Connections Between Culinary Tourism Experiences and Memory

Abstract

Tourism researchers have identified many factors leading to memorable food tourism (culinary tourism) experiences. This research proposes reasons why food experiences while traveling are especially memorable and proposes avenues for future research on food and memory. The act of travel in addition to the act of eating/drinking and individual attitudes and emotions likely work together to create memories. Travelers agreed with many reasons why food travel experiences are connected with memory. These include sensory connections, emotional connections, social and interpersonal connections, novelty and experimental connections, focus and attention, and reflective connections. These connections may also relate to pretrip expectations. Travelers who identified themselves as motivated to travel for food and drink felt more strongly than other travelers about the reasons that food and drink travel experiences were connected with memory. Suggestions are included for researchers to advance understanding of memorable food tourism experiences.

Who is an evangelist? Food tourists’ positive and negative eWOM behavior

“…The respondents were asked to recall one travel experience of the previous year. As food tourism experiences are memorable because of their rich sensory, emotional, social/interpersonal, novelty and reflective connections (Stone et al, 2021), we anticipated that there would be no major problems in terms of recall. To obtain clarity in the survey questions, pilot studies were performed among graduate students.…”

“…Although there have been some debates over single-item constructs, a single item was argued to be sufficient when the attribute of the construct is concrete and can be imagined easily and uniformly (Bergkvist and Rossiter, 2007). As travel experience and culinary experience are memorable (Stone et al, 2021) and the restaurant attributes used in this study are widely referenced items, we anticipated that there would be no major problems in using a single item for each of the restaurant experience attributes.…”

“…In response, this study emphasizes this unique situation. From a goal-based perspective, travel enables customers to establish different expectations and perceptions in comparison with regular dining situations (Stone et al, 2021). For example, authenticity should be included in the research on food tourists' satisfaction (Ant on et al, 2019).…”

Pairing Co-Creation with Food and Wine Experiences—A Holistic Perspective of Tourist Experiences in Dão, a Portuguese Wine Region

“…For these authors, the importance of co-creation in these experiences is related to the relationship established between tourists and hosts, reinforcing the importance of interaction in the co-creation of value. Stone, Migacz and Sthapit [39] (p. 9) also point out the importance of considering "social interactions" with different destination actors in food tourism, as well as the following elements, contributing to memorability: "sensory" and "emotional" features (positive emotions), "novelty", "focus and attention" on tourists' experiences, and "reflective connections" stimulating the later recollection of these food experiences [39]. With particular emphasis on sensory and emotional experiences, Schmitt [40] considers that sensorial ('sense'), affective ('feel'), cognitive ('think'), behavioural ('act'), and social identity features ('relate') contribute to appealing and memorable experiences.…”

Does a healthy diet travel? Motivations, satisfaction and loyalty with plant-based food dining at destinations

“…On the other hand, curiosity about experiencing new foods satisfies the desire for novelty and has led to greater interest in exploring gastronomic tourism (Kivela and Crotts, 2006;Sthapit, 2017). Food is now a major driver of travel experiences and gastronomic tourism has become popular with people who travel with a priority on new culinary experiences (Choe and Kim, 2018;Hussin, 2018;Stone et al, 2021) and are "eager to experience specific types of food or local produce" (Hall and Sharples, 2003). Wolf (2006) defined gastronomic tourism as the search for and enjoyment of prepared food and drink that provide unique and memorable gastronomic experiences.…”