Exploring consumers’ domestic gastronomy behaviour: a cross-national study of Italy and Fiji

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors affecting locals’ domestic gastronomic behaviour. A conceptual framework is developed that examines domestic restaurant coolness, social return and tourism ethnocentrism as antecedents to attitude towards domestic gastronomic tourism, while positive word-of-mouth and domestic gastronomy behaviour are modelled as consequences.

The study adopts a quantitative methodology to conduct a cross-national examination in Italy and Fiji. A total of 621 responses (Italy = 302 and Fiji = 319) were collected through an online survey and analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The results of this study show that the positive relationship between domestic restaurant coolness and tourism ethnocentrism on attitude is stronger for Italy. The positive relationship between social return and attitude is only significant for Fiji. Moreover, the positive relationship between attitude towards domestic gastronomic tourism and positive word-of-mouth is stronger for Fiji. Finally, the positive relationship between attitude towards domestic gastronomic tourism and domestic gastronomic tourism behaviour, while significant in both countries, depicted no significant differences in results.

The findings of this study highlight the need for building a cool image based on vibrant, iconic, rebellious and authentic attributes. Marketers need to focus on local restaurants’ effective use of social media platforms to increase the symbolic value of local restaurants. To remain competitive, there is a need for domestic restaurants to manage and understand tourism ethnocentrism to leverage success.

This study contributes to the scarce domestic tourism literature. It contributes to understanding destination coolness in the context of domestic restaurants and increases the generalisability of the destination coolness scale. The study also adds to understanding the symbolic value in domestic gastronomy by examining social returns from peers. It also contributes to the limited research on tourism ethnocentrism by being the first to investigate tourism ethnocentrism in domestic travel and gastronomy experience. Overall, the cross-national nature of the study demonstrates the difference between decision-making behaviour between two distinct countries.