Resumen de Hunger for learning or tasting?: An exploratory study of food tourist motivations visiting food museum restaurants

Eerang Park, Sangkyun Kim, Min Xu

• This study investigates an underexplored area of research: the motivations of food tourists to visit a food museum and its respective restaurants as an emerging food tourism attraction. Using qualitative in-depth interviews with domestic Chinese food tourists at the Hangzhou Cuisine Museum and its restaurants, the findings suggest that their motivations are revealed at the individual, social, and institutional level resulting from behaviour displayed during the actual visit. At the individual level, the most dominant motivation derives from seeking education and knowledge alongside sensorial and embodied experience and transformative escapism. The motivation at the social level highlights the significance of social togetherness and kinship, whereas motivations at the institutional level constitute food authenticity and media exposure.

  This study contributes to a more complete understanding of the dynamics and diversities of the food tourism and food tourist motivation literature.