The role of local food in tourists’ behavior: a structural equation modelling approach

Even though local food represents a major tourist attraction due to cultural heritage and food experiences, very few studies have reported tourists’ behavioral components regarding local food consumption. The main objective of this study is to analyze the tourists’ behavioral model and examine the influence of the tourists’ motivation and satisfaction on their loyalty towards local food consumption. Ayutthaya city, Thailand, is selected because of its authentic traditional food and tourism activities linked to it. Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) are employed to assure the suitable proposed factor, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to test the hypothesized relationship between the constructs of satisfaction with the local food, motivation, and behavioral intention. Results of this study revealed that tourist motivations have a significant and direct influence on satisfaction and behavioral intentions statistically. As the findings, the more tourists are motivated to consume local food, the more satisfied and more intention to revisit and recommend the tourists. Any study aiming to understand the local food tourists' behavior is helpful to take these constructs into consideration.