Purchase of local food products during trips by international visitors

Abstract

The contribution made by local products to local economic development has been recognized.While consuming local food products, visitors not only satisfy their vital needs but also interact with local culture and support local development by stimulating demand. Despite this, the determinants of local food product consumption by international visitors have been relatively neglected. The results reveal that the determinants related to interaction with the destination and local products are stronger, but there are differences between visitors' characteristics. The findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding about the interaction of inbound tourism and local food product consumption. KEYWORDS inbound tourism, local food consumption, Portugal | INTRODUCTIONAlthough tourism can be seen as just another form of economic activity that creates employment and income, it is the richness of the interactions between visitors and local destinations that make the tourism industry unique (Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Hsieh & Chang, 2006;Quan & Wang, 2004;Skuras, Dimara, & Petrou, 2006;Telfer & Wall, 1996).Tourism impacts on local destinations in many ways, although, in recent years, there has been growing interest in analysing the synergy between tourism and local food products (Bessière, 1998;Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Hjalager & Richards, 2002;Kivela & Crotts, 2006;Quan & Wang, 2004;Telfer & Wall, 2000). Local food products refer to products that are locally processed and regionally branded, have a local or regional identity (Enteleca Research and Consultancy, 2000;Kim, Eves, & Scarles, 2009;Nummedal & Hall, 2006;Sims, 2009), and are linked to the culture of a particular local community (Bessière, 1998).The importance in studying international visitors' relation with local food is twofold. First, while buying local food products, visitors spur demand, thus contributing to local development (Bessière, 1998;Tellstrom, Gustafsson, & Mossberg, 2005). Second, local food can play an important role in visitors' destination choice, which provides a valuable opportunity for advertising the identity of a destination (Bessière, 1998;Boniface, 2003;Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Henderson, 2009;Hjalager & Richards, 2002). Moreover, contact with local food prod- Despite the relevance of local food products in the tourism experience, the consumption of these products during a trip occurs with different grades of intensity. Whereas certain visitors travel expressly for gastronomic reasons (Bessière, 1998;Hjalager & Richards, 2002;Kivela & Crotts, 2006;Quan & Wang, 2004), others consider local food products as a cultural element of a tourism destination with relevance to their tourism experience (Fields, 2002;Kim et al., 2009;Kim & Eves, 2012;Quan & Wang, 2004). There are others, however, who do not attribute a great deal of relevance to the consumption of local food products. Therefore, it is of utmost relevance to increase knowledge regarding visitors' demand for local food products and the factors that may influence this demand. The identification...

Motivational Segmentation of the Gastronomic Tourist in the City of Córdoba (Spain)

“…In accordance with the literature review, we propose two additional hypotheses: H3: Gastronomic motivations and neophilic personality traits are related in a positive way (Mak et al, 2012;Seo et al, 2013;Wang & Mattila, 2015;Ji et al, 2016;Madaleno et al, 2018;Chen & Huang, 2018).…”

“…Table 1 shows the evolution of the motivational dimensions (from nine to five). Wu et al, 2016;Madaleno et al, 2018 In accordance with the review of the literature, the hypotheses are the following: H1: Motivations related to the cuisine of a destination, in this case the city of Córdoba, are heterogeneous (Kim et al, 2013;Dimitrovski & Crespi-Vallbona, 2016;Maeng et al, 2016). H2: Tourists can be classified according to their interest in gastronomy (Matlovičová & Pompura, 2013;Björk & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2016;López Guzmán et al, 2017Privitera et al, 2018).…”

“…Another example is internal organs, which in many destinations are unacceptable and in others are valued positively in regard to taste, nutrition, and health. One's affective response to a destination in comparison with one's own culture is also important; for example, Westerners often choose exotic destinations perceived as mysterious and at times dangerous (Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Madaleno et al, 2018).…”

“…The tasting of specialties can be achieved without having to travel thanks to two reasons: the unstoppable process of globalization makes specialties available anywhere in the world, and in addition, the greater availability of ethnic restaurants in the countries of origin of the tourist gives them the possibility to experience international gastronomy (Seo et al, 2013;Chavarria & Phakdee-Auksorn, 2017). Both aspects improve the potential knowledge of the tourist even before going to the destination (Mak et al, 2012;Madaleno et al, 2018). In essence, contact with the culinary heritage before and during the visit improves tourists' knowledge and influences the tasting in a positive way (Youn & Kim, 2018).…”

“…Scholars have found that the tourist is in a continuous search for gratification (Dimitrovski & Crespi-Vallbona, 2016), and the local culinary heritage provides intense and immediate sensorial stimuli that contribute to the tourist's experience, even to a greater extent than other attractions (Poria et al, 2013). This includes the satisfaction of discovering a new specialty that is not routinely tasted (Madaleno et al, 2018). Those who have a positive intention regarding local culinary customs during their visit and value these experiences are tourists of neophilic traits (Kim et al, 2010;Özdemir & Seyitoğlu, 2017).…”