Tourists’ intention to visit food tourism destination: A conceptual framework

Abstract

In recent years, food tourism has emerged as an area of interest for both tourism researchers and practitioners. However, research in food tourism is limited and there is a lack of empirical studies into tourists’ intentions to visit a food tourism destination. This paper attempts to build a conceptual framework based on the original Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by modifying the TPB model to include three additional constructs: motivation, involvement and past behavior towards visiting a food tourism destination. The influence of socio-demographic variables is also examined in this model. Since very few studies have been published in this particular area, this provides a theoretical base for future studies in the field of food tourism and destination choice.