Understanding ethnic food involvement-based markets and their travel preferences

Abstract

This study aims to examine Australian consumers’ ethnic food involvement, with a specific focus on Korean food. It will also explore the effects of ethnic food involvement on consumer perceived food attributes and their preferences for specific food-related travel activities, targeting Korean food. Using a Korean restaurant patron survey, the findings of the study identifies three distinct market segments – “Korean food lovers”, “low-involved novices” and “taste-oriented diners”. It also found that Australian consumers’ food perceptions and travel preferences are significantly affected by their level of past involvement with Korean food. Such findings can be useful to allow destination marketers to target the local residents’ decision-making process at the early stage of their trip planning as food tourism positioning strategies.

Keywords:

• Ethnic food
• Korean food
• market segmentation
• food attributes
• travel preferences