Cuisine and Tourist Motives.

Food can be a reason for travelling, a search for an extraordinary and a thrilling eating
experience is one of the reasons for tourists’ travels. Italy is one of the most famous countries in
the world for its rich culture in food, and culinary activities are one of the main tourist attractions
in the country. Culinary tourism in Italy includes several areas such as wine tourism, beer
tourism, gourmet tourism and gastronomic tourism, and tourists can experience it through local
and unique restaurants, breweries, wineries, culinary events, farmers’ markets and Agri-tourisms
(Green and Dougherty 2008). Kim and Eve (2013) generated five reasons as to why tourists are
motivated to visit Italy for its cuisine. These reasons are; cultural experience, excitement,
interpersonal relation, sensory appeal and health concern.
Cultural experience as a tourist motive
Cultural experience is associated with the tourists’ desire to experience different cultures, since
experiencing new food and dishes is experiencing new cultures. According to Du Rand et al.
(2003), food tourism is a defining tool for the culture of a country. A study done by Trivedi
(2005) suggested that tourists spend a third of their budget on food, while two thirds of the
money spent on food is used on new dishes. This shows how tourists take cultural experience
seriously. Italy, a country with a wide variety of wine and local food, provides a wide range of
options for new foods to tourists (Seyfang 2006). Moreover, cultural sustainability, in terms of
building on and developing the culinary heritage of places, can contribute to a more distinct local
culture that is interesting both to visit for tourists and to be part of for locals (Mikkelsen 2021).
Fields (2015) suggested that food as a cultural experience enables tourists to feel connected to
the local environment.
Interpersonal relations as a tourist motive
Previous studies by Ayer et al. (2016) highlighted as culinary tourism could be an opportunity to
socialize and be together with family and other people, as participating in festivals and events
based on local food are able to build social relations, by contributing to make the tourist
experience more pleasant. This is also supported by Sotomayor et al. (2014), related to Agri-
tourism experience in Bologna, who found that being with family and enjoying natural landscape
were important motivators for visiting Agri-tourism destinations. This was also discussed by
Mitchell et al. (2009) who observed that the tourists’ desire to learn about traditional food or
wine contributes to creating a favorable impression on others. ‘Interpersonal relation’ is also
recognized to play a crucial role in tourists’ behavior to have a high frequency of consumption in
Agri-tourism destinations. This is also consistent with Kim and Eves (2013) who pointed out that
socializing with new people and being together with family is recognized to be an important
factor in tourist motivation to experience local food and beverage in tourist
destinations. Naturally, tourists have a desire to meet new people, spend time with friends and
family and get away from routine relationship.
Sensory appeal as a tourist motive
As we have seen, Italy has a wide range of dishes and drinks that are rare in other parts of the
world. Therefore, tourists travel to Italy just to have a feeling of the taste of the wine or the food
(Di Vita et al. 2013). Tourists have a desire to satisfy their taste buds, and Italian cuisine is
considered to be one of the best cuisines in the world, hence many tourists travel to Italy for a
quest to satisfy their taste. Therefore, sensory characteristics of food play an important role in
decision making of a tourist.
Excitement as a tourist motive
Many people have a need to escape from their routine (Testa et al. 2019). As a way to get away
from the routine, tourists choose to travel to food tourist destination areas due to the excitement
the experience brings. Testa et al. (2019) adds that tourists are always eager to enjoy exciting
experiences during holidays, and Italian cuisine provides them with enough options to make their
experience in Italy as exciting as it can possibly become. One of the reasons why food and meal
offers have become central in destination marketing and development is their broad appeal. Not
only can local food and meals attract food-interested visitors (Sims et al.,2009), also when food-
related activities are not the main travel motive, they have the potential of communicating
broader experiential benefits of a destination for instance in terms of cultural impressions and
insights. Moreover, food tourism has a number of positive characteristics related to sustainable
tourism, which is increasingly valued in destination development: Economic impacts from food
tourism remain to a large degree within the local economy; local food tourism has the
environmental advantage of reducing food miles; and in terms of cultural benefits, the
rediscovery and development of crops and livestock, food products and dishes may have positive
effects on local residents’ sense of cultural belonging, just as it may enhance tourists’
understanding of the visited place.
Health concern as a tourist motive
Some studies reported that consumers perceive local food to be better for the environment and
also for society than organic food (Testa et al. 2015). The preference for local food seems linked
to the perception that local farms, more in particular, the small-size ones, adopt agricultural
practices with less dependence on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers (La Trobe et al., 2001).
Several studies highlighted that the growing interest of consumers is often associated with the
perception that local food is more nutritious, healthier and of higher quality than that sold in the
mainstream supply chain (Mische et al 2015), also because products have travelled a short
distance to reach the consumer’s table (Hashem et al 2020).

Cuisine and Tourist Behavior

There are some conditions that encourage people to adopt a particular type of behavior: if
people believe that the behavior in question will lead to a specific outcome valuable to them;
if they have the necessary resources, abilities, and opportunities to exhibit such behaviors; and
if the behavior is important to other people who will value and approve of the behavior (Lam
and Hsu 2005). Attitude is thought to have a key role in tourist consumer behavior and
numerous studies indicate that personal factors affect customers’ behavioral intentions more
than other indicators (Shamdasani et al., 1993). As studies concerned with consumer behavior
suggest, attitudes toward a product and behavioral intentions have been routinely used by
practitioners and marketing scholars in the tourism food industry, because both of the factors
are two popular and pivotal constructs (Verbeke and Lopez 2005). In a similar vein,
according to Choe and Kim (2018), studies specify that customers’ positive attitudes toward a
particular food may encourage customers to purchase the food in question and to recommend
it to others.

Tourists’ positive attitudes toward food services/products are usually associated with positive
behavioral intentions (Bianchi 2007). Moreover, according to Huang and Hsu (2009),
travelers’ positive attitudes influence their intention to choose or revisit a destination. In a
study by Phillips et al (2013), it was found that diners’ positive attitudes toward Italian food
influenced and encouraged them to visit Italy (Choe and Kim 2018). Tourists’ behavioral
intentions can be divided into two main dimensions: intention to visit a destination for food
tourism and intention to recommend local food. Karim et al (2009) observed that tourists
would be more satisfied with their trips and would have more intention to recommend and
revisit Malaysia if they had a more positive attitude to Malaysian food (Seo et al 2014).

Robinson (2016) state that in the highly competitive international tourism marketplace,

although food tourism is already well-established, it remains underdeveloped as a field of
academic investigation. From the perspective of food consumption, understanding tourists’
needs, desires, and wants is of paramount significance to hospitality businesses (Santich
2017). Therefore, hospitality sectors require an in-depth knowledge relating to the factors that
enhance tourists’ food consumption and make their dining experiences satisfactory (Mak et al
2012). This study was an attempt to respond to the need for more research into demand and
contributed to the TCV in the tourism industry. The model proposed in this study was capable
of explaining the emotional, functional, attitudinal, and social values directing tourists’
behavior and provided a detailed understanding of food tourists, their motives, and their
sources of satisfaction.
The consumption values model used in this study offered a platform to precisely pinpoint
which value items were more effective and could be readily transformed into marketing
strategies. This investigation profoundly relied on travelers’ perceptions, which could help
manage local destination food attitude, image, and promotional strategies. It was revealed that
if food tourism products and services were designed and delivered in association with what
tourists’ value, marketing strategies would succeed (Phau et al 2014). Inspecting tourists’
perspective, this study provided a telling framework of consumption values, perceived
destination food image, and destination behavioral intention (to recommend to others and
revisit). It also explained how these concepts could be used to effectively represent and
market the unique dimension of Bologna as a vacation destination. Tourist food consumption
patterns, perspectives on tourism, and sociological factors were incorporated into a frame in
this study to identify the salient items influencing tourist food behavior and marketing.

Marketing campaigns could be established to emphasize the significant factors for tourists
such as the good service provided in Bologna, the quality of the food provided by vendors,
and the cultural value of the destination food image in this city. Such factors could reinforce
tourists’ desires and passions to revisit or recommend Bologna to others. Tourists’ perception
of the quality of food vendors in Bologna can be strengthen by initiating a program to
improve production standards and destination food image e.g., through controlling quality,
training food vendors, and identifying superior tourist food vendors (Chavaria 2017)

While this study makes a contribution to the food tourism research and development in
Bologna, there are still some limitations that can be controlled in future studies. First, the
study exclusively drew on the questionnaire-based survey method. However, there are various
methods that can be implemented in the research design to minimize personal or
methodological biases and enhance the credibility of the research. A qualitative approach can
be used in future studies that could provide a deeper understanding of tourists. Moreover, the
present study only focused on tourists visiting Bologna, and its findings cannot be simply
generalized to other tourist destinations.

Because a wide range of interacting factors influence food consumption behavior (Koster
2009), all possible concepts that influence tourists’ food consumption behavior were not
incorporated into the proposed framework and thus other validated concepts, constructs, and
theories should be examined and explored in tourism destination food attraction and behavior.
Regardless of these limitations, this study tried to provide valuable contributions for managers
and marketing scholars in tourism marketing. This research provided an empirical and
theoretical platform for further studies, especially as understanding the profitability of food
tourism market has to be explored more (Robinson and Getz 2016).
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