A Taste of Asia

: local service food experience in Asia

Abstract

Food is an essential part of the travel experience in today's tourism industry. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance local cuisines experience to increase the ability to attract tourists. This thesis aims to understand which Asia local food consumption value had contributed to the intention to revisit Asia countries of tourists. By understanding the drivers of tourist’s behavior , the service providers, restaurants, and local tourist departments can improve the food tourism industry in the region to attract more tourists. A quantitative research approach was used to analyze information from a data set of 261 European and American travelers. Based on the result of EFA, there arethree food consumption values that the European and American travelers paid attention to which are food location value, food emotional value and food price and quality value. The result of EF Aanalysis in this dissertation is different from the previous finding which found food price value and food quality value as two distinctive values. This research found that European and American travelers consider food prices to be fair and worth the quality of food. Multiple regression has been conducted and found that food emotional value and food location value have statistically significant impact on the intention to revisit Asia countries. With this result, it is recommended for restaurant and local tourist departments to focus on improving service quality to leave an emotional impression on visitors and enhancing location factors to attract people and increase the likelihood that they will return in the future.

Date of Award	25 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Helena Rodrigues (Supervisor)