Abstract
Despite proposed conceptual frameworks of eating behaviors, little is known about environmental factors contributing to changes in food habits. Few studies have reported the external influence of tourism on the inhabitants’ eating patterns. The present study aimed to investigate whether tourism pressure affects Canary Islands inhabitants’ adherence to the Mediterranean diet pattern. Data were obtained from a health and lifestyle population-based survey conducted in 2009 and 2015. From the reported intake frequency, a Mediterranean diet score was defined (0 to 11 points). Tourist overnight stays, which were stratified by nationality and area of destination, were used as a proxy variable to measure tourism pressure. A multilevel linear regression analysis by restricted maximum likelihood estimation was performed to examine the relationship between tourism pressure and the Mediterranean diet score. A significant negative association between the Mediterranean diet score and British tourism pressure was observed (β = −0.0064, p = 0.010), whereas German tourism pressure increased inhabitants’ adherence (β = 0.0092, p = 0.042). The socioeconomic level of tourists seems to play a role in differences in the tourism pressure effect by nationality. Further investigation of other highly touristic destinations is needed to confirm these findings that could contribute to a shift in tourism and public health nutrition policies.
Highlights
IntroductionHigh tourist inflows could enhance a rapid change in local lifestyles [1,2,3], affecting people’s habits, daily routines, social lives, beliefs and values [4]
Tourism can have either a positive or a negative social effect on a host society
Data were obtained from a health and lifestyle population-based survey conducted in the Canary Islands in 2009 and 2015 [31,32], which consisted of a stratified randomly selected sample of 5984 and 5703 individuals, respectively
Summary
High tourist inflows could enhance a rapid change in local lifestyles [1,2,3], affecting people’s habits, daily routines, social lives, beliefs and values [4]. The most common tourist destination in the EU for non-residents is Spain (269 million nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in 2015), and the Spanish region with the highest number of tourist overnight stays is the Canary Islands (94 million nights), which accounted for 3.4% of the total nights spent in the whole of the EU, 28 [6]. Regarding tourism intensity, defined as the ratio of nights spent at a tourist accommodation establishment relative to the total permanent resident population of the area [9], the Canary Islands recorded a ratio of
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