Culinary and Destination Experiences of International Tourists in Bandung and Solo: The Effect on Behavioral Intentions

Culinary tourism allows tourists to be exposed to new cultures by enjoying the local food as well as the local people hospitality. Previous studies have confirmed the linkages among experience quality, tourist satisfaction, destination experience and behavioral intentions in the context of culinary tourism. Hence, there has been lack of studies on the linkages among the variables specifically on the local Indonesian food. This study was intended to investigate the effect of culinary experience quality on behavioral intentions with culinary experience satisfaction and destination experience satisfaction as the mediating variables. There were 194 international tourists participating in the survey both in Bandung and Solo. The result showed that culinary experience quality positively and significantly influenced both culinary experience satisfaction and destination experience satisfaction. Moreover, it was also found that culinary experience satisfaction had a positive and significant effect on destination experience satisfaction. Further, it was also confirmed that destination experience satisfaction had a positive and significant effect on behavioral intentions. However, culinary experience satisfaction did not have a significant effect on behavioral intentions