Food tourism is one of the fastest growing areas in tourism industry nowadays. However, there has been little published empirical research on tourists' motivation, satisfaction or behavioral intentions that has focused on food tourism. This study seeks to fill this gap by identifying the factors of food tourists' motivation and empirically examining the interrelationships among the motivation factors, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. A conceptual model was developed in an attempt to illustrate the effects of motivation and customer satisfaction on behavioral intention of food tourists. An instrument to measure food tourists' motivation was developed and followed with a pilot test. The study employed an on -- site survey of 368 visitors attending an international food festival of Macau by systematic sampling. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to extract the main factors of the motivation of food tourists, and structural equation modeling was used to test the effects of the motivation factors and customer satisfaction on behavioral intention. Empirical findings indicated that (1) three factors were generated from the 14 push items, namely, leisure and relax, food novelty, and cultural exploration; (2) two factors emerged from the 10 pull items; food product and support services; (3) two push factors ( leisure and relax, cultural exploration) and one pull factor (food product) had significant direct positive effect on tourist satisfaction, while the push factor food novelty and the pull factor support services did not affect satisfaction significantly; (4) only one motivation, food novelty, affected tourist behavior intension directly and significantly; (5) support services did not have significant effect on customer satisfaction or behavioral intention. Conclusions of analysis can be summarized as; (1) motivation of food tourists could be categorized as push motivations and pull motivations. The former included three key factors, namely, leisure and relax, food novelty, and cultural exploration, and the latter included two key factors, namely, food product and support services; (2) if the motivation of leisure and relax is fulfilled, such as pressure being reduced, pace of life slowing down, and enjoyable scene being watched, etc., customers' satisfaction will increase significantly; (3) the motivation of culture exploration means that food tourists are eager to enrich personal experience and cultural knowledge. The fulfillment of this motivation also increase customer satisfaction ; (4) the special character of one push factor, food novelty, is that it affects behavioral intention directly, but does not have significant effect on customer satisfaction; (5) variety, appearance, and flavor of food products are incentives to participate in food tourism, which positively affect customer satisfaction. These findings contribute to a better understanding of which motivators represent a viable basis for increasing tourist satisfaction and loyalty by identifying the reasons for food tourism participation and their following effects from both supply and demand perspectives. The results of this study will also assist food tourism organizers and tourism destinations in developing and implementing market-orientated strategies of food tourism to understand customers, enhance customer satisfaction, and create favorable future behavioral intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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