Measuring Gastronomic Image Online

Abstract

Culinary or gastronomic tourism has become one of the main exponents of cultural tourism and a key element of a destination’s image identity. Since travellers consult and produce online travel reviews (OTR) before and during a trip, this research aims to provide and implement a framework for analysing OTRs of dining establishments to measure their contribution to destination image formation in their designative (cognitive) and appraisive (affective and evaluative) aspects. To do this, a website was selected from which to download OTRs, extract useful information from the textual and paratextual elements, build a keyword frequency matrix, and perform a quantitative and thematic content analysis. This method was applied to a random sample of 500,000 OTRs from the TripAdvisor restaurants section, written in English, between 2013 and 2017, by tourists visiting the Canary Islands. Results show that, although the gastronomic image of the destination is positive in general, the local and regional gastronomy representative of the community’s sociocultural identity is not the most popular nor the best valued in tourists’ comments. This research shows a method to measure the main aspects that make up the gastronomic image of a destination and that allow for extracting insights and business intelligence through big data from user-generated content.

The role of luxury gastronomy in culinary tourism: An ethnographic study of Michelin‐Starred restaurants in France

“…From the restaurant's perspective, Daries, Cristobal‐Fransi, Ferrer‐Rosell, and Marine‐Roig (2018) show that the image projected by high‐end restaurants through a mature website and relevant social media content has a positive impact on tourists' perceptions of the restaurant. Furthermore, in their research, Marine‐Roig, Ferrer‐Rosell, Daries, and Cristobal‐Fransi (2019) show that, while the gastronomic image of the destination is positive overall, the local and regional gastronomy representative of the community's socio‐cultural identity is neither the most attractive nor the best appreciated in tourists' comments. Considering a consumer perspective, Chang and Mak (2018) identified seven main attributes, namely, attractiveness, flavor profile, familiarity, cooking method and ingredients, distinctiveness, convenience and price, and health and safety that can influence positively or negatively the gastronomic image perceived by tourists.…”

Gastronomy as a Sign of the Identity and Cultural Heritage of Tourist Destinations: A Bibliometric Analysis 2001–2020

“…The literature review has highlighted that the number of studies that analyzed gastronomy as an element of cultural heritage and identity of tourist destinations is relatively small, despite the fact that publications increased considerably in 2019 and 2020. In addition, within these investigations, on the one hand, the use of online content generated by restaurateurs and diners as a source of data is rare, unlike other studies that have focused on gastronomic image [115][116][117]; on the other hand, most use qualitative methodologies through in depth interviews, participant observation, etc.…”

Gastronomy and Tourism: Socioeconomic and Territorial Implications in Santiago de Compostela-Galiza (NW Spain)

“…The results of this work may be representative of the situation in many tourist destinations that lack a sustainability objective in terms of gastronomy. The results of the extensive research carried out by [ 63 ] in the Canary Islands serve as an example, from which it is concluded that, according to the comments made by visitors to TripAdvisor, the two restaurants of the Hard Rock chain are the most highly valued of the islands’ gastronomic offer. So, is there a gastronomic offer?…”