Intellectual connections in food tourism literature: A co‐citation approach

Abstract

This study critically examines, using a co-citation approach, the evolution of food and culinary tourism research in the field of hospitality and tourism (H&T) from 1976 to 2019. A bibliometric study of publications indexed in the top 16 H&T journal databases was conducted, and a total of 523 food and culinary tourism-related documents were identified and analyzed. The research findings revealed that food and culinary tourism publication numbers in H&T journals increased after 1999 yet somehow decreased after 2017. In terms of methodological approaches and data analysis, behavioral studies frequently used structural equation modeling, while advanced methodological approaches in other domains were deemed insufficient. The study findings further reveal that most of the influential works are relatively old and that no groundbreaking or game-changing studies have occurred in recent years in food and culinary tourism research. Highlights • Analysis of journal categories reveals an increase in the number of articles published in H&T journals after 1999, reaching peak number in 2016. However, food and culinary tourism studies significantly declined in 2017 and attracted even fewer scholars in 2018 and 2019. • Most of the influential works are relatively old. • No groundbreaking or game-changing developments occurred recently in food and culinary tourism research.

Features, drivers, and outcomes of food tourism

“…Food is increasingly becoming a central aspect in staging memorable experiences within the tourism and hospitality sector (Kunasegaran et al, 2019;de Albuquerque Meneguel et al, 2019;Cetin et al, 2019), and it is a major motivation for traveling (Okumus et al, 2021;Chang et al, 2020). Food is therefore important for at least three different sets of reasons.…”

What motivates the adoption of green restaurant products and services? A systematic review and future research agenda

“…This will enable the structuring of the area and suggest future research directions. By doing so, we seek to provide a cognitive mapping of the existing published literature on green restaurants, the most popular research methods (e.g., online surveys, interviews, observations, reviews, and content analysis), and the research progress on this prosperous field of study (Okumus et al, 2018, 2020; Sánchez et al, 2017). We further intend to contribute to the ongoing policy and managerial discussion of how to get consumers to prefer a green option in restaurants.…”

Who killed food tourism? Unaware cannibalism in online conversations about traveling in Italy

“…While food tourism is not a new phenomenon and has been researched since the 1970s, the number of destinations focusing on food-related attributes to establish their destination image as well as the number of academic articles on this topic has boomed in the last two decades. Articles address issues such as the role of food as a tourist motivation to visit a destination and to support valuable tourism experiences, and the use of food in destination marketing activities and place branding (Lyu et al, 2020;Okumus et al, 2020).…”