Relative Importance of Food in Tourism: A Study on Domestic Tourists in Bangladesh

Abstract

The phenomenon of food tourism becomes a growing interest among many researchers as food is an important component of the travel and tourism industry. Demographic characteristics of tourists of food tourism, food preference, tourists’ perceptions regarding food, aesthetic and authenticity of food, potentials of food tourism business are widely covered by the researchers’ community in different contexts. To address the contextual gap, this research aims to reveal the relative roles of food in tourism along with the demographic nature of tourists who are concern to the local food of domestic tourism destinations in Bangladesh. Quantitative techniques including univariate analysis, bivariate analysis, and logistic regression have been utilized to explore the research aim. This research has found that food has a strong influence in traveling behavior of the domestic tourists in Bangladesh. In relation to demographic characteristics, male and higher educated tourists have exhibited more concern regarding local food of tourist destination. Besides, this research has found that food is one of the considerable purposes of tourism, local food is more important to the frequent travelers, and tourists consider characteristics such as healthiness, famous qualities and restaurant environment before consuming local food. Keywords: Food tourism, demographic characteristics, univariate and bivariate analysis, logistic regression DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/51-06 Publication date: November 30 th 2020