Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Rmain
2 Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran
3 Prof
Abstract
Objective: This research was conducted with the general purpose of investigating the behavioral tendencies of rural tourists based on the consumption value of local food.
Research Method: The statistical population of the research included all tourists in the rural areas of Shushtar. The main research tool was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability.
Research Innovation: Shushtar County is one of the historical regions of Khuzestan province, which has been registered in UNESCO, and domestic and foreign tourists travel to this city every year. This city has many different local foods that have increased the desire of tourists to these areas. But so far, this has not been done in an official research. Therefore, this research tries to investigate the factors affecting tourists' willingness to use local food.
Findings: The results showed that the multiple consumption values of local food (value of taste/quality, health, price, emotional, social, interactive and cognitive) have a positive and significant effect on the attitude of tourists towards local food and the image of the tourist destination. In addition, the results showed that the attitude of tourists towards local food has an effect on the occurrence of positive behavioral responses from them in the future (intention to recommend local food to others and intention to visit again for food tourism). In general, the results of this research showed that the value-consumption theory is an efficient theory in this field because all its assumptions were significant in the present research and explained a large part of the variance of tourists' behavioral responses. Therefore, this research can help rural development planners to use the potential of local food tourism in rural areas, which are prone to economic prosperity.
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