Exploring factors affecting tourists’ purchase intention of Wuhan cuisine

Food has long been considered very important in tourism activities and it has a positive effect on tourist satisfaction. Then local cuisine has become an important attraction for tourist destinations and one of the focuses of destination marketing. This study is based on the theory of perceived value, perceived risk theory, and the theory of planned behavior, aiming to understand tourists’ intentions to purchase local cuisine and its influencing factors, choosing Wuhan, China as the study case, and conducting an empirical survey on tourists visiting Wuhan in 2023. Data analysis was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the research hypotheses. The results show that the value of quality, price, emotion, cognition, culture and health can improve tourists’ satisfaction and enhance tourists’ purchase intention of Wuhan cuisine. However, social value and perceived risk have no significant effect on satisfaction and purchase intention, tourists’ satisfaction with Wuhan cuisine positively affects tourists’ attitude, and tourists’ satisfaction. Attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are also key factors to predict tourists’ purchase intention of Wuhan cuisine. The purchase intention model meets the fitting criteria: X²/Df = 1.533, RMSEA = 0.025, CFI = 0.977, IFI = 0.977. The results of this study provide a reference for the competent government departments and related enterprises to promote the development of food tourism in Wuhan.