The Role of Slow Food in Destination Image Development

Abstract

Wellness lifestyle trends have entered our everyday thoughts, especially since the Covid 19 pandemic. This paper explores how the slow food concept has a vital role in making tourist trips more fun and healthier at the same time. It shows how to develop a slow food destination image. A qualitative approach using in-depth interviews was employed, and Chiang Mai, Thailand was selected as the study area. A total of 29 tourists were interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyze data. The findings revealed three components for developing a slow food destination image: (a) functional attributes, referring to five aspects: environment, authentic food, slow food community, local facilitators, and service quality; (b) psychological attributes, comprising slow food logo and signs, and value perception; and (c) unique attributes, seeking uniqueness and creating events/festivals related to the slow food concept, especially the concept of a good, clean, and fair event.