Relationship between Destination’s Food Image & Traveler’s Visit Intentions: A Review Paper

Abstract

Food consumption is a significant notion in the tourism industry. This research paper targets to understand the relation between food image of a destination and traveller’s re-visit intentions. The result indicates that destination’s culinary image plays a vital role in predicting tourist’s visit intentions in different magnitudes. This study evaluates the role food and cuisine play in the formation of destination brand image and thus helps in destination marketing. By tracing out the secondary data of food image the study tries to map the current investigations done in food image. It tries to reveal the dual perspective, the first one which is displayed by host communities and destination marketing managers and the other side is the image which has been perceived by travelers. This study tries to align the various factors, dimensions, magnitudes, constructs as it gets surfaced out in host-tourist behaviors. Study also examines the role food and cuisine plays in formation of destination image. Food and cuisine is directly or indirectly affecting the destination image. This study will contribute to the research on food based tourism and food based destination development. This information serves as a means to brand destination and hospitality on the whole. In an era of culinary tourism destination food image has an impact on traveler’s visit intentions which in turn effects the tourists behavior and his revisit intention. This study has highlighted the characteristics and attributes which impacts the behavior and intentions of travelers. Despite the growing interest in this field of tourism, there is a paucity of research regarding the significance and impact of food tourism on destination image. Thus, this study comprises of a systematic quantitative literature review on these topics, which summarizes the current knowledge on these areas and identifies the potential for future research. This paper reports on findings from a review of 50 peer-reviewed studies that focused on destination image and traveler’s visit intentions from 2004to January 2024. The findings reveal evolving trends in this field of study and the majority of studies examined the topic from tourists’ perspectives.