Food Image and Destination Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Local Food Consumption Values

Year 2024, Latest Articles

Merve Çetin , Semra Akar Şahingöz

https://doi.org/10.30519/ahtr.1393504

Abstract

Local food tourism is becoming increasingly popular, riveting academics to determine the relationships between food image, loyalty, and local food consumption values. The authors particularly aimed to examine how food image might impact loyalty and the mediating role of local food consumption values in this relationship. The research sample comprises foreign tourists visiting İstanbul and Antalya. Analyses were performed over the data collected from 659 foreign tourists visiting the relevant destinations. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for testing the hypotheses. The results revealed that food image is an influential element that plays a determinant role on local food consumption values. Moreover, it was found that food image affects loyalty positively and significantly. It was concluded that taste/quality value, epistemic value and interaction value mediate the relationship between food image and loyalty. On the grounds of the research findings, suggestions were presented for practitioners and future research.

Keywords

food image, loyalty, local food consumption values, food tourism

Ethical Statement

The contribution of all authors of the article to the article process is equal. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The ethics committee permission required to collect the data used in this research was obtained by the decision of the Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University Ethics Committee dated 30.12.2019 and numbered E.41160.

Supporting Institution

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies from the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Thanks

The author thanks all the tourists who devoted their time to participate in this study.

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