Meal sharing economy: evaluation with SWOT analysis from host and local food tourists perspectives

ABSTRACT

This research aims to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the meal-sharing economy, which has been gaining increasing interest and users worldwide. To achieve this goal, the experiences of hosts, who play a key role in the meal sharing economy, and tourists who benefit from this service were evaluated using a SWOT analysis. A phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, was chosen for the study. The snowball sampling technique was used to select participants. Data were obtained through online semi-structured interviews. The collected data were transcribed and analyzed using descriptive and content analysis. Although the analysis showed that there are threatening factors and weaknesses in meal sharing economy activities, the findings suggest that, with proper implementation, meal-sharing economy activities can be a suitable and value creating gastronomy and tourism activity for both destinations and tourists.

KEYWORDS:

• Meal sharing economy
• Host
• local food tourist

Disclosure statement

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