Urban food markets in the context of a tourist attraction – La Boqueria market in Barcelona, Spain

ABSTRACT

In the last few decades, local governments have looked at developing their cities to increase their attractiveness for tourism consumption. Urban and tourism planners have focused their attention on adapting different local attractions to target the tourist visit and provide them with recreation and entertainment. By consuming locally sourced traditional or farmed products, tourists adopt the values associated with local identity codes. This experience allows tourists to enjoy the city more as if they were local citizens. In this sense, one method of behaving as a local is to visit a food market. This study investigates the attributes that affect tourist satisfaction in relation to food market visits and explores whether tourists intend to revisit these food halls. Based on a survey relating to La Boqueria, currently one of the most renowned food markets in Barcelona, three factors were identified: physical environment, location and accessibility, and price. The results reveal that physical environment is an important tourist satisfaction predictor, while price and location and accessibility influence revisit behaviour. The results also suggest differences between first-time visitors and repeat visitors related to attributes perception, while there is no statistically important difference on the path level.

摘要

近年来, 地方政府不遗余力打造城市, 提升其对旅游消费的吸引力。城市与规划人员瞄准旅游参访着力打造不同的地方旅游吸引物供其休闲娱乐。通过消费源自当地的传统食品或农产品, 旅游者接受了具有地方身份代码的食品的价值。这种体验能够使旅游者愈加深刻地欣赏城市, 似乎他们成了其中一员。从此意义上讲, 像当地人生活的一个办法就是参访他们的食品市场。本研究调查了影响旅游者参访食品市场满意度的因素, 并且探讨了旅游者是否有意重访这些食品市场。根据在巴塞罗那一个极为著名的食品市场—波盖利亚市场的调查, 发现有三个因素影响旅游者参访食品市场的满意度:自然环境, 区位与可达性以及价格。结果显示, 自然环境是一个影响旅游满意度的重要因素, 而价格与区位及可达性影响旅游者的重访行为。结果也表明, 初次访问者与重访者的行为差异与他们对市场属性的认知有关, 虽然在这条路径上不具有统计学的显著性。

KEYWORDS:

• Urban food markets attributes
• food halls
• urban tourism planning
• tourism consumption
• sustainable tourism
• Barcelona

关键词:

• 城市食品市场的属性
• 食品展厅
• 城市旅游规划
• 旅游消费
• 可持续旅游
• 巴塞罗那

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Darko Dimitrovski

Darko Dimitrovski is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism at the University in Kragujevac, Serbia. He holds PhD in geography from the University of Belgrade. His research interest is largely focused on special interest tourism.

Montserrat Crespi Vallbona

Montse Crespi Vallbona is researcher and assistant professor in the Business Department of the University of Barcelona (UB). She is also member of the Business Research Group (UB). Her research focuses on the impact of tourism on economic, social, cultural and urban structures of the analysed territory. Governance, gentrification, and sustainability are the key words.