Food, Delicatessen, and Beverage Souvenir Shopping: The Role of Travel Experience, Trip Purpose, and Destination

Abstract

Shopping is an important activity of the tourist experience—for example, as a vehicle for sense making, status and identity building, and making connections to the local culture. Purchasing food and beverages as souvenirs to bring home has always been an important part of this activity. The aim of this article is to analyze the influence of destination image, tourists' prior travel experience, and tourists' trip purpose on tourists' food, delicatessen, and beverage souvenir shopping. Tourists' personal income is also included in the research model. This quantitative study examined 405 Swedish tourists traveling to the UK and Spain. Drawing on the sophistication process of tourists, research on destination image, travel motives, and trip purpose, the results show that the most important factors explaining food and beverage souvenir shopping while on vacation are tourists' general travel experience and personal income. These findings both confirm and contradict previous research on tourists' souvenir shopping.