Food consumption is an inevitable experience within a travel destination and has become an area of interest for both host countries and tourists. However, research regarding traditional food consumption behaviour has not always addressed consumer choice behaviour of traditional food consumption in relation to destination. This study uses the Theory of Planned Behaviour as the basis for the study of how personality traits (food neophobia and sensation-seeking) affect traditional food consumption behaviour. Findings indicated that the theory provided feasible explanations for traditional food consumption behaviour of tourists. This study also found food neophobia has an important moderating effect on the relationship between attitude-purchase intention and subjective norm-purchase intention. However, sensation-seeking was neither a predictor nor a moderator of the intention to consume traditional foods.

Destination food has been increasingly appealing to tourists within adjacent markets. This trend has been widely recognised by destination marketers; however, scholars have paid limited attention to tourists’ psychological and behavioural responses to destination food. Taking Shunde as the research site, using a questionnaire-based survey method equipped with the techniques of measurement modelling, path analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis, this study explores how tourists’ food involvement affects their place attachment and destination loyalty, as well as the differentiation of tourists with different lifestyles. The results show that food involvement significantly affects place attachment and destination loyalty. These relationships are differentiated by tourists’ lifestyles. This study contributes to the psychological research of tourist behaviours and provides insights into destination marketing in the context of food tourism.

Purpose: This study explores the brand management and marketing of Creative Cities of Gastronomy. A framework based on brand experience was constructed to investigate its relationship with tourists' brand attachment and brand identification. Two factors that enable tourists to have a stronger brand experience from the self-concept perspective – self-congruity and self-expansion – were also examined.Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a quantitative research design and collected data from participants who had visited Creative Cities of Gastronomy. A total of 515 valid questionnaires were collected online and offline. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis and hypothesis testing.Findings: The results showed that brand experience positively affects brand identification and attachment. The brand experience of tourists who considered themselves to be “foodies” was enhanced in the Creative Cities of Gastronomy through self-congruity. The results also confirmed that the relationship between self-congruity and brand experience is mediated by self-expansion.Originality/value: Studies on the Creative Cities of Gastronomy are limited. The few that have explored these cities are dominated by qualitative approaches. This study applied empirical data to examine the brand experience in Creative Cities of Gastronomy. The authors successfully verified that brand experience is effective for building positive relationships with brand attachment and identification. The study also confirmed that self-congruity and self-expansion are important antecedents of brand experience in Creative Cities of Gastronomy. This study enriches the literature by providing empirical evidence and insights into the marketing and branding of these cities.