Seek common ground local culture while reserving difference: Exploring types of souvenir attributes by Ethnic Chinese people

Purchasing souvenirs is an important travel shopping behaviour in the tourist industry. Multiple studies have explored dimensions related to a souvenir. However, the attributes of souvenirs are inconsistent and few studies have explored from tourists’ perspective the customer value of the souvenirs they purchased. Using food souvenirs as an example, this study adopted the means-end chains approach to explore the consumer value of food souvenirs purchased by tourists. Based on the attribute–consequence–value linkages, food souvenir attributes most important to tourists were identified, and subsequently, the product attributes for food souvenirs were determined. This study found that when choosing which food souvenirs to buy, tourists perceived the following nine major attributes as important: good taste, shareability, convenient, nostalgia and unique, human warmth, authenticity, local characteristics, famous and representative. The findings of this study can serve as reference for helping business industry to design products. This study recommends incorporating these nine attributes and local characteristics into destination tourism development to closely resonate with the needs of tourists and strengthen tourists’ perception and impression of the customs of destination tourism industry.