Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Gastronomy Tourism
To cite this Article Kivela, Jaka and Crotts, John C.(2006) 'Gastronomy Tourism', Journal of Culinary Science &
Technology, 4: 2, 39 55
Gastronomy Tourism:
A Meaningful Travel Market Segment
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Jaka Kivela
John C. Crotts
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INTRODUCTION
Ecotourists, adventure tourists, cultural tourists, and short get-away
tourists are examples of tourism market segments that have been
coined to help describe visitors and the primary type of attraction(s)
that are emphasised in destination. The importance of these classifications is that they begin to define meaningful segments in a destinations existing and potential visitor markets as a part of their
segmentation-targeting- positioning process. Market segmentation is
a strategic management tool aiding in well-informed decision-making
(Swinyard, 1977) designed to answer the following questions. Who
are the customers and where do they live? The answer to these questions is ones market segment or niche. Which segments offer the
greatest return on investment? The answer to this question is ones target markets. Why do they buy the product or service? The answer to
this question is ones competitive advantage (Dobbins and Pettman,
1998). Each segment is generally considered to have unique interests,
needs, expectations, and often socio-demographics characteristics
that can be focused on in promotional campaigns and tourism product
development.
The significance of this research is twofold. One, if gastronomy
tourists can be shown to satisfy all the conventional requirements of a
unique market segment, it becomes a viable alternative for new destinations that cannot benefit from sun, sea, and sand, or natural or cultural
resources, or a valid addition to more established destinations. Unlike
many other travel activities and attractions, destinations gastronomy
is usually available year-round, any time of day and in any weather
Richards (2002). And two, gastronomy if viable could become the driving force behind the revival of tourism for destinations that are struggling
at critical stage of the tourist product lifecycle. With this said, evidence
is needed to justify such claims that sufficient tourism demand can be
generated from a destinations gastronomy resources.
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BACKGROUND
Gunn (1993) and recently Tribe (2005) set forth models that for many
researchers conceptualise how tourism works at the destination level in
terms of its demand and supply characteristics, and according to these
authors, tourisms success is dependent on the destinations ability to
create and manage both demand and supply. Supply, according to Tribe
(2005), is composed of four sectors: transportation, attractions, hospitality services, and information and promotions. The attractions sector
is the component of a tourism economy that activates a tourism system;
they are the magnets that entice a person to select and travel to a particular
destination over its competing alternative. They often take the form of
convention centres, beaches, natural-scenic parks, amusement parks
and the like. Historically, the hospitality sector, such as food and beverage
and accommodation, have served in a supporting role in the tourism
economy in that they were not normally considered strong enough
attractions to bring tourists to a destination. In this context, foodservice
researchers, for example, Hjalager (2002, 2003), Fields (2001), Richards (2002), and Scarpato (2002) argue differently and have convincingly proposed that an increasing number of tourist destinations have
become very sought-after because of their unique gastronomy. According
to these researchers, these destinations have become the foodie holiday destinations, for example, Tuscany and Lyons in France, where
food has become the central marketing feature of the tourist attraction
(see also Intrepid Travel, 2004).
GASTRONOMY
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines gastronomy as the art of selecting, preparing, serving, and enjoying fine food. The classical definition of gastronomy is that it is the study of good eating, (see seminal
work by J.A. Brillat-Savarin [1826]. Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante. English translation by Fayette
Robinson (2004), The Physiology of Taste or Transcendental Gastronomy), and is a corpus of knowledge with its roots in all major classical
studies. Culinaria is a term which is often used synonymously with
gastronomy, and it describes a countrys or regions dishes, foods, and
food preparation techniques, which give rise to the countrys or regions
distinctive cuisine. Hence, Culinary Tourism, was a term first suggested
by Long (2003) in 1998, to expresses the idea of tourists experiencing
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METHODOLOGY
This research used in this analysis was from a broader study that
sought to identify the dining-out perceptions of tourists visiting Hong
Kong. Hong Kong has a well-established tourism industry serving for
years as a gateway to Asia. A descriptive research design was adopted
that utilised quantitative techniques for data collection and analysis
involving the use of a survey questionnaire. The inter-relationships of
cultural awareness, motive for travelling, the destinations gastronomy
image, food quality, satisfaction, tourists revisiting intentions, and the
effects of gastronomy on these inter-relationships, were tested with a
sample of respondents using the services of one sector, namely, the
restaurant sector in Hong Kong.
A survey sample should normally represent the population, particularly when a random sampling method is used. In this instance, however, it was very difficult to apply a random sampling methodology to
disparate tourist subjects. The alternative strategy was to employ a systematic approach in selecting the subjects, and the subjects age and
gender were selected by a judgmental method. The sample size was set
at 1,200. The survey time-frame was designated over a two-month period. The survey was conducted with the assistance and cooperation of
select Hong Kong restaurants at two main tourist locationsHong Kong
Island and Kowloon.
Based on the researchers prior experience, the proposed sampling
design minimised undue inconvenience to other guests and the participating organisations. The survey was conducted at the participating
restaurant properties. The survey was randomly administered twice per
day from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., three
times per week on a continual basis over the two-month period.
Thus, over the two-month period, there were in all 24-survey days
with a daily quota sample of three (three for the 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
time slot, and three for the 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. time slot), assigned forevery interviewer. Therefore, 6 8 (8 interviewers) = 48 respondents
per survey day 24 survey days = 1,152 respondents (rounded off to
1,200).
A random number was assigned to each interviewer for each survey
day. The random number was used to select potential respondents. For
instance, a random number three indicated that every third, sixth, ninth,
etc., subject would be selected for sampling during the sampling period.
In-house training was provided for the interviewers before the actual
surveys took place. This included mini-workshops in which effective
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Percent
Male
544
51.0
Female
521
48.8
1,065
99.8
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(a) Gender
Missing
Total
0.2
1,067
100.0
(b) Age
5
.5
18-25
98
9.2
26-35
327
30.6
36-45
287
26.9
46-55
194
18.2
56-65
121
11.3
under 18
66 or above
Missing
Total
32
3.0
1,064
99.7
0.3
1,067
100.0
85
8.0
Japan
146
13.7
Singapore
151
14.2
Taiwan
182
17.1
North America
186
17.4
Australia/New Zealand
117
11.0
200
18.7
1,067
100.0
Holiday/pleasure
393
36.8
Business/meeting
340
31.9
55
5.2
Europe
Total
(d) Main reason for visiting Hong Kong
57
5.3
222
20.8
1,067
100.0
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p<
3.51(1.0)
3.8(1.0)
3.5
0.05
4.0(1.4)
4.5(1.1)
4.5
0.001
3.0(1.0)
4.5(1.1)
4.5
0.001
predicted, although they were not as robust as one would expect to validate
group membership.
Descriptive analysis also revealed that gastronomy tourists were
more likely to be male than female, between 26 and 45 years of age, and
reasonably well educated. In addition, gastronomy tourists were more
likely to be repeat v. first time visitors (28.2% v. 17.4%, respectively).
Cross-cultural differences were also found to be a factor useful in distinguishing group membership. In this dataset, respondents who indicated
their primary purpose for visiting Hong Kong was to experience the
food were from Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan, rather than from Europe
and North America. In addition, this also confirmed that Hong Kong
was more of a regional v. a long-haul gastronomy destination.
Factor Analysis
The Principal Components and Orthogonal (varimax) rotation method
was used for the analysis. A variable was considered of practical significance and included in a factor when its factor loading was equal to or
greater than 0.5 (Noruis, 1994; 2000), with a Bartlett Test of Sphericity
value of 5926.133. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin overall measure of sampling
adequacy (MSA) was 0.891. From the Orthogonal (varimax) rotated
factor matrix, seven factors with 21 variables were defined by the original
variables that loaded most heavily (loading 0.5) on them. The factor
analysis produced a clean factor structure with relatively higher loadings
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on the appropriate factors with most variables loaded heavily on the first
four factors but not on the fifth and sixth. This verified that there was a
minimal overlap among these factors and that all factors were independently structured. The higher loadings signalled the correlation of the
variables with the factors on which they loaded. The communality of
each variable was relatively high, ranging from 0.337 to 0.825 which
also indicates that the variance of the original values was captured well
by the six factors. The six-factor solution resulted in 66.8 percent of the
variance explained. The six-factor solution resulted in the following
factor labels:
Factor 1: Expectations of gastronomy
Factor 2: Importance of gastronomy
Factor 3: Gastronomy experiences at destination
Factor 4: Gastronomy as reason for travel
Factor 5: Evaluation of gastronomy experiences at destination
Factor 6: Culture and gastronomy
Regression AnalysisDependent Variable: All things considered,
would you return (revisit) to Hong Kong to sample its gastronomy
sometime in the future?
The analysis showed that all predictors except (F2) Importance of
gastronomy, (F4) Gastronomy as reason for travel and (F6) Culture
and gastronomy were included in the model for the prediction. The
samples gastronomy-tourist group Expectations of gastronomy with
Beta = 0.877, accounted for a very high 87 percent of the variance
explained, and together with (F3) Gastronomy experiences at
destination with Beta = 0.041, and (F5) Evaluation of gastronomy experiences at destination with Beta = 0.041, was found to be the most
important predictor groups, that is, visitor groups that would consider
returning to Hong Kong to sample its gastronomy sometime in the future.
Both the literature and evidence from this study suggest that when
travellers expectations were met and/or were exceeded and that they
were likely to return to the destination sometime in the future. Importantly in this study, it appears that this also applies to gastronomy tourists,
and arguably that the Existential and Experimental gastronomy
tourists, who are knowledgeable in gastronomy, are the most likely
groups who would return to the same destination because if its unique
gastronomy, providing they had satisfying gastronomy experiences
(Evaluation of gastronomy experiences at destination). These results
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