Social Media Impact on Culinary Tourism: Studying Social Media Impact on Consumer Behavior within Culinary Tourism

Abstract

This research study focuses on the impact of social media on culinary tourism. This growing field inspired the authors to understand which new communication channels are the most efficient to promote local cuisine when travelling. To do so, they asked what the impact of cuisine interest on consumers' booking intention within culinary tourism is (RQ1). The methodology used was mono-method to try to answer this research question. To collect the data, the authors conducted a quantitative questionnaire and then studied the results using SPSS software to carry out a linear regression analysis. According to the results obtained, social media do indeed have an influence on the consumer's attitude to try local food and on the intention to book in a restaurant offering local food. Moreover, cuisine interest has an influence on the consumer's attitude and therefore a real impact on the booking intention. In addition, videos on local cuisine do not have a significant impact on consumer attitudes (significance level 0.488). Another key finding is that photos of local cuisine do not have a significant influence on booking intention (significance level 0.229). If the authors had had more time to conduct their research, they would have done both quantitative and qualitative research. Finally, they recommend for future research to add a qualitative part in a new investigation while focusing on a more precise geolocation target.