Tourists' involvement and memorable food-based experiences as new determinants of behavioural intentions towards typical products

Tourism organizations face the challenge of employing fresh strategies in order to meet the new quest for emotional and experiential products. The present work considers the concept of Involvement and Memorability as new drivers for positive outcomes for both the tourism and food industry and proposes a new approach to loyalty. The partial least squares technique has been employed for data analysis. Data have been achieved by a survey addressed to tourists who had a culinary experience - cooking class, food tour, tastings, etc. - during a recent travel. Findings of this research show that involvement and memorable food-based experiences can help the long-lasting loyalty of food tourists towards both local products and the destination. Results show that culinary experiences can involve tourists, provide positive memories and patronize new clients, fostering their intention to keep buying, from their place of residence, the local products tasted during a holiday and to revisit the destination in the future.