Conceptualising an Attribute-based Framework of Projected and Perceived Destination Food Image: The Case of Australia and its Chinese Market

Abstract

The 2017 United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Global Report on Gastronomy Tourism revealed that the local cuisine of a destination is a leading factor influencing destination choice, and tourists are increasingly attracted to destinations with favourable food appeal. In response to this growing trend, the tourism industry has begun to focus on building an attractive and distinctive local food and cuisine image into their branding strategy to enhance competitiveness and capitalise on the growing market. Despite the increasing attention from researchers, there is a lack of consensus on defining the determinants of food image as a set of brand attributes that depict the identity and attraction of a place. Current research that attempts to explain the influence of food and cuisine in the formation of destination brand image takes either a host or tourist perspective. Arguably, existing measures do not adequately capture what the destination has to offer and what is being valued and perceived as attractive by the tourist, which consequently hinder theory development. Considering these discrepancies, the overarching aim of this thesis is to examine the dual-perspective of food image, one that is projected and/or perceived by destination marketers and their industry stakeholders; and the other a mental representation as perceived by potential tourists. Theoretically, this thesis aims to conceptualise an attribute-based framework of destination food image by integrating both host and tourist images to align projected image and perceived image evaluations. Chapter 1 offers an introduction to the study background and an overview of the research design. The research begins with a literature review to investigate the current state of food image research in tourism. Informed by the gaps highlighted in the review, a framework was developed. It comprises 40 attributes of food image categorised into six dimensions, i.e. place/geographic environment, food and cuisine culture, food and people, food quality, dining places/restaurants, and activities related to food tourism offerings. This work has been published as a research article in the journal, Tourism and Hospitality Research, and is included in this thesis as Chapter Two. The mapping of a comprehensive list of food image attributes in Chapter Two assisted the development of a model that was subsequently tested empirically for its applicability to the context of Australia and its desired market segment, Chinese tourists. The research adopted a critical realism multi-method approach incorporating: (i) a survey of food tourism stakeholders; (ii) a content analysis of a video used by Tourism Australia in its food campaign; and (iii) a quantitative test of the model using survey data, and an analysis using the PLS-SEM method. These three components were conducted in two sequential empirical phases/studies. The first empirical study looks at food image from the host perspective. The data were drawn from 18 key industry stakeholders, and an analysis of a video to frame the food images projected by Tourism Australia’s campaign. This work has been published as a research article in Tourism Management, and is included in this thesis as Chapter Three. Building on the literature review and the first empirical study, the second empirical study investigated potential tourists’ perceived food images of Australia. It proposes a model that integrates food image and food neophobia theories, and validates the model on data collected from 500 potential Chinese tourists through an online survey. This study is currently under review for publication in the Journal of Travel Research, and is included in this thesis as Chapter Four. Insights from stakeholders reveal that gaps occur between projected food images and actual food tourism offerings. Stakeholders raised some concerns about Tourism Australia promoting high-end food experiences, and called for the affordability and accessibility of food experiences for the tourist market. They also suggested that the most compelling image for Australia is the country’s diverse food culture, and the natural and clean growing environment for fresh local produce. From the tourist perspective, the model helps to identify the images formed as a set of mental representations in the minds of potential Chinese tourists. Their perceptions of Australia as a food destination, and decision to choose the destination are significantly influenced by the country’s clean food environment, unique food culture, and interesting dining places/restaurants. The findings further reveal the effects of individual food neophobia tendencies and highlight the need for destination brand strategies to be sensitive to tourists’ food-related traits/attitude. Overall, this program of research identified specific congruences and incongruences between the promoted/projected images created by the destination marketers and those images held by the internal stakeholders, as well as the external views of tourists of Australia as a food destination. This thesis contributes to destination food image knowledge by pulling together the various dimensions and indicators of food destination attractiveness, from the perspectives of both the host and the tourist into a comprehensive conceptual framework, and then empirically testing this framework. It contributes to the literature by simultaneously examining the predictive power of cognitive and affective food image components perceived by potential tourists on their behavioural intention. The model integrates food image and food neophobia theories to contribute greater explanatory power to destination food image formation. It also attempts to enrich current knowledge of consumer behaviour in food tourism by determining factors underlying the dimensions of the perceived image of a country’s cuisine amongst potential tourists in the pre-visit stage. Practically, the findings suggest that marketers compete on food attributes that the potential target market will appreciate, and adopt branding strategies that are aligned with tourists’ food image and expectations. As stated, this thesis comprises three articles: two published and one under review for publication.