Influence of Tv Cooking Shows on the Behavioral Intention of Participating in Gastronomic Tourism

The primary desire of an individual that is interested in or wants to participate in gastronomic tourism is to have knowledge on the foods and regional cuisines as well as to taste different foods and drinks. Such needs have been developed based on a variety of factors such as a passion to taste different products, and a curiosity for cuisines, restaurants and even skills of chefs. This pursuit of fans of gastronomy has inevitably brought tourism with it. Individuals that participate in gastronomic tourism obtain information about the cuisines of destinations, in other words, they are informed of what to expect. The source of information that they have is mostly the television shows of cuisine chefs, gastronomists and gourmets. In our day, most of the experts in gastronomy appear on the television screen. These experts describe on their program how to prepare and how to consume the foods and drinks. They may also describe the customs, traditions and specific products of regional cuisines. This research was performed on 391 tourists that participated in gastronomic tourism. The questionnaire form was developed by the convenience sampling method and was distributed online by the tour operators to persons that purchased a service. The SPSS 22.0 packet program was used for correlation and regression analyses that would measure the relationship between the features of television cooking shows and the behavioral intention of participating in gastronomic tourism. The results of this research show that there was a relationship between the features of television cooking shows and the behavioral intention of participating in gastronomic tourism.