Food is fuel for tourism: Understanding the food travelling behaviour of potential tourists after experiencing ethnic cuisine

Food or culinary tourism has become a field of interest for scholars, and food tourism is considered a vital part of tourism research. The study aims to understand how value creation at ethnic cuisine influences the travelling behaviour of potential tourists. The study has considered potential tourists’ ethnocentrism/cosmopolitanism behaviour affecting the intention to consume food at the destination. The influence of destination image as a mediator and food neophilia as a moderating is considered to understand the behavioural patterns of ethnic food consumer and their intention to visit a destination. This study used the cross-sectional descriptive research design. A field survey was conducted, and data were gathered from visitors of Chinese cuisines in four major cities of Pakistan. The study results are divided into four categories. First, the direct effect shows that consumers’ cosmopolitan positive and ethnocentric behaviour has a negative effect on the intention to consume ethnic food at the destination. Second, the mediation results show that consumption value significantly mediates the relationship between consumer cosmopolitan and intention to consume ethnic food at the destination while insignificantly mediates between consumer ethnocentrism and intention to consume ethnic food at the destination. Experiential value significantly mediates the relationship between consumer cosmopolitan/ethnocentrism. Third, results for serial mediation showed that destination image with the experiential and consumption value significantly serially mediated the relationships. Finally, results showed that food neophilia has significantly moderated the relationship. The study is a unique effort in the field of culinary tourism and will help researchers and destination management officers (DMOs) to understand the role of local ethnic cuisine in shaping the intentions of potential tourists to travel and consume food at destinations.