The Influence of Tourists’ Experience of Quality of Street Foods on Destination’s Image, Life Satisfaction, and Word of Mouth: The Moderating Impact of Food Neophobia

Sangmook Lee, Hyebin Park and Yoonyoung Ahn
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Sangmook Lee: Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Kyungsung University, 309 Suyeong-ro, Nam-gu, Busan 48434, Korea
Hyebin Park: Fisheries Outlook Center, Korea Maritime Institute, 26, 367 Haeyang-ro, Yeongdo-gu, Busan 49111, Korea
Yoonyoung Ahn: Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, Sejong University, 209 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05006, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Due to growing food-related tourism, there is increasing interest about street foods worldwide, including South Korea. Many types of food-related experiences have been considered as one of the significant elements to develop positive perceptions about a destination, and street food has been recognized as a critical clue for encouraging tourists to a destination. Previous scholars mentioned street food as a public health risk element as well as a significant factor to attract tourists’ attention. Therefore, this study aims to find out how experiential quality of street foods is related to the destination image, life satisfaction, and word of mouth as perceived by tourists in night markets of South Korea. Data was collected from 325 foreigners who visited night markets and have experienced street foods in Korea. This study demonstrates the results of the influence of quality of street foods on tourist experience, on destination image, on life satisfaction, and on word of mouth in Korea. In addition, the result shows a moderating impact of food neophobia on the formulated relationships. There are statistically significant differences between groups with high neophobia perception and low neophobia perception of street foods. Based on the results of this study, we propose not only academic implications for future studies, but also managerial implications for food enterprises and food tourism organizers related to street food.

Keywords: experience quality; destination image; life satisfaction; WOM (word of mouth); food neophobia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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