International visitor dining experiences: A conceptual framework

Visitors are increasingly travelling to destinations in search of culinary experiences. As a consequence, many Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) have sought to stimulate visitation by capitalising on the appeal of dining opportunities involving local food. However, such initiatives will only be effective if tourism providers have a thorough understanding of how visitors respond to the dining experiences that are offered. This paper proposes a conceptual framework of international visitor dining experiences with local food, by examining the experiences in the course of the pre-, during, and post-dining phases. With the visitor experience as its core, the framework takes into account the influence of both internal and external factors on the visitor experience. It is intended that the proposed framework will provide a more complete understanding of the visitor dining experience in destination settings. (C) 2013 The Authors.