Culinary tourism in Egypt: a tourist perspective

Abstract

Over the past few years, culinary tourism has gained increasing importance in tourism industry. This relatively new market offers destinations numerous marketing opportunities. However, investigating culinary experience and its effect on tourist satisfaction and perception of a destination is under researched. The current study aims to assess Egyptian local food image attributes and its potential impact on both tourist food experience satisfaction and revisit intentions. For this purpose, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to a sample of (418) international tourists. Results revealed that there is a relatively high acceptance among tourists that “Egyptian food attributes” dimension is the main image of Egyptian local food. Regression analysis indicated that “food environment” dimension is an important food image that affects tourist’s overall satisfaction. Given that there is no specific scale developed for this purpose in Egypt, the main implication of the current study is to provide a measurement scale built on previous research that identifies and assesses attributes of local cuisine from tourist’s viewpoint. The current study offers valuable implications as well for destination marketers, managers and businesses that would help them develop and market a new type of tourist attraction and offer unique and memorable culinary experience.