Traditional food consumption behaviour: the case of Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Food consumption is an inevitable experience within a travel destination and has become an area of interest for both host countries and tourists. However, research regarding traditional food consumption behaviour has not always addressed consumer choice behaviour of traditional food consumption in relation to destination. This study uses the Theory of Planned Behaviour as the basis for the study of how personality traits (food neophobia and sensation-seeking) affect traditional food consumption behaviour. Findings indicated that the theory provided feasible explanations for traditional food consumption behaviour of tourists. This study also found food neophobia has an important moderating effect on the relationship between attitude-purchase intention and subjective norm-purchase intention. However, sensation-seeking was neither a predictor nor a moderator of the intention to consume traditional foods.

KEYWORDS:

• Food tourism
• food neophobia
• sensation-seeking
• traditional food choice behaviour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Fu Chieh Hsu is an Assistant Professor in Macau University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Macau. His research interests include food choice behaviour and food tourism.

Richard N. S. Robinson is Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland, UQ Business School, Australia. His research interests include human resource management in tourism, hospitality studies and food tourism.

Noel Scott is Research Professor at the Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University, Australia. His research examines tourism experiences and destination management.

ORCID

Fu Chieh Hsu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8130-3286

Richard N. S. Robinson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9737-3812

Noel Scott http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8770-2563