How are food value video clips effective in promoting food tourism? Generation Y versus non–Generation Y

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of a food tourism video clip created by a destination marketing organization on potential tourists’ perceptions of the destination’s food values, familiarity with the destination’s food, behavioral involvement with the destination’s food, and intention to visit the destination for food tourism. A number of important findings were generated. First, of the five food values, “global food” and “attractive food” significantly influenced the respondents’ familiarity with Hong Kong food. Second, for the Generation Y group, Hong Kong food values such as “global food”, “attractive food”, and “realistic restaurants” had strong effects on the viewers’ behavioral involvement with Hong Kong food, while no such relationship was found between food value and behavioral involvement with Hong Kong food among the non-Generation Y group. Third, comparison of two generation groups showed that “realistic restaurants” had significantly more influence on behavioral involvement with Hong Kong food in the Generation Y group than in the non-Generation Y group. Overall, the results showed that the efficacy of the video clip in persuading potential tourists to visit the destination differed according to the generation.