Interest in food, food quality, satisfaction, and outcomes in a border context: Gender, country of residence and born moderation

Abstract

This study examines the impact on satisfaction and visit outcomes of two higher-order constructs: interest in food and food quality at the US-Mexico border destination. We analyze gender cross moderation, country of residence, and country of birth as first explorations on food tourism marketing under the framework of the same objective and taking advantage of a consistent proportion of visitors born in the visited country. Four hypotheses were examined through Squares SEM techniques, following a simple and random statistical design using a comprehensive inventory from specialized websites. The study used 1346 questionnaires completed face to face by national, local, and US visitors in three major gastronomic regions along the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The results suggest that the analyzed segments show little difference on the weight dimension with a similar incidence between country of residence and birth. There was also a gender impact and a crossing of segments between interest in food and food quality.