Exploring gastronomic experiences: Tourists’ emotions, quality of life and behavioural intentions

Abstract

This paper aims to approach the tourists’ affective-cognitive process in a gastronomy tourism experience, splitting experience assessment into sensorial and intellectual realms. Analysing the experiential outcomes associated with quality of life and emotional arousal and highlighting the relevance of future intentions toward the experience and the tasted gastronomic product. An empirical approach was developed. A total of 180 face-to-face questionnaires have been collected form tourists during a cheese fair. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling is used for data analysis. The results confirm the relevance of sensorial elements over intellectual ones in this kind of experiences, being both determining factors of quality of life and emotional arousal. This process leads and encourages positive behavioural intentions toward similar experiences. This study is among the first to highlight and explore the effect of specific experience’s realms and emotions on quality of life and the results of this assessment process on behavioural results, focused both toward the experience and the tasted product, in the context of gastronomic events.