Motivations underlying tourist food consumption

This chapter reviews the literature on the motivations driving tourist food consumption. It presents Chinese tourists' food consumption motivations. Food Choice Questionnaire classifies motivations affecting food choice in general situations into nine distinctive motives: health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity and ethical concern. In the tourism literature, motivation has similarly been recognised as a construct exerting significant influence on tourist food consumption behavior. Chinese tourists' food preferences were classified into three distinct categories: familiar food, local food and non-fastidiousness of food selection. The chapter focuses on to a more expansive understanding of the motivations underlying tourist food consumption. It also reviews that incorporates both tourist motivation literature and food consumption literature to shed light on the idiosyncratic nature of tourist food consumption. The chapter examines an empirical study to investigate the motivations underlying mainland Chinese tourists' food consumption. The pleasures associated with food consumption are rarely explored in tourism and hospitality literature.