Exploring the Interplay between Memorable Food-based Tourism Experiences, Place Attachment, and Responsible Behavioral Intentions: The Moderating Role of Tourist-Resident Interactions

Tourism policy makers face challenges in addressing the negative impacts of tourism and developing new strategies to implement sustainability in destinations. The present work introduces a novel approach to sustainable tourism by highlighting the significance of place attachment formed through memorable food-based experiences. This approach serves as a new driver for positive outcomes, benefiting both people and places. Data have been collected via an online survey programmed in Qualtrics and distributed to 389 international tourists who had a memorable food-based experience during one of their recent travels. The partial least squares technique has been employed for data analysis. Results show that food-related activities have the potential to engage tourists, create positive experiences, shape or develop visitors' attachment to destinations, and foster their intention to adopt responsible behaviors such as supporting local businesses, respecting local customs and traditions, and preserving the environment. The findings highlighted that the impact of memorable food-based experiences on place attachment is moderated by tourist-resident interactions. The development of a new scale to measure these social interactions as a new dimension of place attachment was suggested for future research. Prior research has found strong links between individuals' place attachment and their inclination towards pro-environmental actions in natural areas. However, investigation of the connection between tourists' place attachment and their responsible behavior in residential tourist destinations is limited. Additionally, the few studies conducted in this domain have often focused on the impact of place attachment on environmentally responsible behavior, and other aspects of responsible tourism (e.g., social, cultural, promotional, economic, and legal) have been neglected. The present study is the first attempt to examine the impact of such a relationship on different aspects of tourists’ responsible behaviors in residential tourism destinations. Another contribution of this study is revealing that place attachment formed through memorable food-based experiences has a “carry-over” effect. It was found that place attachment can not only contribute to tourists' responsible behavioral intentions towards a specific place, but also contribute to their responsible behavioral intentions in other destinations. Prior research acknowledges the difficulty of studying place attachment in the tourism context due to tourists' brief visits, which prevents the formation of attachment to destinations. However, this research underscores the significance of memorable food-based tourism experiences, which can occur even within a short timeframe, in creating or fostering place attachment in tourists. Policymakers can use the insights from this study to design strategies that develop a deeper sense of attachment among short-term visitors, which can contribute to the long-term sustainability of tourism destinations.

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