Critical realism: a methodological design for destination food image research

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a critical realist reflection on methodological decisions that frame examination of the effectiveness of destination branding using food and cuisine. The authors use a multi-method strategy to evaluate the degree of congruence amongst (1) destination marketers’ promotional food images, (2) internal stakeholders’ perception of images, and (3) tourists’ views of food destinations. Results reveal that critical realism enhances the capacity to explore the less observable forces influencing food image across diverse stakeholder groups and builds a more coherent attribute-based framework to measure gaps in perception.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical realism
• multi-method design
• destination food image
• destination branding
• food tourism

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mun Yee Lai

Mun Yee Lai is an Assistant Professor at I-Shou University, Taiwan. Her research interests lies in destination branding and image, food tourism, and Chinese tourist behaviour. She previously worked in the hotel industry, experience in food and beverage, and catering sales. In the education industry, Mun Yee teaches in academic programmes associated with tourism and hospitality, destination management, and food sociology.

Catheryn Khoo

Catheryn Khoo is a Professor at Torrens University, Australia. Catheryn’s current research interest is on tourist and guest behaviour, with a passionate focus on women, families and young children. She is also particularly interested in understanding these segments from an Asian perspective, and how their travel experience and behaviours differ cross-culturally. Catheryn is Editor-in-Chief of Tourism Management Perspectives and serves on the editorial boards of several other tourism and hospitality journals.

Ying Wang

Ying Wang is an Associate Professor with the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management at Griffith University (Australia), and a member of the Griffith Institute for Tourism. Her research interests include destination management and marketing, travel technologies, and hotel management. Her research work has been published in a range of international journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, and Annals of Tourism Research.