Exploring Tourist’s Preferences for Traditional Food: Case Study Nubian Traditional Food

Abstract

Dining is an essential tourism component that attracts significant expenditure of tourists. So, tourism practitioners need a new insight into the dining behaviors of tourists to develop their strategic planning and decision-making. Furthermore, this research aims exploring preferences' acceptance and sensory evaluation of traditional Nubian food. The methodology of the research is a quantitative one using a questionnaire to be a tool for collecting information to test and prove the hypotheses of the research. The questionnaires are divided into two main parts. The first part one is about personal data. The second part consists of 5 components such as (1) Nubian traditional food experience (2) Food Neophobia, (3) The motivations for traveling to Nubian Village (4) Tourists' satisfaction with their food experience (5)The Purchase intention toward Nubian traditional food, to collect data, the current questionnaire aimed tourists in Aswan, the researchers distributed 400 questionnaires to tourists. Upon analysis, 363 valid responses with a response rate of 90.75%. Leaving 37 questionnaires were found to be invalid for analysis. The main results of the research pointed out that the experience of traditional Nubian food provides a unique food experiences, offers authenticity through food experiences, and the results showed that using food in destination marketing and focusing on food tourism in general, lastly the experience of traditional Nubian food in Egypt is gratifying. The research recommended that the traditional food could be available in hotel menus varies depending on the geographical location of the country, it also recommended that the Ministry of Tourism sponsors food events like food festivals and puts a strategic plans to increase the benefits of traditional food experiences and occasions.