Gastronomy tourism destinations: developing a scale to measure tourists' perceived attributes

Purpose - This study emphasizes the growing significance of destination attributes in shaping the experiences and behaviours of gastronomy and culinary tourists. Understanding both core and complementary attributes of a gastronomy tourism destination is crucial for its sustainable development. However, there is a lack of a reliable measurement for tourists' perceived attributes of gastronomy tourism destinations (PAGTD). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a scale to measure tourists' PAGTD. Design/methodology/approach - The study systematically followed the scale development and validation process, using three samples (Sample 1, n = 200; Sample 2, n = 204; and Sample 3, n = 204) to establish the psychometric properties of the proposed PAGTD scale. Findings - The validated scale comprises five dimensions, namely, food culture, food sensations, food cooking, service environment, and food price & quality, encompassing a total of 22 measurement items. Originality/value - This research significantly contributes to the gastronomy tourism literature by elucidating the dimensionality of PAGTD and validating the PAGTD scale.