Who are the culinary tourists? An observation at a food and wine festival

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide psychographic and demographic profiles of people interested in culinary tourism. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted in the First Lubbock Wine Festival in Texas, incorporating Values and Lifestyles (VALS-2). A questionnaire was designed to investigate the classification of culinary tourists' lifestyles and values in terms of three primary motivations such as ideals, achievement, and self-expression including culinary tourists' activities and demographic characteristics. Factor and reliability analyses were used. Findings: A five-factor solution resulted in idealist, achiever, explorer, belonger and innovator. Ideals-motivated groups were identified by idealist and belonger. Self-expression-motivated groups were identified by explorer and innovator. Achievement-motivated group was identified by achiever. Research limitations/implications: The study offers new insights and conceptualizations relevant to the analysis of culinary tourism markets, focusing on the needs and psychology of culinary tourists. Practical implications: A better understanding of the needs and wants of culinary tourists may help tourism marketers increase the effectiveness of their promotional campaigns by targeting the appropriate audience and tailoring their messages to its psychological needs. Originality/value: By providing a basis for predicting attitudes and behaviors of culinary tourists, this study extends the existing body of research by segmenting culinary tourists based on motivations while making travel decisions.