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eWOM is a very useful tool that is widely used nowadays to make a purchase decision. One of the sectors where this tool is very present is the gastronomic sector and Peru is no stranger to this gastronomic take-off. As a part of this take-off, Nikkei or Peruvian-Japanese cuisine have gained plenty of attention through digital social platforms, with a significant number of users relying on eWOM to determine which is their best purchase option; nevertheless, there is a lack of local investigations that addresses a correlation between eWOM and purchase intention in this type of restaurants. With the last statement, this study aims to determine the influence of eWOM on the purchase intention of consumers of Nikkei restaurants in Lima, Peru.

A quantitative descriptive and causal explanatory research was conducted, using the Information Acceptance Model (IACM) to test the purpose of the study. A total of 385 surveys were obtained and processed in SmartPLS.

The results show that consumers of Nikkei restaurants in Metropolitan Lima are mostly guided by the eWOM that is on social media to make a purchase decision. In addition, information usefulness is the eWOM dimension that most influences purchase intention. Finally, it was found that the credibility of the eWOM does not influence the information usefulness, which could be due to the distrust of the sources and the anonymity of the eWOM.

The present investigation identified that certain dimensions of the IACM does not influence their hypothesized counterparts, such as credibility and attitude towards information over information usefulness; circumstances that may conduct to other local studies based on the IACM applied to other type of restaurants to observe if there is some type of variation in the results obtained of both hypotheses.

From a practical point of view, the results obtained are valuable for social media marketers and generally digital marketing professionals, which by themselves provide a framework that assures a better understanding about the impact of eWOM in the purchase intention of Nikkei Restaurant consumers.

As the potential for this research to impact society in visible ways, it identifies how current individuals in a certain time and location, tend to act towards information obtained in social media or specialised forums; as well as how the characteristics of this information could affect their final purchase decision.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first articles to study the influence of eWOM on purchase intention in the gastronomic sector in Peru, a country famous for its gastronomy. In this way, experts and professionals in this field will be able to generate knowledge of this tool, as well as generate strategies to improve sales of Nikkei restaurants and in general within the gastronomy industry in Peru.

The purpose of this study is to analyse Peruvian cuisine in the context of visitors’ overall experience, focusing on the loyalty of tourists in terms of gastronomy, their satisfaction with the destination, and the overall image.

Data were obtained from tourists who visited Lima (Peru). Structural equation modeling was used to verify the hypothesized relationships.

The results obtained confirm that satisfaction and appreciation, such as quality, have a positive influence on tourists’ loyalty and, therefore, they recommend and express their desire to come back to this destination. The traditional gastronomy of Lima stands out as a prominent factor on overall experience.

This paper helps the managers of cities in their decisions to improve the satisfaction and seek loyalty of those who visit a city, emphasizes the role of gastronomy.

The results obtained in this research can be used for the establishment of new strategies for the promotion of the destination in terms of tourism and traditional food.

The gastronomy in Lima, (Peru) is recognized worldwide, as well as a stimulus for tourism because it increases the number of visits to the destination. Several studies carried out in these types of destinations have shown the existence of a relationship between gastronomy, overall experience, satisfaction and loyalty. However, there are no previous studies carried out in Lima that sustain this relationship. This work makes a contribution that completes the academic literature on the study of the emotional bonds between Peruvian gastronomy and the tourist who visits it and its behaviour.