Tasting Through the Lens: The Role of Food Porn in Promoting Authentic Assamese Cultural Experiences for Tourists

Abstract

The tourism sector in Assam has seen an increase from worldwide tourists in recent times. There are several provisions made across the state to entertain tourists from local, national and international levels. This study revolves around the role of social media in the advancement of FoodPorn and thereby enhancing the tourist attractiveness of the place, there are several interesting insights observed through this study. The 402 datasets collected from the tourists having visited Assam, there are a total of five factors that are extracted using EFA from the 20 item questionnaire developed. The questionnaire is subjected to reliability and validity measures to authenticate its capabilities. These five factors represent – the appeal of food imagery, the perception through foodporn about the authentic culinary experiences, the influence these food imagery are able to generate and the trust that the tourists can show. The path analysis using SEM here shows that all the four factors have a statistically significant impact on intention to visit Assam. While the impact caused by appeal of food imagery is the highest, trust is seen to cause the least impact. The study provides implications for the future and discusses the scope for academic investigation.