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Being the basic need of humans, but also an attractive element of the tourist offer, gastronomy is related to the attractiveness of a destination, and Balkan gastronomy is considered to be one of the most positive aspects of the tourist image of the region. This study aims to investigate the locals' perception of gastronomic specificity of ‘Balkan food’ and national (local) food as well. Furthermore, the study investigated how ‘Balkan food’ is perceived in terms of its tourist potential, uniqueness, quality, nutrition and its general role in the creation of a joint ‘Balkan’ tourist brand. The methodology included a historical approach and a survey which involved110 respondents. Out of 21 traditional dishes identified in the official tourist promotional activities of selected countries and a review of the relevant literature, the following are identified as regional ‘Balkan’ dishes: ‘pečenje’, ‘musaka’, ‘ćevapi’ and ‘sarma’. The following are identified as national dishes: ‘pastrmajlija’, ‘sogan dolma’, ‘raštan’, ‘pašticada’, ‘burek’ and ‘svadbarski kupus’. The results indicated that some nations have specific knowledge of certain dishes being considered national and regionally present, while other nations show a lack of knowledge of food origin and regional presence in identified countries. Furthermore, the results showed that different dimensions of Balkan cuisine significantly contribute to the tourist potential of the region, while the contribution of its nutritive characteristics is perceived as less important. Results showed that ‘Balkan food’ is considered to be important for the improvement of the ‘Balkans'’ image and promotion, as well as important for the creation of the regional tourism brand.

The purpose of this paper is to account for the remarkable proliferation of Mexican restaurants and tequila bars in contemporary urban Australia, in the absence of any geographical contiguity, historical connection or cultural proximity between Australia and Mexico.

The paper traces how the particularities of direct cultural contact, interpersonal networks and grass-roots entrepreneurism can open up new markets, and how the ground is, thus, prepared for subsequent large-scale international corporate entry to those markets. This research is based on interviews with key figures in the development of the Mexican food industry in Australia, interpreted in terms of the extant literature on cultural globalisation. The first-hand accounts of these participants have been interpreted in the light of available secondary sources and relevant theory.

The most striking theme to emerge in the study is the relative absence of Mexicans, or even Mexico-experienced Australians, in the making of a market for Mexican food in Australia. Rather, initially, Americans were prominent, as entrepreneurs and in forming a consumer market, while in later decades, entrepreneurs and consumers alike have been Australians whose experience of Mexican food has been formed in the United States, not Mexico. The role of hipster subculture and travel is seen as instrumental. Also of interest is the manner in which the personal experiences and interrelationships of the Americans and Australians have shaped the development of the Mexican food industry. This is not to ignore the much more recent participation of a new wave of immigrants from Mexico.

While the scope of the study is national, the sharper focus is on the experience of Melbourne; it would be useful for future researchers to investigate other major cities, even if Melbourne has been the most pivotal of Australian cities in the history of Mexican food in Australia. The study has conceptual and theoretical implications for debates around cultural globalisation and “Americanisation”.

The paper provides a close-grained and suitably theorised account of how a particular consumer trend has become extended on a global basis, with particular attention to both individual experience and agency, and corporate activity.

The purpose of this case study is to explore and study the determinants (demographics and psychographics) impacting consumers food choice towards fast food in India.

Food choice variables have been explored using literature reviews and exploratory survey of young consumers in the age group of 20‐40. Data obtained from the reliable sources (e.g. the World Health Organisation, Euromonitor International and Datamonitor International) have been used to study the implications of consumer food choice and growing trend towards organic food.

Based on literature reviews and exploratory surveys, the key determinants impacting consumers food choice are passion for eating out, socialize, ambience and taste for school and college goers and convenience for dual‐income families in urban India. Findings indicate that fast food companies can no longer rely on convenience as USP in India, unless the implications of same on consumers health is given equal importance in the years to come.

Data obtained from the convenience sample and literature reviews have been generalized for inferring consumption patterns of Indian consumers (population).

This case study focuses on growing trends towards organic food and green consumerism in view of rising global obesity with fast food consumption in Western countries and significantly very less in India despite obesity being an epidemic in India.

This paper focuses on determining a food choice model in wake of changing food and eating habits in India, using literature reviews, exploratory surveys and reliable data sources.

This study aims to identify the impact of affective components on behavioral intentions applying electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and is based on the “cognitive–affective–conative” model. EWOM allows researchers to get new insights about consumers’ behavior and explores new patterns of consumers’ decision-making processes.

This study is based on the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), doubled with “cognitive–affective–conative” model (Oliver, 2014). This study applies structural topic modeling to examine the impact of satisfaction dimensions from all the Tripadvisor reviews on consumer behavioral intentions. The research sample covers all restaurants located in St. Petersburg (n = 10,424) and all consumers’ reviews (n = 286,642).

In this study, the dimensions of the affective component were identified. The results demonstrate that dimensions of the affective component (food quality, service quality, atmosphere and cost fairness) affect behavioral intention (willingness to share positive emotions). In total, 20 topics, forming these dimensions, have been indicated. Consumers tend to pay more attention toward food quality and restaurant staffs’ work when they are willing to share positive emotions and tend to point out auxiliary service when they have less willingness to share positive emotions. Random restaurant visits tend to increase the willingness to share positive emotions.

Research originality lies in a new methodological approach which is based on text mining techniques. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to examine consumer behavior through the lens of the “cognitive–affective–conative” model based on eWOM and covers all businesses in the specific economic sphere. This has allowed the researchers to reveal new dimensions of consumer behavior and brought more insights into the consumers’ decision-making process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying dimensions of local cuisine image by identifying the key cuisine attributes tourists rely on in their evaluations of local cuisine; and to identify those dimensions of local cuisine image which have the strongest influence of tourist satisfaction with food experience. These issues are addressed within the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an emergent tourism market in Western Balkans.

The research is exploratory. The city of Sarajevo was chosen as a study setting. Image of local cuisine was measured by using a multi-attribute approach in which several food attributes are specified and incorporated into the measurement instrument. Data from convenience sample of foreign tourists (n=402) were quantitatively analyzed using multivariate and descriptive statistics.

Results suggest that the local cuisine image compromises four components (dimensions): “food uniqueness and cultural heritage”, “food quality and price”, “nutrition and health benefits of food” and “affective image of food”. Furthermore, findings show that these dimensions differ in terms of their relative importance in explaining the overall tourist satisfaction with food experience.

The main limitation of this study is related to the geographical area (tourist site) where the research process was carried out. Thus, future research with greater geographical scope is required.

This study provides valuable insight to practitioners who are seeking to integrate local food (cuisine) into the tourism product.

This paper is the one of the first study that tries to identify perceived image of local cuisine held by visitors in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate aspects of the relationship between food and culture with particular emphasis on globalisation and its consequences, the ways in which food can represent people and places, and interest if food heritage. Issues are discussed within the context of Singapore.

A case study methodology is employed using published information from assorted sources, both online and in conventional print form, supplemented by personal observation.

A country's food culture is found to be influenced by globalising forces, yet these do not always overwhelm local distinctions and the international and domestic can co-exist and coalesce. Food is also shown to be a critical dimension of ethnic and national identity and to have a heritage worthy of protection. In addition, it is a tourist attraction which affords insights into destination culture. Defining a national cuisine, however, is complicated in multiracial societies and origins and ownership of so-called national dishes may be disputed.

Enhanced knowledge about the wider role of food in established and emerging Asian economies and societies can improve understanding of its significance for residents and tourists, helping in formulating strategies to meet needs.

New insights are offered into the meanings of food in relatively young countries of mixed races and how cuisines evolve and interact.

Investigates the various major sociolinguistic subcultures of China with specific attention to their distinctive food preferences, coupled with a tradition of food symbols which interweave Chinese subcultures. Points out that, contrary to popular belief among foreign business people, there is no “China market”; rather, there are many diverse markets within China. Notes that there are many languages and, hence, cultures in the country, and the people do not all eat the same foods; yet, at the same time, there is a rich unity of symbolic tradition associated with the foods the Chinese eat ‐ indeed there is an elaborate food linguistic the semantics of which need to be understood by outsiders. Presents an introduction and overview of the diversity and unity of China as it relates to food, and its findings should be of value to those working in various aspects of the food and agriculture industries who may have an interest in China markets, those interested in either importing or exporting Chinese food products, exporting food processing equipment or farming and agricultural technology, and those in the food business serving Chinese populations of significant size around the world.

This paper aims to display the role of hotel restaurants in gastronomic place branding. The authors view hotel restaurants as having a great potential in the promotion of local gastronomy.

The research was done in several stages. First, the authors selected six destinations (Lapland, Catalonia, Saint Petersburg, Marseille, Parma and Munich) according to the classification of gastronomic brands based on the settlement type. Second, the authors studied conceptions of hotel restaurants located in these destinations to see how they reflect local gastronomic brands. For this purpose, restaurant menus, verbal descriptions of interiors and names of establishments were analyzed using elements of content analysis. Finally, the authors conducted several interviews with hotel managers in one of the destinations to distinguish the challenges of gastronomic branding within hotel restaurants.

The results allowed defining the role of hotel restaurants in gastronomic branding depending on the following factors: hotel’s affiliation with a chain, hotel’s star rating and destination type.

The authors argue that gastronomic branding raises attractiveness of hotels, its restaurants and destination on the whole. This research was presented to the Tourism Committee of St Petersburg, resulting in increased attention to gastronomic branding among the city authorities.

The role of hotel restaurants in gastronomic branding has not been studied previously. However, hotel restaurants differ from other actors of gastronomic branding due to the necessity to comply with hotel’s conception, brand and standards.

The aim is to describe the cultural richness of Peruvian racial diversity. The articulating and unifying role of Peruvian gastronomy is highlighted in building a national identity, which acts as a platform for social cohesion.

Qualitative analysis is used in order to understand the drivers that enabled a cultural revolution through gastronomy.

Under a vast cultural diversity, gastronomy arises to articulate and unify it into a common sense of national identity and social inclusion. Although Peruvian gastronomic boom started as an initiative of a group of entrepreneurs, it actually has had an impact at society level.

Ethnographic studies among different social classes and racial groups are needed in order to elucidate the perceptions that they have regarding their social inclusion. At a quantitative level, econometric studies could be conducted to reflect the impact of gastronomy on poverty reduction or on inequality reduction, especially in urban-marginal or rural areas.

Gastronomy is also a business strategy model on the basis of the creation of a cluster as a viable alternative for developing countries.

Peruvians no matter their racial heritage or social class are proud of their cousin and of being Peruvians, creating a sense of national union and social inclusion.

The contribution is to highlight the importance of gastronomy as one of the main articulators in the construction of national identity under a racially diverse population. Society, public policy officers, and businesses may benefit from this.

Food experience is gaining importance in the increase of sustainable competitiveness of tourism businesses, hence the importance of food consumption measurement in the context of recent gastronomic trends. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is not any appropriate scale to measure food consumption in the context of recent gastronomic trends. This study aims to fill this gap by developing and validating a scale that tends to measure tourists’ food preferences.

This is an explorative study with its unique construction and methodological approach. More specifically, scale development procedures were followed through reviewing the literature and gathering the opinions of 20 experts, and then the primary data were collected through the survey applied to 248 foreign visitors to Turkey. Finally, the subsequent survey was applied to 628 foreign visitors to Turkey for the sake of validity.

This study reveals a scale and validates it. The scale development and validation processes resulted in a three-factor model with 14 items to assess food consumption tendencies: modernist cuisine tendencies, fusion cuisine tendencies and local cuisine tendencies.

This study contributes to the relevant knowledge accumulation by developing and validating a scale measuring food consumption tendencies within the frame of recent gastronomic trends. The authors hope to broaden understanding and utilization of the tendencies and trends by both stakeholders in the tourism industry and academic circles.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first food consumption scale development and validation attempts within the frame of recent gastronomic trends. Considering this, it is hoped that the outcomes are unique and lead academia and practitioners in further research.