Understanding tourists’ consumption emotions in street food experiences

Abstract

Studies have found that consumption emotions play an important role in understanding tourists' behaviors. However, researchers have not sufficiently explored the impact of consumption emotions on tourists' experience with local food, in this case, street food in Vietnam. This study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 38 international tourists to Vietnam to understand the emotions evoked by street food and how these are linked to consumption behaviors. Emojis were used as a tool to facilitate the expression of emotions. The paper uses the cognitive appraisal theory to explore and understand the multiple components of consumption emotion and its characteristics. Tourists' diverse emotional responses were found to reflect specific and temporal aspects of tourists' local food experiences and explain tourists' tentative behaviors. The findings also contribute to the understanding and application of emojis as a tool for eliciting emotions in qualitative interviews.