Moreover, when indicating the importance of food in affecting the motivation to
Chongqing using a 5-point Likert scale(1-not important, 5-very important), the average
rating of the importance is 3.68, which is just a little bit higher than the middle of the
rating. It means that food is affecting tourists’ motivation to visit Chongqing, however, it
has not been rated of great importance. The findings above show that food affects the
motivation of the tourists to visit Chongqing to some extent. However, it seems to be
contradictory to what Wang (2011) has stated that food is only taken as the lowest level
of need for tourists by lots of the destinations in China and could not be an important
factor to attract tourists. The reason for the difference might because the food tourism
resources have not been well developed and promoted in such kind of destinations.
Although the food has some importance in affecting tourists’ motivation to Chongqing,
the rating is not that high, which seems to support that food could be a primary motivator
for some people and a secondary aspect for others (Hall & Sharples, 2003).