Affective components of gastronomy tourism: measurement scale development and validation

Purpose Our knowledge of what emotions are elicited explicitly from food consumption and gastronomy experiences in the travel destination and how these emotions establish a relationship with tourists' behavior is limited. Thus, this study aims to enrich the current knowledge in the gastronomy tourism field from the affective experience perspective and develop a scale to measure tourists' affective gastronomy experiences (TAGES). Design/methodology/approach Both qualitative scale development and quantitative scale validation were conducted to ensure the psychometric properties of TAGES. Findings With the focus group's contributions and experts' validation, 12 gastronomy experience affects were identified in the first stage. In the second stage, a quantitative data collection involving 650 samples helped refine the scale. Finally, a reliable and valid scale with five items measuring TAGES was successfully developed. Originality/value This study provides a novel perspective by viewing tourists' gastronomy experiences through an affective lens. Moreover, this study successfully provides evidence for the psychometric properties of the newly developed TAGES by systematically applying item response theory (IRT) and classical test theory (CTT). This study enriches the gastronomy tourism domain by developing the TAGES and presenting a rigorous and exhaustive investigation of its psychometric properties based on an integration of IRT and CTT. A valid and reliable scale that measures the TAGES fills the gastronomy literature gap and proposes an effective tool for future gastronomy experience studies.