Effects of Tourists’ Street Food Experience and Food Neophobia on Their Post-Travel Behaviors: The Roles of Destination Image and Corona-Phobia

Çifçi İ., Öğretmenoğlu M., Sengel T., Demirciftci T., Kandemir Altunel G.

Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, 2022 (ESCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/1528008x.2022.2151550
  • Dergi Adı: Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, ABI/INFORM, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, CAB Abstracts, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, Hospitality & Tourism Complete, Hospitality & Tourism Index, Veterinary Science Database, DIALNET
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: COVID-19, moderated mediation model, multi-group analysis, street food, Tourist experience, tourists’ post-travel behavior
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Food-neophobia is referred to as the reluctance to try unknown foods. This paper aims to demonstrate the relationships between street food experience, food destination image, food-neophobia, corona-phobia, and post-travel behaviors (e.g., intention to revisit and word-of-mouth) of international tourists visiting Istanbul, Türkiye. Based on the 210 valid questionnaires, Smart-PLS was applied to empirically test a structural equation model using PLS-Henseler’s multi-group analysis. The results demonstrated relationships between the effects of street food experience and food neophobia on tourists’ post-travel behaviors in terms of mediating effect of destination image and the moderating effect of corona-phobia. The result also showcased the moderated mediation role of corona-phobia in mediating role of food destination image between street food experience, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth. Despite existing generic tourists’ street food studies and the popularity of COVID-19-related studies in the destination-marketing context, there have been limited attempts to explore the consequences (e.g., tourists’ post-travel behavior) of the tourists’ street food experience with the possible psychological relationships (i.e., food destination image and food-neophobia) during the pandemic. Therefore, this is one of the first attempts to troubleshoot to fill this omitted gap. Several practical implications with suggestions for further studies were also discussed.