Food souvenirs: buying behaviour of tourists in Norway

Food is an important element of a holiday. An in depth understanding of factors that influence tourists’ perception of food is central in increased tourist satisfaction and repurchase intentions. However, tourists may differ in innovativeness and thus in their willingness to buy unfamiliar food and food souvenirs. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the special context in which tourists choose food during holidays and the associated food-cultural distance involved in this context.

This study was based on data collected by using a questionnaire completed by 277 tourists on board a small Norwegian cruise ship sailing along the coast of Norway. The main focus in the questionnaire was on factors that influence tourists when considering buying food in general and food souvenirs in particular.

The main finding was that food souvenirs should be adapted to the needs of tourists with high and low innovativeness to fulfil the needs of the whole target tourist population. Even though highly innovative tourists were more willing to buy food souvenirs that are characteristic of the country visited, tourists with low innovativeness may have been more comfortable with the purchase of food that is less innovative, within a different food-culture. The main factors influencing tourists in choosing and buying food and food souvenirs on holiday are quality, taste, local origin and the perceived authenticity of the food.

This paper provides data that reveal similarities and most interestingly differences in food choice behaviour of consumers in the context of being tourists. It describes the relationship of choice with innovativeness, which may vary while being at home vs being a tourist and exposed to a distant food culture. It brings together perspectives on local food, authenticity, familiarity, innovativeness, budget management/price and their interaction during a real life situation that is rarely studied in the consumer research literature. This study adds a refreshing sample to the existing literature about food choice; tourists.