Culinary and destination experiences on behavioral intentions: an insight into local Indonesian food

Abstract

ABSTRACT Food is an essential element of tourism. Tourists visit destinations in search of the destination experience and the culinary experience. Indonesia, rich in various kinds of local traditional food in each tourist destination, has become an attraction for tourists to visit different places to enjoy both the destination experience and the local food. Many previous studies have discussed the concept of experience quality and tourist satisfaction in culinary tourism; however, these variables have not been linked to destination experience. This study aimed to investigate the effect of culinary experience quality on destination experience satisfaction in Indonesia, with culinary experience satisfaction as a mediating variable. This study’s participants were 401 domestic tourists who traveled to one of the four gastronomy destinations of Denpasar, Solo, Bandung, and Yogyakarta. The findings showed that the positive culinary experience of tourists in Indonesia significantly influenced overall destination experience satisfaction, leading to positive behavioral intentions. Moreover, the finding also revealed that food quality is the most influential factor in creating tourists’ culinary experience.