FOOD TOURISM AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

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1 FOOD TOURISM AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR George Jaison, Asso. Professor, Mahajana Tourism Development Institute, Mysore Introduction: Food has many roles to play for consumers: it is functional (sustaining life); it plays a key role in our celebrations; it is a conduit for socializing; it is entertaining; it is sensuous and sensual; and it is a way of experiencing new cultures and countries. For many, food becomes highly experiential (i.e. much more than functional) when it is part of a travel experience, it can become sensuous and sensual, symbolic and ritualistic, and can take on new significance and meaning. Even the most basic meal can be etched in memory forever when it is eaten when surrounded by aweinspiring scenery or at the end of a special day exploring a new city. You would expect, then, that an understanding of tourists' food consumption and experiences would be a highly studied area of hospitality and tourism studies. However, studies of food and tourism are largely limited to food safety and hygiene issues analyses of food and wine festival attendance supply-side issues such as business networks food production and tourism and cross-promotion between food and tourism or the impacts of tourism on regional or national cuisine. Even more established disciplines studying the 'human element' of food consumption such as anthropology, sociology or cultural studies have done little to explore the consumptive experiences of tourists. Because of the paucity of established research in this area, this chapter focuses on providing some a priori frameworks for consumer behaviour research in food tourism. Despite this, some details of food tourists and their behaviour are available from a disparate and largely unrelated range of sources, and this chapter also attempts to paint a picture of food tourism consumer behaviour on the basis of existing research. Consumer behaviour research is important for stakeholders in wine tourism because it can help provide important insights into who the wine tourist is, what motivates them to visit a winery, take a guided tour, attend a wine festival or purchase wine and why, thus allowing marketers and managers to effectively target and develop markets. The same can also be said of food tourism stakeholders such as restaurant and cafe owners, cookery school providers, festival organizers, hotel and resort managers, bed and breakfast operators, and food producers. By understanding how tourists make their decisions to purchase and/or consume food products we will be able to gain a better understanding of when we need to intervene in their decision-making process. Appropriate intervention can, in turn, be used to persuade them to purchase 'our' food products and services. Consumer behaviour research is the study of why people, either individually or in groups, buy the product they do and how they make their decision. Such research therefore examines a range of, internal (e.g. motivation, attitudes and beliefs, learning, lifestyles and personality) and external (e.g. demographics, reference groups and culture) influences on decision making (e.g. purchase decision, choice, brand awareness and loyalty, evaluation and post-purchase decisions) and, more recently, the consumption experience (e.g. the occasion, consumption setting and benefits gained from the experience). Research on consumer behaviour is interdisciplinary, drawing on concepts and theories from such fields as psychology, sociology, social psychology, marketing, cultural

2 anthropology, economics, media studies, cultural studies and geography. While there appear to be few studies relating specifically to food and tourism, these disciplines have studied the consumption of food more generally and undoubtedly provide a useful basis for research into food tourism. Consumer profiles of food tourists: It is widely recognized that tourists provide a significant proportion of the market for restaurants and cafes around the world, including empirical evidence from France the UK, New Zealand and the USA. Further, some tourism authorities have undertaken research that includes eating out as an activity for various segments of the travel market. For instance, Tourism New Zealand identified that dining out is the most commonly cited activity for international visitors ahead of both general sightseeing However, despite the positive contribution that tourists clearly make to restaurant profitability, there is little published research on how this market is constructed. This view is echoed in the comments of the Economic Planning Group of Canada who state that, while they have been able to find a considerable amount of material on wine tourism from around the world, Demographic profiles As a result of this lack of direct research into food tourism, there are few insights into the demographic characteristics of food tourists, and those insights that do exist are largely superficial. One area in which some marketing research has been conducted is with respect to farmers' and produce markets and farm outlets. Research by the UK National Association of Farmers' Markets suggests that the typical customer falls into the AB (upper/middle class) or Cl (lower middle class) socioeconomic group - working people with high disposable incomes. A full 86% of the produce buyers surveyed for The Packer Fresh Trends edition were women. Women are more sensitive to price than men and are more likely to try new or unusual fruits and vegetables. The percentage of women making purchasing decisions in households with children under 18 is a whopping 99%. Psychographic profile While demographics can provide the basis for simple segmentation of food tourist markets, psychographic data (such as motives, lifestyles, interests, attitudes and values) allow the researcher to add 'vitality to consumer profiles that cannot easily be captured by demographies'. In the absence of any research dedicated to identifying the psychographic profile of food tourists, data relating specifically to food tourists is once again relatively scarce. A search of the existing studies, however, allows an, albeit fragmentary, picture to emerge of some of the lifestyles, attitudes and values of food tourists. Motivation One of the most elementary typologies of tourists that uses motivation relating to wine tourists: specialist versus general tourist. While the general wine tourist is 'one who visits a vineyard, winery, wine festival or wine show for the purpose of recreation', the specialist wine tourist is 'one who visits a vineyard, winery, wine festival or wine show for the purpose of recreation and whose primary motivation is a specific interest in grape wine or grape wine-related phenomena'. This definition therefore excludes the tour party whose key motivation was certainly not wine per se, but the desire to have a relaxing day out. Those with a high interest in vacation activities associated with wine and cuisine were considerably more likely to also have sought out vacation experiences that fall into the following categories:

3 Personal indulgence: To visit a popular, trendy place; To visit casinos and gamble; To experience the good life - fine cuisine, being pampered; To experience city life.' Exploration: To visit historical sites and important places in history; To see natural wonders and important natural sites.' Romance and relaxation: To rest, relax and recuperate; For intimacy and romance; To spend quality time with family away from home.' Travel lifestyle Lifestyle research is closely related to motivation, in that the lifestyle choices made by an individual are the manifestation of their external and internal travel motivations. Activities of high cuisine and wine interest respondents A higher level of participation than moderate or low interest respondents in outdoor activities such as water sports. However, the association was much stronger with cultural and entertainment activities, particularly: Shopping and dining High arts e.g. ballet, opera Gardens and natural attractions Concerts, carnivals and festivals Gambling, horse and auto racing Accommodations of high cuisine and wine interest respondents More likely to stay at: A B&B [bed and breakfast], spa or accommodation at a gourmet - restaurant A seaside resort A ski resort A lakeside or wilderness lodge A cookery or wine tasting school These choices clearly reflect the motivations above. For example, B&Bs, spas or accommodation at a gourmet restaurant are most often associated with 'romance and relaxation' and/or 'personal indulgence'. Attitudes and values An examination of the wider attitudes and values of food tourists provides invaluable information for marketers wishing to promote food tourism. Attitudes and values are critical determinants in the decision making of consumers, as these are much more enduring and engrained than motivations, which are derived from immediate need Value segmentation is viewed as an important tool in the targeting of markets and, as a result, a number of commercial tools have been developed in response to its utility. 'Socially aware' and 'Visible achiever' visitors are most likely to be attracted by food and wine tourism products) Socially aware 1) Tertiary educated 2) Professional/managerial 3) Public servants, politicians and researchers 4) Well educated 5) Attracted to things new and innovative 6) 'Learning a living' rather than earning a living 7) Seek education and knowledge. Visible achievers 1) Around forty years old 2) Wealth creators 3) Traditional values about home, work and society 4) Work for financial reward and job stimulation 5) Look for quality and value for money 6) Direct interest in public affairs, economy and politics. 'Midlife households' (forty-five to sixtyfive years, single or married with children under sixteen) that have food and wine as core tourism activities. 'Young optimists' and 'Traditional family life', also have sub segments with a strong interest in food and

4 wine tourism: 'young singles' and 'midlife households', respectively. An experiential view of food tourism In the l980s the 'experiential view' emerged in consumer behaviour research as it was recognized that the purchase and consumption of many goods and services had a hedonistic nature. The traditional model of consumer behaviour did not recognize the special nature of products and services that have a hedonic component, such as wine, leisure activities and pleasure travel. When purchasing these products decision making is not always based on problem solving ather, decisions are often the result of 'primary process thinking': 'fun, amusement, fantasy, arousal, sensory stimulation and enjoyment in much the same way that a baby seeks immediate gratification'. By recognizing the significance of these primary processes, the 'experiential view' identifies the 'stream of consciousness or sensory, imaginal and affective complex that accompanies a tourist experience' 'it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between consumption of experiences and the experience of consumption'. Eating out is certainly an excellent example of experiential consumption. Appreciating good food and drink has always been one way of standing out from the crowd. An essential part of that is the ability to discuss the enjoyment of taste and the object to which it relates. The experience of dining has acquired an accentuatedly aesthetic nature now that food is very much meant to gratify the eye as well. 'In the visual sense, food portions at their best are like abstract art - at least in the aesthetics of nouvelle cuisine. Likewise, given that music or movies resemble dining in that they are one-off acts of consumption, we also have to wonder where the familiar borderline now runs in their cases too. Involvement and the experience of food One concept that might be used to explain some of the differences observed between various food consumption experiences (i.e. eating at home compared with eating out, compared with eating out while on vacation) is that of product or leisure involvement. as an unobservable state of motivation, arousal or interest toward a recreational activity or associated product... In other words, involvement refers to how we think about our leisure and recreation, and it affects our behavior as well. Leisure involvement has usually been treated as a multifaceted construct including attraction, sign [symbolism], centrality, and risk. Involvement is an important concept in tourism as the decision-making process for tourism requires a high level of involvement found that while most 'products' score low in all areas of involvement, leisure activities always have involvement. This distinction between products and leisure activities is important for food consumption as the nature of the consumption experience determines how food and the experience of eating is viewed. Eating has a functional component (in that it provides sustenance) (Beardswoith and~keil, 1997) and in our day-to-day eating there is a tendency to treat food as a functional product. However, eating is also a very culturally ascribed function Rich in symbolism and meaning: The higher the level of involvement in food and eating (and sometimes cooking), the greater the symbolism and the deeper the meaning. Eating out, for example, in certain circumstances has more symbolic aspects than eating in. It can transform emotions into commodities which are sold back to use i.e. a romantic dinner for two or a celebratory dinner, while restaurants are a 'place ballet' where both the provider and the consumer act in a highly choreographed

5 and symbolic manner When on vacation the meaning of eating is further intensified as the very nature of the travel experience heightens our sensory awareness and imagination, and the high level of involvement tends to lead to greater symbolic significance Indeed, the sensory awareness of place is now being used by marketing agencies in a further attempt to build both a relationship with potential customers and differentiate places in a crowded tourism destination market place. Of course, food consumption with high involvement may not be limited to eating out and/or eating out while on vacation. Special occasions at home (such as birthday parties, dinner parties, anniversaries and family reunions) can also have high levels of involvement. 'kitchen table tourism' has replaced 'armchair tourism' as form of vicarious exploration, where eating at ethnic restaurants, cooking from ethnic cook books and watching food and travel television shows allows us to travel without leaving our home, town or city. Vicarious exploration means that we can have the same emotional and symbolic experience of a vacation before leaving home or after returning from a vaction. The diners at ethnic restaurants don't go just for the food. They also hunger for an exotic dining experience. Ethnic restaurants offer an effortless journey to a distant land where the waiter recites a menu of alien delights in charmingly accented English. The patrons of ethnic restaurants are gastronomic tourists. While the above discussion suggests that the occasion is critical in determining the level of involvement related to food consumption, involvement clearly also varies between individuals. provide an analysis of the research currently available and has proposed a typology of food tourist, that uses the concepts of and involvement in an attempt to explain some of the behaviour of various food tourism sectors. It is clear, however, that a considerable amount of research is required more effectively to understand food tourism consumer behaviour. References: [1] Food tourism around the world C. Michael Hall [2] Wine and food tourism - Hall C.M & Johnson J Conclusion: Studies of consumer behaviour in the area of food tourism are rare and, as a result, the picture we have of the food tourist is, at best, sketchy. This chapter has attempted to