A Conceptualization of Tourists’ Food Behavior from a Habit Perspective

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

the general opinion about your paper is that it might be named a review of literature

The scienific approach is non existant.

There is no research presented,

there is no sample examined/resrached

there is no scientific methodology

the results provide no scientific evidence.

In order to publish this article it can be only declared as review and in this case it shoul enlarge the constribution to scholarship, academic soundness and overall merit.

best regards,

the reviewer.

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for the helpful comments and the opportunity to revise and resubmit our manuscript. Accordingly, the authorship has conducted a thorough revision. We believe that all the comments are adequately addressed with the overall quality of the paper significantly improved. Our item-by-item responses to the reviewer’s comments are listed below. We have also highlighted the changes made in the manuscript for easy perusal.

 

 

Reviewer 1.

 

1. First of all, regarding your comment that “the general opinion about your paper is that it might be named a review of literature,” we would like to address that our research is a conceptual paper that is distinct from literature review-type papers. As Kirillova and Yang (IN PRESS) argued, conceptual paper tends to be misunderstood as a literature review-type paper but conceptual paper is distinct from such type of research in that “conceptual research focuses on logical analysis and understanding of concepts themselves, with background literature selected on the basis of its relevance to the argument (p.2).” That is, review of literature is only utilized as “grounds” in a conceptual paper and to support the propositions in this research.
2. In addressing your concern that the scientific approach is non existant, there is no scientific methodology and that the results provide no scientific evidence, we would like to explain as the following as to why our conceptual paper is indeed a scientific research.

As Xin, Tribe, & Chambers (2013) argued, conceptual research is a scientific research that is based on the subjectivist/interpretivist paradigm, in which it is believed that different meanings are constructed depending on who interprets the phenomenon rather than there being an objective truth that needs to be identified. They supported their argument that conceptual research is a scientific work by citing the work of Alexander (1982) who outlined that for science to develop, identifying theoretical logic that is present in the conceptual research is complementary to the empirical logic identified in the empirical research. As Dreher(2000) argued, “scientific progress depends on the expansion of empirical findings and on new or altered concepts (p.3)” which suggests that not only discovery of new findings are important but redefining existing concepts is important. Thus, it is acknowledged by existing studies that conceptual research can stand alone as a scientific research without the need for an empirical validation (Kirillova & Yang, IN PRESS).

However, we understand your concern regarding the need to present a clear methodology to present this article as a scientific research and thus have added a section on research design and methodology on page 2, lines 68-88.

Reviewer 2 Report

The article is well structured and focuses on some of the available theories. The literature review is updated and related with the main topic.

The methodology is adequately described.

I don't feel qualified to judge about the English language and style, but I think it is very well written.

I think the article is ready to be published.

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for the helpful comments and the opportunity to revise and resubmit our manuscript. Accordingly, the authorship has conducted a thorough revision. We believe that all the comments are adequately addressed with the overall quality of the paper significantly improved. We have also highlighted the changes made in the manuscript for easy perusal.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for the helpful comments and the opportunity to revise and resubmit our manuscript. Accordingly, the authorship has conducted a thorough revision. We believe that all the comments are adequately addressed with the overall quality of the paper significantly improved. Our item-by-item responses to the reviewer’s comments are listed below. We have also highlighted the changes made in the manuscript for easy perusal.

1. The purpose of the research need to be clearly and succinctly presented in the introduction.

We appreciate your comment. We have revised our purpose of the research to present it more clearly and succinctly in the introduction. This is in page 2, lines 62-63.

2. The theoretical background regarding tourists’ food preferences and behavioral consequences in the post-pandemic era could be further strengthened, combining with the changeable consumption concepts or preferences, such as the pursuit towards well-being direction, corporate social responsibility in hospitality and tourism sector…

Thank you very much for your insightful comment. However, as our paper is focused on examining habit (which is a personal factor) as the factor that impact tourist food behavior, considering the impact of changing social environments such as the covid-19 pandemic is beyond the scope of our paper. As our theoretical background section was intended to be utilized as “grounds” to support the proposition of the research regarding our research topic on tourists’ food behavior and habit and followed the traditional characteristics of a conceptual paper, we felt that the consistency and logic that flows from the literature review section to our main discussion section is pertinent as it is now.

3. How both external and internal elements influencing individuals’ food choices and habits (e.g., social environment, switching costs etc.) could be deeply discussed. Overall, the habit enacting factors need to be illustrated better in a more logical way.

We appreciate your valuable comment. We have attempted to illustrate habit enacting factors in a more logical way and in depth. We have made changes in page 9, line 454 to page 10, line 470 and page 10, lines 477-482.

4. The discussion part should be divided into theoretic and managerial implications, and needs to be majorly revised, on the basis of comparing with previous literatures and citing most recent related studies. The depth of discussion part is strongly suggested to be improved.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have divided the theoretical and managerial implications and have thoroughly revised our discussion section on how our research complements and differs from the existing literature. Theoretical implications are in page 12 line 571 to page 13, line 615. Practical implications can be found in page 13, line 616 to line 638.

Reviewer 4 Report

This paper is very well written and is a credit to the author. However, this research is based on other research to develop a conceptual model which does not take into consideration, many other habitual eating factors such as ethnic background, religion, seasonality, allergies, food trends, local dishes etc.

Many of the references are dated and the sustainability 2022 reference seems like you added it when you decided to submit to this journal. Although a conceptual model is put forward, there is no real originality as you have not tested the model.

There is no methods chapter to say where you found the articles, how you found the articles, why quote these ones and not others. You are quoting many articles from the 1970's, is this when the seminal work took place? More justifications of using older articles is required.

Eight propositions are put forward which is too many for one article.

The discussion outcomes are very predictable.

Although I am suggesting a major revision, I think you will find it difficult to update this paper. 

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for the helpful comments and the opportunity to revise and resubmit our manuscript. Accordingly, the authorship has conducted a thorough revision. We believe that all the comments are adequately addressed with the overall quality of the paper significantly improved. Our item-by-item responses to the reviewer’s comments are listed below. We have also highlighted the changes made in the manuscript for easy perusal.

1. This paper is very well written and is a credit to the author. However, this research is based on other research to develop a conceptual model which does not take into consideration, many other habitual eating factors such as ethnic background, religion, seasonality, allergies, food trends, local dishes etc.

We appreciate your comment. First of all, regarding your comment on considering additional habitual eating factors, we acknowledge that there could be additional factors as we mentioned in our limitations section. Also, as you have commented that eight propositions are too many for one article, we felt that considering too many factors would result in our paper in losing focus. Thus, we intended to pay attention to possible habitual factors from the existing habit literature. However, as we have outlined this in our limitations section, we will explore additional factors in our future studies.

2. Many of the references are dated and the sustainability 2022 reference seems like you added it when you decided to submit to this journal.

You are quoting many articles from the 1970's, is this when the seminal work took place? More justifications of using older articles is required.

Thank you very much for your comment. The works that we have cited from 1970’s are when the seminal works took place as you have mentioned and as theoretical framework of habit was employed in this research to understand tourists’ habitual food behavior, these papers that delves into the theoretical background of habit was cited in this research. Also, as we have mentioned as the gap in the existing literature, smattering number of research has been conducted up to date regarding habit in consumer research and therefore the references could seem to be dated. We believe that the pioneering attempt of our research to utilize the underrepresented yet important concept of habit could be beneficial and offers value theoretical implications as discussed in our discussion section.

3.Although a conceptual model is put forward, there is no real originality as you have not tested the model.

We appreciate your comment. Regarding your concern that there is no real originality as we have not tested the model, we would like to explain the nature of a conceptual paper.

As Xin, Tribe, & Chambers (2013) argued, conceptual research is scientific research that is based on the subjectivist/interpretivist paradigm, in which it is believed that different meanings are constructed depending on who interprets the phenomenon rather than there being an objective truth that needs to be identified. They supported their argument that conceptual research is a scientific work by citing the work of Alexander (1982) who outlined that for science to develop, identifying theoretical logic that is present in the conceptual research is complementary to the empirical logic identified in the empirical research. As Dreher (2000) argued, “scientific progress depends on the expansion of empirical findings and on new or altered concepts (Dreher, p.3)” which suggests that not only discovery of new findings are important but redefining existing concepts is important. Thus, it is acknowledged by existing studies that conceptual research can stand alone as a scientific research without the need for an empirical validation (Kirillova & Yang, IN PRESS).

4. There is no methods chapter to say where you found the articles, how you found the articles, why quote these ones and not others.

Thank you very much for your comment. In regards to your concern about missing a methods chapter, we have added a section on research design and methodology, which can be found in page 2, lines 68-88.

5. The discussion outcomes are very predictable.

We appreciate your valuable comment. We have thoroughly revised our discussion section in depth. We have complemented our discussion on conceptualization of the Tourists’ Food Choices and their Home Habits on page 9, line 454 to page 10, line 470 and page 10, lines 477-482. We have also strengthened our theoretical implications section in page 12 line 571 to page 13, line 615.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Introduction:

Describe push and pull motives for tourism.

What You describe in introduction are MOTIVES

Line 20-21

Vacation travel has been recognized as a context in which individuals seek to escape from their daily burdens and search for novelty.

Vacation travel is not a context to escape. You are writing about

PUSH and PULL MOTIVES

Escapism is a motive – see surveys of Getz et al.

Investigating the role of festival scape in culinary tourism:

The case of food and wine events of Michela C. Mason, Adriano Paggiaro

Consider also: ‘Pull’ motivation: an activity-based typology of international visitors

to New Zealand

Peter Fieger, Girish Prayag, Johan Bruwer

Then consider numerous other authors who considered the “Vacation travel as a context”

The push and pull framework has been used extensively for studying why tourists travel

(Caber & Albayrak, 2016; Chen & Chen, 2015; Li, Meng, Uysal, & Mihalik, 2013;

Prayag & Hosany, 2014; Wong, Musa, & Taha, 2017). Push factors are assumed to be

origin-related factors that are likely to motivate the desire to travel and are internal to the

individual (Jang & Cai, 2002; Wong et al., 2017). Pull factors are destination specific

factors that influence destination choice (Kim, Lee, & Klenosky, 2003; Klenosky, 2002;

Wong et al., 2017). These factors are external to the individual and affect when, where

and how people travel given the initial desire to travel (Jang & Cai, 2002). Push and pull

factors represent important aspects of travel demand and supply characteristics (Kim &

Lee, 2002), play a critical role in predicting future travel patterns (Jang & Cai, 2002)…

Line 25-26,

You refer to novelty.

NOVELTY IS A TRAVEL MOTIVE – A PUSH MOTIVE

“High novelty level experienced from one’s travel experience has been emphasized to be important as it contributes to enhancing travelers’ overall satisfaction level”

Find some literature, there are numerous authors who escribed novelty as motive for travel.

Further

Line 27-30

“In fact, food  consumption is one of the tourist activities that allows tourists to enjoy sense of novelty as they deviate from their daily routines. As a case in point, tourists who used to consume similar food on a daily basis at home could try exotic food that they would otherwise not eat at home”

From Your text food is a MOTIVE to visit a destination

There are hundreds of authors who refer to food as travel motive and You have referenced 0.

From food as a travel motive then you jump to totally other perspective of “various factors such as social interaction, cultural learning, and status”

With no link, no logical order in the text.

Then describe you sub group of tourists deviding by food behaviour

Use e.i. “several studies using the push–pull framework have conducted benefit segmentation

to identify sub-groups of visitors with similar motivation (from Fieger and bruwer). Find their studies and refer to them.

The following sentence is scientific falsification, Line 37-38

Just not TRUE: it is not NOVEL

There are hundreds of authors discussing Your point of :

“A novel perspective of examining tourist food experience that is overlooked in the existing literature is understanding tourists’ food behavior in accordance with their habit.

To mention just some of them :

Kempf, D. S. (1999). Attitude formation from product trial: Distinct roles

of cognition and affect for hedonic and functional products.Psychology and Marketing, 16(1), 35–50.

Lam, T., & Hsu, C. H. C. (2004). Theory of planned behavior: Potential travellers from China. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 28(4), 463–482.

 

Lam, T., & Hsu, C. H. C. (2006). Predicting behavioral intention of choosing a travel destination. Tourism Management, 27, 589–599.

 

Lockshin, L. S., & Spawton, T. (2001). Using involvement and brand equity to develop a wine tourism strategy. International Journal of Wine Marketing, 13(1), 72–81.

 

Mano, H., & Oliver, R. L. (1993). Assessing the dimensionality and structure of the consumption experience: Evaluation, feeling andsatisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 20, 266–281.

Mitchell, R. D., & Hall, C. M. (2004). The post-visit consumer behaviour of New Zealand winery visitors. Journal of Wine Research, 15(1), 37–47.

Mitchell, R. D., Hall, C. M., & McIntosh, A. J. (2000). Wine tourism and consumer behaviour. In C. M. Hall, E. Sharples, B. Cambourne, & N. Macionis (Eds.), Wine tourism around the world (pp. 115–135). Oxford:Butterworth-Heinemann.

 

Ogden, J. (2003). Some problems with social cognition models: A pragmatic and conceptual analysis. Health Psychology, 22, 424–428. Peters, G. L. (1997). American winescapes: The cultural landscapes of America’s wine country. USA: Westview Press.

 

Pike, S. (2002). Destination image analysis—a review of 142 papers from 1973 to 2000. Tourism Management, 23(5), 541–549.

 

Sparks, B. A., Roberts, L., Deery, M., Davies, J., & Brown, L.(2005). Good living tourism: Lifestyle aspects of food and wine tourism. Technical Report, CRC for Sustainable Tourism, Brisbane,Australia.

 

Williams, P. (2001). Positioning wine tourism destinations: An image analysis. International Journal of Wine Marketing, 13, 43–59.

Yoon, Y., & Uysal, M. (2005). An examination of the effects of motivation and satisfaction on destination loyalty: A structural model. Tourism Management, 26, 45–56.

 

Zaichkowsky, J.L. (1975). Measuring the involvement construct. Journal of Consumer Research, (12), 341–352.

Lines 61-63

The current research is motivated by this research gap. This research intended to develop a conceptual understanding of tourists’ food behavior by drawing from the theoretical perspective on habit.

 

Ther eis no gap in the theory, neither in practice: see several papers from Google Scholar, not to mention Research gate or other websites offereing numerous findings about toutists and food behaviour and habits

E.i.

Food preferences of Chinese tourists

RCY Chang, J Kivela, AHN Mak - Annals of tourism research, 2010 - Elsevier

… tourism dining attitudes, motivations and behaviors. Furthermore, this study elucidates the

influence of Chinese food culture on the participants’ tourism dining behaviors … their habits and …

[HTML] Habit drives sustainable tourist behaviour

S MacInnes, B Grün, S Dolnicar - Annals of Tourism Research, 2022 - Elsevier

… interventions the tourism industry deploys to make tourists behave in more … food losses

along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses” (such as reducing tourist food …

 

Towards a structural model of the tourist experience: An illustration from food experiences in tourism

S Quan, N Wang - Tourism management, 2004 - Elsevier

… , as the extension of ontological comfort of home, includes variety-seeking behavior, it is the

… of the extension of daily food habits and routines to tourism, food consumption includes two …

Spremi

 

Local food and changes in tourist eating habits in a sun-and-sea destination: A segmentation approach

JAC Santos, MC Santos, LN Pereira… - International Journal of …, 2020 - emerald.com

… studies of changes in tourist food consumption, with particular … of food tourists and the effects

that local food consumption can … that “food choice motives and behaviors during travel

 

[HTML] Why do domestic tourists choose to consume local food? The differential and non-monotonic moderating effects of subjective knowledge

 

H Zhang, L Li, Y Yang, J Zhang - Journal of Destination Marketing & …, 2018 - Elsevier

… tourists’ local food consumption habits while traveling. The present study builds on a hypothesized behavioral … Chinese domestic tourists’ local food consumption behaviors for a famous …

 

Beyond local food consumption: the impact of local food consumption experience on cultural competence, eudaimonia and behavioral intention

B Lin, S Wang, X Fu, X Yi - International Journal of Contemporary …, 2022 - emerald.com

… food is, therefore, a sensory way of making tourists culturally competent in learning, accepting

and appreciating local eating habits … that tourists’ behavioral decisions about local food are

 

Qualitative investigation of the impact of internationalization of education on host community's eating habit

KK Eluwole, TT Lasisi, SN Elidemir… - Journal of Public …, 2020 - Wiley Online Library

… tourism: mainly internationalization of education influences indigenes' food consumption

behaviors, … basis for initiating changes in habits and behavior. A quantitative approach may

 

Segmenting food festival visitors: Applying the theory of planned behavior and lifestyle

JS Horng, CS Su, SIA So - Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, 2013 - Taylor & Francis

… behavior in the tourism and hospitality industry, thus it was employed to examine behavioral

models of food … deeply rooted habits and spontaneous or habitual behaviors. Identifying a …

The religious beliefs as parameter of food choices at tourist destination The case of Mykonos

P Moira, D Sarchosis, D Mylonopoulos - 2017 - arrow.tudublin.ie

… the social behavior and the dietary habits of Muslims and … food choices of tourists and

availability/offer of food services on the island need further investigation and attention. The tourism …

 

Food tourist segmentation: Attitude, behavioral intentions and travel planning behavior based on food involvement and motivation

JA Levitt, P Zhang, RB DiPietro… - … of Hospitality & Tourism …, 2019 - Taylor & Francis

… , intentions, and travel planning behavior for potential food tourists. Using two-step cluster …

based on food involvement and motivation. These clusters had high, moderate, and low food …

Thai street food in the fast growing global food tourism industry: Preference and behaviors of food tourists

Y Jeaheng, H Han - Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 2020 - Elsevier

… foods are capturing the interest of tourists. This study was designed to identify the attributes of street foods and test them on tourist behavior by … habits and culture. Eating other countries' …

 

Culinary-gastronomic tourism–a search for local food experiences

P Björk, H Kauppinen-Räisänen - Nutrition & Food Science, 2014 - emerald.com

… To provide further insights into travelers’ food-related behavior and the importance of food …, of which original food, local food consumption and the local eating habits at destinations a

 

An ethnographic inquiry towards 'hare-rama hare-krishna'religious tourists food consumption habits while on a holiday in India M DEWAN - Journal of Gastronomy Hospitality and Travel, 2020 - dergipark.org.tr

… The devotees strive for a sin-free and clean consciousness in the way they behave as

well as the type of food that they eat. A sin free life is a life that the Lord has prescribed for all …

 

In Methodology,

Lines 81-82

In order to address the research objective, three processes were involved. First, studies on habit and food behavior were reviewed from the existing literature as outlined in the third section of this paper.

Research objectives references should be mentioned in introduction not in the 3^rd section

It might be separeated as a sub section in introduction referring not only 4 but at least15 from the 40 just I have metioned in this document. From authors who have created some papers on “studies on habit and food behavior”.

You are discussing the behaviour, and nor in introduction nor in section 3 you refer 1 sentence about the Theory of planned behaviour what Your paper is all about - Behavioral Beliefs and Attitudes toward Behaviors.

You are trying to set a theoretical frame (see Your Picture) for analysis for determined intentions and actions.

Therefore You should mention the Theory of planned behaviour.

Lines 69-71

You have stated in the text ”Conceptual research belongs to the subjectivist approach among the major research paradigms, in which it is believed that different meanings are constructed depending on who interprets the phenomenon rather than there being an objective truth that needs to be identified [71].”

You refer to personal opinions and other scientists DO exist for qualitative research,

e.i.

Intrinsic emotion and cognition to describe the push and pull dichotomy were used by (Becken & Gnoth, 2004).

   both external and internal elements influencing individuals’ food choices and habits (e.g., social environment, switching costs etc.) could be deeply discussed. Overall, the habit enacting factors need to be illustrated better in a more logical way.

You are writing about INVOLEVEMENT

However, the general view of involvement has been one of “personal relevance” (Zaichkowsky 1985). That is, consumers’ level of involvement with an object, situation, or actions is determined by the degree (GURSOY AND GAVCAR) to which they perceive that concept to be personally relevant. This is represented by the perceived linkage between their needs, goals, and values, and their product knowledge. To the extent that product Characteristics are associated with personal goals and values, consumers will experience strong feelings of personal relevance or involvement with the product (Celsi and Olson 1988)

THERE ARE SEVERAL STUDIES SHOWING OPPOSITE TO YOUR HYPOTHESIS THAT THERE OS NO OTHER WAS IN SHOWING A CONCEPT OF TZOURISM BEHAVIOUR:

The methodology refers to factor analysis, multidimensional structures and show several (5) dimensions of INVOLVEMENT

 

“The PII construct has been supported in its unidimensional structure by many,but evidence has also been provided for a two factor structure (Broderic and Mueller 1999; Mittal 1989). Several researchers utilized PII in tourism and leisure studies and concluded that it is a useful

tool in examining tourists’ vacation behavior and their participation in leisure activities (Backman and Crompton 1989, 1991; Havitz and Crompton 1990).

However, CIP has received much more attention due to its multidimensional structure (Broderic and Mueller 1999; Havitz, Dimancheand Howard 1993). Laurent and Kapferer (1985) suggested five dimensions of involvement: the perceived importance of the product; the pleasure value of the product; the symbolic or sign value attributed by the consumer to the product, its purchase, or its consumption; the perceived importance of negative consequences in case of a poor choice; and the perceived importance of making such a choice. Several researchers have tested different involvement scales in recreation, leisure, and tourism contexts (Havitz and Dimanche 1990; Havitz et al 1993) and determined that involvement has a multidimensional structure as suggested by the original CIP scale.

3.3. Conceptualization of the Tourists’ Food Choices and their Home Habits

This section should be renamed.

Lines 449 onwards,

Food choices are a consequence of their life style.

e.i. A healthy life style leads to a choice of healthy food

Healthy habits at home lead to choice of healthy food in tourism destination

NOT vice versa

Here at least 10 other authors should be mentioned who created methodological frames for tourists food choices, habits and behaviour.

Ei.i

Shown before in this document or similar:

Value and life styles are an internal system of preference which shapes individuals’

consumption and activities (Özgül, 2010: 120). For Rokeach (1973), values are a person’s

guiding standards in life or significant life targets.

Encompassing far more than that, values are defined to be determining and

perpetual beliefs that guide human behaviors, and make some behaviors and goals more

preferable than the others (Odabaşı, 2002: 212; Solomon, 1996: 142; Hayer, Macilnnis;

1997: 408, Gutman, 1982; 60).

Lifestyle is a concept embracing distinct behavior patterns, which distinguish people from

each other (Uztuğ, 2003: 103). In other words, some behaviors such as eating, drinking and

intellectual abilities, and perceptional reactions of individuals are organized according to their

life styles (Gençtan, 2004: 136).

 

According to all changes in the introduction and methodology section, revise the whole discussion.

The abstract should be erased and written agian with solid description of methodology, your findings and addition to existing literature.

otherwise it cannot be replicated and cannot be a reffered to as a scientific article.

best regards,

the reviewer.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Although the paper quality has been improved, some of the current manuscript could be further well revised based on the previous comments and the discussion part need to be more detailed.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your valuable comments and the opportunity to revise and resubmit our manuscript. Accordingly, the authorship has conducted a thorough revision. We believe that all the comments are adequately addressed with the overall quality of the paper significantly improved. Our item-by-item responses to the reviewer’s comments are listed below. We have also highlighted the changes made in the manuscript for easy perusal.

We have thoroughly revised the discussion section in more detail (p.11 line 540 to p.13, line 624) and have highlighted sections where major changes have been made in yellow.

 

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear Authors,

I can see the substantial improvement in this paper. You have argued your points well and putting the shortcomings in limitations is much appreciated. I am now in support of this paper and I hope to see the flaws addressed in future papers.

 

Author Response

Thank you very much for your valuable comments and the opportunity to revise and resubmit our manuscript. We have conducted a thorough revision to improve the overall quality of the paper. 

Round 3

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear author,

the paper will be in the heands of the editor,

best regards

the reviewer