An Exploratory Study of Food Tourist Motivations Visiting Food Museum Restaurants

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An Exploratory Study of Food Tourist Motivations Visiting Food Museum Restaurants Edith Cowan University Research Online ECU Publications Post 2013 2020 Hunger for learning or tasting? An exploratory study of food tourist motivations visiting food museum restaurants Eerang Park Edith Cowan University, [email protected] Sangkyun Kim Edith Cowan University, [email protected] Min Xu Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013 Part of the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons 10.1080/02508281.2020.1841374 Park, E., Kim, S., & Xu, M. (2020). Hunger for learning or tasting? An exploratory study of food tourist motivations visiting food museum restaurants. Tourism Recreation Research, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1841374 This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/9058 Tourism Recreation Research ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtrr20 Hunger for learning or tasting? An exploratory study of food tourist motivations visiting food museum restaurants Eerang Park , Sangkyun Kim & Min Xu To cite this article: Eerang Park , Sangkyun Kim & Min Xu (2020): Hunger for learning or tasting? An exploratory study of food tourist motivations visiting food museum restaurants, Tourism Recreation Research, DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2020.1841374 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1841374 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 05 Nov 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 113 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtrr20 TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1841374 Hunger for learning or tasting? An exploratory study of food tourist motivations visiting food museum restaurants Eerang Park a, Sangkyun Kim a and Min Xu b aSchool of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia; bSchool of Journalism and Communication, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, People’s Republic of China ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY This study investigates an underexplored area of research: the motivations of food tourists to visit a Received 23 April 2020 food museum and its respective restaurants as an emerging food tourism attraction. Using Accepted 4 October 2020 qualitative in-depth interviews with domestic Chinese food tourists at the Hangzhou Cuisine KEYWORDS Museum and its restaurants, the findings suggest that their motivations are revealed at the Gastronomy; food culture; individual, social, and institutional level resulting from behaviour displayed during the actual education; multi-sensorial; visit. At the individual level, the most dominant motivation derives from seeking education and domestic; authenticity knowledge alongside sensorial and embodied experience and transformative escapism. The motivation at the social level highlights the significance of social togetherness and kinship, whereas motivations at the institutional level constitute food authenticity and media exposure. This study contributes to a more complete understanding of the dynamics and diversities of the food tourism and food tourist motivation literature. Introduction 2010, 2019; Su et al., 2020) regardless of the non-hom- The prominence of food tourism can be witnessed by ogenous market characteristics of food tourists exponential growth in academic and commercial activi- (Ignatov & Smith, 2006) and their increasing demand ties and interests. A variety of research approaches, con- on production of specialised food tourism experiences cepts and contexts have been explored (Ellis et al., 2018; (Hall & Sharples, 2003). Herein, a critical research gap Everett, 2019; Henderson, 2009; Lee & Scott, 2015; Park can be identified, namely, that tourist motivations relat- et al., 2019). The consensus is that food is no longer an ing to holiday food consumption do not explicitly refer auxiliary experience but the primary motivator for par- to the food tourist motivations. ticular travellers (Kivela & Crotts, 2006 ), so-called food Moreover, as Everett and Slocum (2013) highlight, the tourists or foodies, who purposely seek memorable, existing literature on food tourism is broad and inclusive extraordinary and/or authentic food-focused experi- in its coverage being both diverse and eclectic in nature, ences (Goolaup et al., 2018; Kim et al., 2019; Stone embracing many different types of food tourism attrac- et al., 2018; Williams et al., 2019). tions and destinations, yet paying little attention to a Following Fields’ (2003) earlier theoretical prop- refined analysis and discussion. Research which includes osition, previous empirical studies have examined high-end fine-dining or food museums, however, is tourist motivations of food selection and consumption sparse (Moscardo et al., 2015). What motivates tourists on holiday (Chang et al., 2010; Ji et al., 2016; Kim & to visit one type of food tourism attractions over Eves, 2012; Kim et al., 2009, 2013; Kim et al., 2010;Mak another is yet to be explored. et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2016). Greater interest has been Therefore, it is timely to tackle these critical research geared towards experiential and attitudinal aspects of gaps to contribute to a more comprehensive under- tourists regarding regionally, locally identified foods standing of the dynamics and diversities of food and signature dishes (Ellis et al., 2018). Motivations of tourism motivations, given that a continuing growth in food tourists as a special interest tourism segment studies considering the cultural, social, geographical have not fully received researchers’ attention, with a and political significance of food in various tourism few exceptions (e.g. Ignatov & Smith, 2006; Kim et al., and research contexts is anticipated (Ellis et al., 2018). CONTACT Sangkyun Kim [email protected] School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. 2 E. PARK ET AL. This study aims to examine which motivational dimen- data amongst leisure tourists in the broader context of sions are foremost in the mind of food tourists who dining experiences whilst on holiday (Chang et al., 2010; visit food museums and restaurants as emerging food Hsu et al., 2018; Ji et al., 2016;Kimetal.,2009, 2013;Kim tourism attractions in the Chinese context. &Eves,2012;Maketal.,2013, 2017; Wu & Wall, 2017). Cultural experiences have become an increasingly Although different research frameworks and contexts important part of Chinese domestic tourism. In the first are taken into consideration, tourist motivations to half of 2019, over 80% of domestic tourists participated consume local food can be conceptualised as a multi- in cultural experiences during their trips, and around dimensional construct comprising seven dimensions 30% of tourists have been to museums and art galleries identified in the previous literature: exciting and/or auth- (Mafengwo and China Tourism Academy, 2020). Also, entic experience; escape from routine; sensory appeal more and more domestic tourists are placing emphasis and pleasure; health concern; cultural experience (for on local food experiences as part of the tourism experi- example, knowledge acquisition); togetherness such as ence. As shown in the 2019 report on independent travel socialisation; and prestige and status including traditional and customised tourism trends in China, almost 50% of food appeal (Fields, 2003;Kimetal.,2009, 2013, 2019;Kim travellers valued culinary experiences during their trips &Eves,2012;Maketal.,2012, 2017;Suetal.,2020). (Mafengwo and China Tourism Academy, 2020). Having loosely applied the push–pull theory of motiv- With these key domestic tourism trends, the rise of ation, the above dimensions of tourist motivation can be food-themed cultural museums across China in the categorised into intrinsic and extrinsic values (Su et al., past decade is noteworthy. Food museums area genre 2020), which can be further divided into sub-categories of museums specialising in food (items) and foodways such as symbolic, physical, cultural, interpersonal and (Mihalache, 2016), being the site for one type of food obligatory (Mak et al., 2017). Further attempts have tourism (Everett & Slocum, 2013). While very few food been made to identify immediate antecedents of museums existed in China before 2000, the Zigong tourist motivations to food consumption or the mediat- Salt History Museum in Sichuan province was the first ing role of other constructs such as personality traits, food-related museum founded in 1959 (Liu, 2017). An past experience, personal taste preference and expec- unprecedented number of food museums has been tations in holiday food consumption (Hsu et al., 2018; established since 2000, and over 143 food museums Kim et al., 2013; Kim & Eves, 2012; Mak et al., 2012, are now open to the public as of 2018. They include 2013, 2017). However, tourist motivations for general diverse exhibitions showcasing local cuisines and gastro- holiday food consumption do not convincingly
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