cooking and food related activities while away as they do at home. A theoretical explanation for this behaviour is taken from the concept of lifestyle and Bourdieu's habitus.

Wellness Pursuit and Slow Life Seeking Behaviors: Moderating Role of Festival Attachment

“…Perceived behavioral control has further been found to influence behavioral intentions to participate in slow tourism [13]. In particular, slow tourists' behavioral intentions have been found to be associated with slow food members' perceived behavioral control [42][43][44], implying that perceived behavioral control has an impact on behavioral intentions in an SLF setting. Drawing upon the literature review mentioned above, this research thus proposes: Hypothesis 8.…”

“…Specifically, wellness pursuit was operationalized with six items (i.e., emotional, intellectual, physical, psychological, social, and spiritual factors) adapted from Adams et al [37]. Slow life seeking was operationalized with five items from [6,42]. Perception of slow food was estimated with five items derived from Frost and Laing, Jang et al, and Williams et al [48,50], while attachment was operationalized with five items modified from Filo et al and Filo et al [20,21].…”

“…According to lifestyle and habitus, when slow life seekers travel, they consume the same types of cuisine and partake in the same types of food related activities as they would at their own homes [42]. Since slow life seekers are not typically interested in luxury travel, slow life seekers differ significantly from non-slow life seekers in travel-related choices [43].…”

“…Slow lifestyle seekers practice slow food values, buy slow food of small producers, eat local food, visit local markets, purchase cookbooks, and take cooking classes [42]. These slow life aspects are tied to a perception that slow food includes augmenting and conserving the most distinctive features of local culture and inspires less stressful living [64].…”

“…It has been found that consumers who have positive perceptions towards organic fruits and vegetables have stronger intentions to purchase organic foods [68]. In addition, individuals' perceptions of organic food aspects (i.e., nutritious content, ecological well-being, and sensory appeal) can have a significant impact on their intentions to buy organic food [69], Moreover, tourists with positive perceptions of slow food have been found to be more likely to prefer activities related to slow food values when visiting tourism destinations [42][43][44]. Further, slow food festival visitors with higher interests in slow food have been found to have higher revisit intentions [47].…”