Evaluation of tourist behavior towards traditional food consumption: validation of extended Theory of Planned Behaviour

Abstract

The investigation aims to explore the food choice behavior of tourists concerning traditional Kashmiri food. The Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (ETPB) has been applied that explains human behavior from the perspective of the attitude-behavior-experience relationship. An instrument was developed based on previous literature and was tested for a pilot study to check its validity and reliability. A descriptive research design and a positivist approach were applied to the present investigation. A sample of 387 valid questionnaires was analyzed for the present study. The purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data from tourists consuming traditional Kashmiri traditional food. Collected data was analyzed through SPSS-20 and Smart-PLS 4.0 software. The investigation results revealed that the Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour provided feasible explanations for tourists’ traditional food consumption behavior. Except for the Esthetic Experience, all other variables (i.e. Attitude, Curiosity, Education, Perceived Behavioural Control, Perceived Usefulness, and Subjective norms) have a significant positive relation with Behavioural Intention, and Behavioural Intention has a significant positive association with Actual Behaviour. Given the lack of research examining tourist food consumption, this study provided evidence that one of the effective ways to understand tourists’ traditional food buying behavior is from the perspectives of both attitude-behavior relationships and experience.