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This chapter explores the gourmet tourist as a food tourist profile that seeks a fine dining experience in the context of ‘experiential luxury’. The growing role of luxury experiences in gastronomic tourism has positioned luxury restaurants as culinary ambassadors that influence food tourist behaviour. Based on the case of four Michelin-starred restaurants in Copenhagen (Denmark), results show that the gourmet tourist food experiences as seen by the restaurateurs are driven by three factors. Firstly, the source of the product and the stories behind the product. Secondly, the gourmet experience as a learning process. Thirdly, the memories embedded in the fine dining experience which rely both on people (the staff) and practices (the singularity).

This study aimed to improve understanding of the phenomenon of food well-being (FWB) (conceptualization, measurement, antecedents and outcomes) so as to lead future empirical work on measurement, development and theory testing. The hope is to improve the societal benefits of FWB and sustainable food system transformation.

A domain-based systematic review of FWB was conducted using databases (Web of Science, ABI/INFORM, EBSCO and Scopus). The well-established theory, context, characteristics and methodology framework were used to structure the review.

This study synthesized conceptual definitions and measurements of consumer FWB from hedonic, eudemonistic and mixed research streams and a nomological network that distinguishes this construct from its antecedents and outcomes.

This study provides recommendations for consumers, food designers, retailers and policymakers to improve FWB.

This study assessed the conceptualizations of FWB from hedonic, eudemonistic and mixed perspectives for conceptual clarity. It summarized ten measurement tools for FWB-allied concepts (Well-being Related to Food Questionnaires, Satisfaction with Food-Related Life Scale and World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index), which revealed the need for novel measurement. This study developed a holistic nomological network of FWB by identifying the categories of antecedents (food-related, consumer-related and contextual factors) and outcomes (general well-being, life satisfaction and food consumption). This study provides a research agenda for FWB measurement and theoretical development.

This paper aims to examine the image realism effect, studying how changing the front-of-package visual affects the acceptance of an insect-based food by consumers. By comparing reactions to realistic and less realistic images of an insect as an ingredient, this research investigated how visual imagery can affect consumers’ responses, reducing perceived disgust or increasing expected taste.

Three experiments studied the impact of realistic (photo) versus less realistic (drawing) images for two types of insects (mealworm, cricket) on consumers’ psychological distance from the image, perceived disgust, expected taste, willingness to eat, purchase intention and food choice.

Study 1 demonstrates that using a less realistic insect image reduces perceived disgust, with psychological distance from this image and perceived disgust mediating realism effect on willingness to eat. Study 2 shows that a less realistic insect image, perceived as more remote, improves expected taste and willingness to eat. Study 3 confirms the results by measuring behavior: consumers were more likely to choose the product with the less realistic image.

The research focused on one kind of product and two ways of depicting this product, limiting the generalizability of the findings for other visual representations and product categories.

The findings suggest how brand managers can use the image realism effect on the packaging of novel, sustainable products to influence consumers, reducing their disgust and increasing their expected taste.

This research breaks new ground by explaining how visual cues on packaging affect the acceptance of insect-eating, drawing on construal level theory.

Agriculture emerges as a prerequisite for food tourism, and landscapes and lifestyles portray the traditions of rural people, places, and practices. This chapter explores the rural food tourist as a type of tourist who appreciates and values the authenticity and identity of food and beverage products based on their origin. The chapter analyses the relation between online marketing and the cheese tourist. Social media is increasingly regarded as a source of tourism information, and its use as a communication and marketing tool is crucial both at business and destination levels. In this sense, the digital presence of rural assets such as food is a significant way to promote destination identity to tourists. This chapter reviews the digital presence of 28 Spanish cheeses with Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PDI) labels. The chapter explores digital content as a source of information and knowledge for the rural food tourist.

The recruitment and promotion of teaching academics in the UK is constrained by a complex array of career progression barriers. These barriers have led to an increasing trend of horizontal career (lack of) progression. The purpose of this paper is to reveal and discuss linearity and horizontality constrictions, challenges and issues impacting on potential careers in tourism academia.

This study uses a leading UK national academic recruitment website to gather data and insights from across 137 posted jobs related to tourism between 2020 and 2022.

The main findings of this work note the constrictions of the UK academic job market and the consequences it poses for academics within tourism and beyond. It is proposed that future research to further understand the realities faced by academics is needed to prompt action for change to create more enriching career development.

The contribution of this study centres around sense making a phenomenon that exists but is not often talked about within academia (whether in tourism or beyond). For academics and managers, this paper presents an opportunity to reflect more holistically on careers with a view to instigating valuable change moving forward (for oneself or others). There is also a dearth of studies relating to career progression of tourism higher education educators.

This paper aims to examine the structure and content of religious tourism destination image through the reviews of visitors to Makkah and Medina, two of the world’s most popular Muslim pilgrimage sites.

This is an exploratory netnographic study of the 913 reviews posted on TripAdvisor from 2018 to 2022. The structure (dimensions and attributes) and content (variables) comprising the construct of religious tourism destination image emerge through manual thematic analysis and confirmed through content analysis.

Religious tourism destination image is a three-dimensional – cognitive, affective and conative – construct comprising both religion-specific, generally sacred and secular variables in a single, indivisible crystallization of experience.

Destination marketing organizations and marketers of tourism enterprises should regularly analyze visitor reviews posted on social media and carefully manage all variables of the religious tourism destination image, specifically stressing the religious aspect.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic analysis of the structure and content of religious tourism destination image based on detailed consumer evaluations and unprompted storytelling.

This study addresses a gap in the literature by examining the marketing strategies adopted by wineries in the context of wine tourism. This study aims to identify marketing strategic orientations and highlight their significance in the context of wine tourism.

The research uses a comparative case study approach, focusing on two wine regions, Roussillon (France) and Empordà (Spain). It involves the analysis of 99 active winery websites to identify marketing orientations. Descriptive statistics, cluster analysis and ANOVA tests were used to achieve this.

The study reveals four distinct wine tourism strategic orientations adopted by wineries in these regions. It emphasizes the importance of external ties, varying levels of competitiveness, website performance and geographical differences as key findings. The results show that wineries with a clear diversification strategy benefit from a higher level of competitiveness.

This research contributes to the academic literature by identifying different marketing strategies within wine tourism, highlighting their importance and providing a comprehensive analysis of key areas, thus adding original insights to the existing body of literature.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are increasingly recognized among technologies potentially driving the digital innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Nevertheless, the implications of AR/VR adoption in innovation processes have yet to receive much attention to date, with the need to explore the issues facilitating a systematic implementation in the SME context. This study aims to investigate the possible innovation paths of SMEs as a result of AR/VR adoption.

The authors performed a multiple case study research involving six Italian SMEs in manufacturing and service sectors that are investing in AR and/or VR solutions and are digitally innovating thanks to these technologies.

AR/VR solutions lead to different types of innovation in SMEs, i.e. for innovating product or service offerings, business processes or even the business model, when AR/VR extends to the company business logic. SMEs demonstrate being able to leverage internal sources with the essential commitment of top management and low resistance of employees in all kinds of AR/VR-enabled innovations. Conversely, they involve different external innovation sources according to the type of innovation pursued. Organizational issues emerged as more relevant than technological issues.

Results contribute to the literature on digital transformation of SMEs and provide managerial guidance on innovation sources and organizational issues to be considered to effectively deploy AR/VR solutions into specific innovation paths.

This study explores the impact of emergent technologies in the innovation process along with multiple perspectives, degree of complexity, and strategic importance in the SME context.

This study explores luxury wine hospitality by considering (1) physical activities and (2) activities created by integrating the physical domain with digital technology. In doing so, it aims to identify the different types of wine tourism-related luxury experiences and build a framework for interpreting hybrid luxury experiences in wine hospitality in the digital era.

An explorative mixed-methods approach was adopted to investigate types of luxury wine hospitality using cluster analysis and in-depth interviews with producers of wines with controlled and guaranteed designation of origin in Italy’s Sangiovese area.

This study presents a framework for understanding hybrid digital and physical experiences in wine hospitality by examining the core components of luxury experiences. We identify six types of luxury experiences in wine hospitality that combine a physical experiential component with varying degrees of integration with digital technologies.

Our findings (1) provide wine businesses operating in hospitality within the luxury segment with a useful tool for optimising the integration of digital technology into physical experiences to add value to visitors’ activities and (2) highlight the importance of digital skills for wineries that organise luxury experiences.

This study systematises the integration of digital technologies into physical activities related to wine hospitality. It presents a hybrid physical–digital analytical framework that adopts an experiential outline of the strategic design of wine hospitality businesses.

This study aims to measure and compare consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of several US and global wine tourism destinations from an American market point of view.

An online randomized experimental design was used to assign respondents to different wine tourism destination contexts and measure their perceptions and intentions. A structured survey was designed with CBBE scale items related to the most commonly studied components of CBBE, namely, familiarity, perceived quality, image, consumer value, brand value and brand loyalty.

The study revealed that respondents were unfamiliar with multi-regional and global wine-growing destinations and their wines, implying that wine tourists belong to different market segments that seek different experiences. Among the US wine tourism destinations, Napa Valley is the destination with the strongest CBBE, with the highest overall ratings in all five CBBE components, on average. In terms of country-level wine tourism destinations, the US has the strongest CBBE, with the highest overall ratings in familiarity and brand loyalty.

Wine tourism destination CBBE is shown to include components that may not relate exclusively to wine and variations in perceptions concerning global wine-growing regions may be associated with consumer familiarity. Future studies may include respondents from different countries to determine the generalizability of the current findings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to assess consumer-based brand equity of wine tourism destinations in the US and globally from a US resident perspective.