Travel for the sake of food

ABSTRACT

This study addresses the need for more knowledge about the growing number of food tourists. The objective is to describe the effects of enduring food involvement on consumers’ behaviour in terms of food consumption, food-related activities and travel. The theoretical concepts of involvement, gastronomic identity and travel motives are elaborated to model the causes and effects of food involvement. Five proposals are suggested about involvement having effects on consumers’ identities, attitudes, motivations and travel behaviour. The five proposals are tested by first identifying a category of “food enthusiasts” defined as the top 25% in a population of urban citizens in terms of enduring food involvement and second by comparing “food enthusiasts” to other consumers. All five proposals are strongly supported by survey data. Practical implications are that destination management organizations and restaurants, as well as tourism attractions serving food, cannot ignore that a large segment of the urban population is highly involved in food. There are many good reasons to serve food that fulfils normal criteria for sustainable food, that is healthy and that is locally produced.

KEY WORDS:

• Enduring involvement
• gastronomic identity
• food tourism
• Sweden

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge their gratitude to Dr Robinson at University of Queensland and professor emeritus Donald Getz at University of Calgary for sharing their “Foodie-Survey” questionnaire to be used in a European context.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.