Does gastronomy determine visitors’ holiday destination choice? Empirical evidence based on a mixed-methods research approach

Abstract

Gastronomy emerges as one of the key components of visitors’ holiday experiences and increasingly shapes vacationers’ holiday destination choices. As an integral component of the tourist experience and destinations’ cultural heritage, gastronomy enhances visitors’ local and cultural understanding. Despite the increase in academic studies on gastronomy, there is still a scarcity of research that investigates whether gastronomy determines visitors’ holiday destination choices and the extent to which it does . To bridge this research gap, the current study examines whether gastronomy determines visitors’ holiday destination choice and explores the nexus between gastronomy and holiday destination image by adopting a mixed-methods research approach. We have collected data from 205 respondents, who represent 45 countries from all corners of the globe, using an online survey. Research findings show that for 87% of the respondents, gastronomy is one of the key factors that determine their holiday destination choice. Especially for Asian and African tourists, gastronomy plays a crucial role in determining their holiday destination choice compared to Europeans, Americans, and other tourists. Findings further demonstrate that gastronomy is intertwined with tourist destinations by creating a lasting destination image, complementing visitors’ holidays, and being one of the core destination products. Research findings offer substantial theoretical and practical implications for Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and catering establishments by highlighting the vitality of gastronomy as a core tourist destinations’ product. The study calls for pertinent tourism stakeholders to work together to develop, market, and manage resilient, competitive, and sustainable gastronomy niche tourism.

Keywords:

• authenticity
• catering businesses
• DMOs
• gastronomy tourism
• destination image
• destination choice
• novelty
• gastronomy research

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Local gastronomy becomes a key tourist destinations’ product with wide-ranging implications. On the one hand, gastronomy enables tourist destinations to manifest their cultural identity and diversify their tourist product base. On the other hand, it allows visitors to experience local delicacies and enrich their holiday experience. This is because gastronomy is profoundly intertwined with culture and nature and enables visitors to better understand and appreciate destinations’ cultural values and natural ecosystem. The nature of gastronomy tourism, which takes many forms, such as food festivals, street food or luxury dining experiences, producer visits, and cooking demonstrations, also contributes to the development of slow tourism, which reduces visitors’ carbon footprint and boosts the contributions of the tourism sector. The diversified and multifaceted attributes of gastronomy-related tourism are also the fundamental elements of destination competitiveness as part of the broader tourism value chain.

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate all research participants who were generous enough to offer us their insights, perspectives, and precious time in favour of our survey. Furthermore, we acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their time and critical yet constructive comments that improve the standard of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amare Wondirad

Amare Wondirad is a Senior Lecturer at The University of the South Pacific, Fiji. He has also served as an Assistant Professor at Woosong University, Korea, and Hawassa University, Ethiopia. Dr. Wondirad’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of ecotourism, sustainable tourism, community-based tourism, and culinary tourism. His research papers appeared in top-tier journals including Tourism Management, Current Issues in Tourism, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, and Journal of Asia Pacific Tourism Research. His conference paper titled ‘Who benefits from the ecotourism sector in southern Ethiopia?’ received the Best Conference Paper Award at a prestigious international conference in Korea in 2017 and one of his journal publications was selected as the Best Article of the Year 2020 by Tourism Recreation Research.

Gabrielle Verheye

Gabrielle Verheye is currently working as a French Teacher at the Alliance Francaise de Bogota. She holds a double master’s degree in Tourism Management and Linguistics. Her research interests are in creative tourism, indigenous tourism, didactics, and sociolinguistics. Gabrielle has also been involved in innovative ecotourism projects in Colombia.