Nurturing tourists’ ethical food consumption: Testing the persuasive strengths of alternative messages in a natural hotel setting

Claudia Cozzio, Michael Volgger, Ross Taplin and Arch G. Woodside

Journal of Business Research, 2020, vol. 117, issue C, 268-279

Abstract: The roles of food in sustainable operations in hospitality and tourism are receiving increasing attention. At the same time, how hospitality providers can support ethical consumption of organic, local, and sustainable food via presenting persuasive messages on buffets or in menus remains unclear. The study here presents rare research examining the effects of persuasion on actual behavior in a natural hotel setting. The study reports on a field experiment comparing the effectiveness of informative appeals (local origin, organic production, and socially sustainable production), experiential appeals and normative appeals on hotel guests’ food selection of vegetables from buffet presentations. The findings are based on 84 data trials and indicate that informative appeals affect guest selections. The findings also show that experiential appeals using a combination of visual, emotional, and participatory cues outperform informative and normative messages, advancing research on persuasive communication in hedonistic settings.

Keywords: Ethics; Food; Health; Hospitality; Persuasion; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:117:y:2020:i:c:p:268-279

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.050

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