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Introduction
Food is a crucial tourism component (Levitt et al., 2019). The World Tourism Organization (2012) reports that gastronomic tourism can generate 30% of revenue for a tourism destination. Food is important to Chinese tourists (Schwankert, 2017). A study shows that Chinese tourists in Australia spend about 20% of their trip budget on food and beverages in Australia (Wang and Davidson, 2010). Foods provide an experiential way for tourists to know a destination and is a major attraction to many tourists (Tsai and Wang, 2017). To be an attractive gastronomic destination, food quality and authenticity, choice of food and food image are crucial. However, equally important is the service quality in dining venues (Everett, 2016). Food providers and restaurant owners need to understand their customers’ food-related characteristics such as their dining preferences (or the selection of one food item over the other) and behavior (or specific acts or behaviors) to design service and product that can cater to their customer needs (Levitt et al., 2019).
One way to understand the customers is to realize the cultural differences in food. Culture is found as a major factor determining what people eat and the preferred way to cook (Mäkelä, 2000). There are reports showing that American tourists generally prefer ordering local food (Pizam and Sussmann, 1995) and Chinese tourists prefer ordering Chinese food (Chang et al., 2010). However, more recent hospitality and tourism literature has turned to the intracultural differences within the same culture. It posits that variations in the behaviors and preferences exist among different subgroups within the same culture group due to the differences in socioeconomic and political backgrounds (Lam and Ryan, 2020; Wan et al., 2013). For instance, Chang et al. (2010) found that mainland Chinese and Taiwanese tourists like to ask the dish recommendation from restaurant service providers than other tourist segments because in an unfamiliar environment they want to avoid uncertainty (Chang et al., 2010).
Macao as a regional focus
This study seeks to understand if there are any sub-cultural differences in food behaviors and preferences among Hong Kong and Taiwan visitors to Macao. Macao is a Special Administrative Region of China and is famous globally for its casino gaming and entertainment activities (Io and Wan, 2018)....