The Influence of Tourists’ Sensory Experiences of Street Food on Destination Loyalty: The Mediating Roles of Delight and Place Attachment

ABSTRACT

Food safety is one of the most researched topics in the existing street food literature. However, tourists’ street food experience, especially their sensory experiences, has been largely ignored. This study explained how sensory experience drives tourist satisfaction and loyalty behavior through the process of psychological states (delight and place attachment) by using the SOR theory as a theoretical foundation. 625 tourists who had street food experience were approached by this research. The structural equation modeling method was adopted by this research to examine the proposed research model and all the hypotheses. The results found that tourists’ sensory experiences related to street food have positive influences on delight and place attachment. Furthermore, this paper identified the mediating roles of delight and place attachment in the relationship between sensory experience and satisfaction. Both theoretical and practical contributions are provided based on the findings.

摘要

食品安全是现有街头美食文献中研究最多的主题之一。但是，游客的街头美食体验，尤其是他们的感官体验，在很大程度上被忽略了。这项研究基于刺激-机体-反应理论解释了感官体验如何通过心理状态（喜悦和目的地依恋）来影响旅游满意度和忠诚度行为。这项研究调研了625个有过街头美食经历的游客。该研究采用结构方程模型的方法来检验所提出的研究模型和假设。结果发现，游客与街头美食有关的感官体验对喜悦和目的地依恋产生了积极影响。此外，本文确定了愉悦和依恋在感官体验和满意度之间的关系中的中介作用。本文也根据研究发现提出了相应的理论贡献和实际贡献。

KEYWORDS:

• Sensory experience
• delight
• place attachment
• satisfaction
• loyalty
• SOR theory

关键词:

• 感官体验
• 喜悦
• 目的地依恋
• 满意度
• 忠诚度
• 刺激-机体-反应理论

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Qianqian Su

Qianqian Su is a Ph.D. candidate in School of Tourism at Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan Province, China. Her research interests include food tourism, travel experience, and tourism marketing (E-mail: [email protected]).

Fangxuan (Sam) Li

Fangxuan (Sam) Li is Professor in School of Tourism at Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan Province, China. His research interests include travel experience and tourism marketing (E-mail: [email protected]).