Redai dili (Nov 2022)
The Influence of Authenticity Perception of Traditional Food on Satisfaction and Behavior Intention in Tourism Destination: A Case Study of Smelly Mandarin Fish in Hongcun
Abstract
Traditional food is an important part of traditional culture and the development of traditional food culture is an important means of rural revitalization. Although the authenticity of food culture is becoming a point of discussion in domestic research, there are still some limitations. The existing studies do not further subdivide food into traditional and local foods, while traditional food is more consistent with the object of authenticity research. On the basis of distinguishing the concepts of local and traditional foods, this study selected smelly mandarin fish, a native traditional food in tourist destinations, as the research object to explore tourists' perception of the authenticity of traditional food and its influence on dining satisfaction and behavioral intention in tourist destinations. With Hongcun as the location of this study, data were collected through a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview. The AMOS structural equation model was constructed by analyzing three authenticity dimensions—dining environment, service, and food—and two dimensions—satisfaction and behavioral intention. The results show that tourists' perception of authenticity in the three dimensions has a significant, direct, and positive impact on dining satisfaction and a significant, indirect, and positive impact on behavioral intention. Among them, environmental authenticity has the greatest impact on dining satisfaction, followed by service and food authenticity. Through the analysis of the interview text, this study explains the structure of the influence of tourists' three dimensions of perception on satisfaction and behavioral intention. Combined with interviews with the host group, this paper discusses the differences in the perception and attitude of the host and the main characteristics of reshaping the destination's traditional food culture. This study believes that even if the object of experience is the traditional food of the destination closely related to authenticity, public tourists still pay more attention to the overall dining environment and service atmosphere, and the food itself has the lowest impact on satisfaction. This paper finds that the local traditional food culture presents the characteristics of de-traditionalization and de-localization. In the food culture reproduction of destination, because tourists pay particular attention to the environment, operators will be more willing to build the environment atmosphere to an extent that overlooks the importance of the food itself. Local customers pay more attention to the "authentic" taste of food, and the differences between hosts and customers as well as the orientation of tourist needs of production have led to the hosts'low identification with the authenticity of staged foods. Future studies should fully consider the particularity of traditional food as a specific object and reshape the food culture to make customers more satisfied. The contribution of this study is to sort out the classification basis of traditional food, study the impact of the perception of authenticity of traditional food culture on dining satisfaction and behavioral intention, analyze the impact and main characteristics of the perception difference between hosts and guests on the reconstruction of destination traditional food culture, and put forward the prospect of further study.
Keywords
