Exploring food experiences of tourists in New Zealand: The role of involvement : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University

Abstract

A review of the existing literature on food / drink experience reveals that it has largely focused on the consumption of food and has only explored such experiences without considering the important factors influencing the experiences. In addition, food experiences can be positive or negative. However, the negative side has been neglected in the literature. Moreover, there are several factors which must be considered in order to better understand the food / drink experiences of tourists. Taking three types of involvement (enduring, response and situated) into consideration, the objective of the current thesis is to develop a better examination of the food / drink experiences of tourists in New Zealand. The present thesis consists of two studies to achieve its objectives. The first study aims to find out the most memorable types of tourists’ food / drink experiences, the factors contributing to the memorability of those experiences, and the levels of tourists’ involvements in the experiences. Focusing on the most memorable type of food experience identified in the first study, the second study develops a measurement scale for situated involvement which is a new form of involvement. The relationships between different types of involvement and the memorability of experience are also investigated. In addition, the second study attempts to uncover how different involvements influence the food experience and what factors contribute to the involvements. For the first study, a quantitative method (Internet-based survey) is used to collect the data which is obtained in Christchurch City during 16 January and 19 March 2019. A total of 374 complete surveys is collected. In the second study, both quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative (structured interview) methods are employed and the data is gathered in Queenstown City between 13 December 2019 and 17 February 2020. A total of 317 complete surveys and 20 interviews is collected. Employing frequency analysis using SPSS Software, the most to least memorable types of food experiences are identified, among which restaurant ranks as the first followed by event & party and outdoor. Twenty-five factors contributing to the positive memorability of food experiences are identified, whereas the lack of seven of them lead to negative food experiences. Food quality is the most dominant factor contributing to the memorability, both positive and negative. Employing One Sample T-Test using SPSS Software, the findings reveal that tourists who report their positive food experiences have high levels of enduring and situated involvements, while response and situated involvements are low in the negative experiences. Employing exploratory factor analysis using SPSS Software and confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL Software, a reliable and valid two-faceted scale for situated involvement is established. The results of structural equation modeling show that situated involvement significantly influences the memorability of experience. Enduring and response involvements are found as the determinants of situated involvement, and enduring involvement predicts response involvement. Using manual coding of interview data, several factors are found to influence enduring, response, and situated involvements. In addition, it is discovered that these three types of involvements have different impacts on the food experience.