The contribution made by local products to local economic development has been recognized.While consuming local food products, visitors not only satisfy their vital needs but also interact with local culture and support local development by stimulating demand. Despite this, the determinants of local food product consumption by international visitors have been relatively neglected. The results reveal that the determinants related to interaction with the destination and local products are stronger, but there are differences between visitors' characteristics. The findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding about the interaction of inbound tourism and local food product consumption.
KEYWORDS inbound tourism, local food consumption, Portugal
| INTRODUCTIONAlthough tourism can be seen as just another form of economic activity that creates employment and income, it is the richness of the interactions between visitors and local destinations that make the tourism industry unique (Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Hsieh & Chang, 2006;Quan & Wang, 2004;Skuras, Dimara, & Petrou, 2006;Telfer & Wall, 1996).Tourism impacts on local destinations in many ways, although, in recent years, there has been growing interest in analysing the synergy between tourism and local food products (Bessière, 1998;Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Hjalager & Richards, 2002;Kivela & Crotts, 2006;Quan & Wang, 2004;Telfer & Wall, 2000). Local food products refer to products that are locally processed and regionally branded, have a local or regional identity (Enteleca Research and Consultancy, 2000;Kim, Eves, & Scarles, 2009;Nummedal & Hall, 2006;Sims, 2009), and are linked to the culture of a particular local community (Bessière, 1998).The importance in studying international visitors' relation with local food is twofold. First, while buying local food products, visitors spur demand, thus contributing to local development (Bessière, 1998;Tellstrom, Gustafsson, & Mossberg, 2005). Second, local food can play an important role in visitors' destination choice, which provides a valuable opportunity for advertising the identity of a destination (Bessière, 1998;Boniface, 2003;Cohen & Avieli, 2004;Henderson, 2009;Hjalager & Richards, 2002). Moreover, contact with local food prod- Despite the relevance of local food products in the tourism experience, the consumption of these products during a trip occurs with different grades of intensity. Whereas certain visitors travel expressly for gastronomic reasons (Bessière, 1998;Hjalager & Richards, 2002;Kivela & Crotts, 2006;Quan & Wang, 2004), others consider local food products as a cultural element of a tourism destination with relevance to their tourism experience (Fields, 2002;Kim et al., 2009;Kim & Eves, 2012;Quan & Wang, 2004). There are others, however, who do not attribute a great deal of relevance to the consumption of local food products. Therefore, it is of utmost relevance to increase knowledge regarding visitors' demand for local food products and the factors that may influence this demand. The identification...
