Article

Journal of Vacation Marketing

2016, Vol. 22(1) 55–67
Preferred travel experiences ª The Author(s) 2015
Reprints and permission:

of foodies: An application sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/1356766715589621
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of photo elicitation

Tommy D Andersson
Professor Molde University College, Norway

Donald Getz
Professor Emeritus, The University of Calgary, Canada

Sanja Vujicic
Experience Consulting AB, Sweden

Richard NS Robinson
University of Queensland, Australia

Alessio Cavicchi
University of Macerata, Italy

Abstract
A large-scale sample of food lovers accessed by an online survey, which followed a qualitative focus
group study, employed the photo elicitation technique to investigate their preferences for travel
experiences. This technique identified top choices both for food-related and other types of urban,
nature-oriented and active recreational pursuits. Overall, the most popular experience sought was
described as ‘enjoy regional cuisine in a local restaurant’ and depicted a couple dining informally with
a waterfront backdrop. The photo conveyed the romantic, authentic and informal messages all at once.
More detailed analysis revealed significant differences according to respondent country of residence
and previous food-related travel. Specifically, the most experienced food tourists were the most likely
to select food festivals and meeting/learning from chefs. Those who had travelled less for food experi-
ences had more general, leisure-oriented preferences that included nature and heritage. Results have
implications for precise targeting at food tourists; the packaging of experiences; and destination devel-
opment, branding and promotion. A number of methodological and theoretical issues are discussed,
including the issue of how photos communicate messages and their use in marketing.

Keywords
Experience preferences, foodie, food tourism, photo elicitation

Introduction Visual Culture (Vol. 1, Theories and Concepts),

Burns et al. (2010b: xvi) said, ‘ . . . it is nothing
As best exemplified in Urry’s (1990a) pervasive
short of astounding that visual images are not
‘Gaze’ thesis, the visual is of paramount impor-
tance in tourism contexts. Yet according to
Feighey (2003), although there is significant rec-
Corresponding author:
ognition of the importance of visual data in tour-
Tommy D Andersson, School of Business, Economics and
ism, there are many aspects of ‘the visual’ in Law, University of Gothenburg, Box 610, Gothenburg, SE
tourism that are empirically under-researched. 405 30, Sweden.
In the introduction to their book Tourism and Email: tommy.andersson@handels.gu.se
56
used more as both research data and as teaching
material within tourism’. In this article, a partic-
ular form of visual data are assessed – photo-
graphs – to investigate preferences for travel
experiences. A photo elicitation technique was
customized for food lovers who were responding
to a multipart, online survey.
Food tourism has increasingly attracted the
attention of practitioners and researchers over the
past decade (Robinson and Getz, 2013). As food
tourism develops, with mounting competition
among cities and destinations, there is an
increased need for market intelligence. Demand-
side research has lagged behind supply-side
research, and publications concerning how to
develop and market food tourism greatly outnum-
ber those offering concrete market intelligence on
who are the food tourists and what foodies want.
There is a practical need for analysis of foodies
and food tourists and what can motivate them to
visit a particular place for desired experiences
(Tikkanen, 2007). As with all niche tourism mar-
kets, those who have the best understanding of
their potential customers stand to do the best job
in attracting them.
Results are presented from a major study of
foodies to answer the following research ques-
tion: To what extent can photographic images
be mobilized as a research tool to reveal the food
tourism patterns and preferences of food lovers?
The research was conducted for tourism and agri-
cultural agencies in Sweden, a context for limited
food tourism research to date (see Tellström
et al., 2005), involving both focus groups in four
target countries and an online survey that reached
a global audience of food lovers. A major compo-
nent of the research was the use of photographs,
an underutilized media in tourism research (Urry
and Larsen, 2011), to gain an understanding of
what foodies would find most attractive for plea-
sure travel both specific to food and food in
combination with other experiences. Focus groups
enabled interactive responses from small numbers
of respondents, and selected quotations are used
herein to help explain preferences revealed
through the online survey that obtained quanti-
fiable data from over 3000 respondents.
The article commences with a literature review
focused on the use of photographs in consumer
research, examining both the purpose and the
advantages of photo elicitation and the range of
alternative techniques. In the ‘Methods’ section,
the research is described in general, then emphasis
is placed on the specifics of photo elicitation and
what it was intended to reveal.
Journal of Vacation Marketing 22(1)
Analysis begins with overall rankings of pre-
ferences from the entire sample and then cross-
tabulated according to respondents’ country of
residence. Previous travel is then considered both
for general leisure purposes and for travel moti-
vated by food. What is revealed is both a general
set of images that convey highly desirable food-
related experiences and a subset that appeals pri-
marily to the more experienced food tourist. In
the second part of the analysis, three segments
are compared as to their preferences for packages
of experiences that represent major differences
between urban, rural and specific recreation activ-
ities. This analysis is valuable in revealing the
dominance of food experiences for one segment
as well as differentiating how food-specific experi-
ences might best be packaged within broader des-
tination experiences.
Although the analysis focuses on marketing
implications, theoretical implications are also
discussed in the conclusions. The ‘foodie’ is an
abstract concept, and foodies are a self-defined
group. Self-identification as being a foodie says
much about a person’s values, attitudes and
social worlds, yet this lifestyle is poorly under-
stood within a leisure and tourism context. The
current research provides evidence of how foo-
dies shape their leisure and travel around their
interest, and the kinds of experiences (both
food-specific and general destination experi-
ences) reflect their interests.
Literature review
The study of food tourism, as with most niche
markets, began with descriptions of the phenom-
enon and its purported benefits, as well as advice
on what was being done, or should be done, to
develop and market it, and a suite of books,
reports and articles are testament to this (e.g.
Croce and Perri, 2010; Hall et al., 2003; Long,
2013). This supply-side literature continues to
grow and has been reinforced by the creation of
various formal entities such as the Culinary
Tourism Association, Good Food Cities and
numerous destination marketing organizations
promoting their destinations to food tourists.
Demand-side research and theory building, how-
ever, lags far behind. This literature review con-
centrates on studies that focus on foodies and
food tourists and on related theoretical perspec-
tives on food tourism. There are several large-
scale surveys that are referenced, and a number
of speciality research projects that have been
reported. The second part of this review concerns
Andersson et al.
the technique of photo elicitation and its value
in tourism research. Several ways of employing
photos in market research are described.
The foodie and food lovers
It is reported that the label foodie was first coined
by Harpers and Queen, a glossy magazine, but
gained real traction in common parlance in The
Official Foodie Handbook by Barr and Levy
(1984: 6) who described foodies in such terms:
‘[they are] very very very interested in food;
[they talk] about food in any gathering . . . sali-
vating over restaurants, recipes, radicchio.
[They] consider food to be an art . . . ’ (Watson
et al., 2008).
How people become involved with food, and
identify with it (personally and socially), is a
research topic that has been explored by Bell and
Marshall (2003), Kim et al. (2009) and Hu
(2010). Motivation to travel for food has been
explored by Moulin (2000), Kivela and Crotts
(2005, 2006), Ryu and Jang (2006), Sparks
(2007), Tikkanen (2007), Molz (2007) and Kim
et al. (2010). The search for culinary authenti-
city, in a cultural context, is an important topic
related to motivation and helps explain food tour-
ism experiences broadly (Beer, 2008; Hughes,
1995; Long, 1998; Sims 2009) and in event set-
tings (Robinson and Clifford, 2007, 2012).
Other topics related to being a foodie include
novelty seeking including neophilia and neopho-
bia (Kim et al., 2009), satisfaction (Correia et al.,
2008; Nield et al., 2000), destination images
based on food (Karim and Chi, 2010; Lin et al.,
2011; Renko et al., 2010), the activities and
experiences of food tourists (Hu, 2010; Everett,
2008; Molz, 2007; Morgan, 2009; Mykletun and
Gyimóthy, 2010; Natilli et al., 2011) and seg-
mentation based on a variety of criteria (Croce
and Perri, 2010; Ignatov and Smith, 2006; Smith,
2010; Travaglini et al., 2011). Few published
articles, however, have referred to the use of
photographs in food-related research, with a rare
exception being that of an investigation by Liu
et al. (2013) into the relationship between online
food image posting and travel planning.
Nonetheless, an emergent literature has
attempted to identify and profile foodies, or food
lovers, who may have a proclivity for travel.
From their 2006 research, The Travel Industry
Association of America and Edge Research
(2007) generated a Profile of Culinary Travel-
lers. This report stems from the first ever national
research study on the culinary travel market in
57
the United States. A survey was completed by
2364 leisure travellers, from which the ‘culinary
traveller’ was profiled. This traveller segment
(17% of the total leisure travellers) had partici-
pated in one or more of the following activities:
cooking classes, dining out for a unique and
memorable experience, visiting farmers’ mar-
kets, gourmet food shopping, attending food fes-
tivals or undertaking some wine tourist activity.
Findings showed that culinary travellers were
generally younger, more affluent and better edu-
cated. They were motivated by unique experi-
ences including a destination’s environmental
and cultural elements.
Culinary travellers were found to be more likely
to participate in cultural activities (concerts and
museums), enjoy spa services, visit state/national
parks, visit historic sites and participate in outdoor
activities than general leisure travellers. On aver-
age, they spent over one-third (36%) of their per-
sonal travel budget on food-related activities.
Among those interested in future culinary activi-
ties, going to restaurants for unique and memorable
experiences and local/regional cuisine top the list.
Large shares also report they are interested in vis-
iting farmers’ markets (83%), sampling traditional
artisan products (81%), attending culinary festivals
(77%), tasting locally made wines (72%) or touring
wineries (71%).
Another large-scale survey was commis-
sioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission. The
Travel Activities and Motivation Survey (TAMS)
was completed first in 2001 and repeated in 2007.
The 2001 research by Lang Research developed a
Cuisine and Wine Interest Index as part of the
analysis of both Americans and Canadians. The
index consisted of answers to questions about
motivations for, and activities during, vacation
experiences taken in the previous 2 years. The
most notable and predictable conclusion of
TAMS was that interest in, and travel for, wine
and food experiences is highly correlated (in
North America) with education and income
levels. But of course, this applies to tourism in
general. Childless couples were identified as a
prime target market from the Canadian perspec-
tive. A subsequent analysis of TAMS by the
Economic Planning Group of Canada revealed
that a number of general motivational factors,
namely, personal indulgence, exploration, romance
and relaxation, influenced the target markets.
Wine and food tourism was closely tied to enter-
tainment and cultural activities.
In Australia, Sparks et al. (2005) explored
wine and food tourism. ‘The Good Living
58
Tourism project focused on the lifestyle aspects
of food and wine tourism. The project comprised
several studies including regional case studies
and consumer research’ (p. vi). Based on focus
groups with experienced wine tourists, the
researchers identified ‘enhancement factors’ that
make a visit to a wine and food region more
enjoyable, namely, authenticity of the experi-
ence, value for money, service interactions, the
setting or surroundings, product offerings, infor-
mation dissemination, personal growth and
indulgence. ‘The food and wine tourist is rarely
just interested in wine tasting; the total experi-
ence is of greatest importance’ (p. vi).
Also based on Australian research, Robinson
and Getz (2013) identified the key dimensions
of being a foodie through use of an involvement
scale and factorial analysis. It was concluded that
these dimensions are crucial to self-identification
as a foodie:
 First is the importance of cooking to self
and social identity – foodies, first and
foremost, love to cook; naturally that is
reflected in their kitchens, their expendi-
ture on cooking-related materials, and
their constant desire to learn more.
 Second, eating is pleasure, but this is largely
about the social context; foodies like to
please and entertain others, to join others
in a great food experience; to seek novelty.
 Third, quality is paramount, both in terms
of the produce foodies buy and the meals
they purchase.
 Finally, foodies do appear to be conscien-
tious; they are likely to be fastidious about
how they buy, use and dispose of food.
Tourism demand research employing
photographs
Using photographs for tourism purposes is quite
common. Many of the demand-side studies iden-
tify how people interpret the messages in photo-
graphs and have been used for purposes of
market segmentation (e.g. Cutler and Javalgi,
1992; MacKay and Fesenmaier, 1997; Smith and
MacKay, 2001; Taylor et al., 1996). Age and
income have been found to influence inter-
pretation (MacKay and Fesenmaier, 1997), and
Vujicic (2008) concluded that gender has an
influence in determining whether potential tour-
ists interpret photographic messages according to
the producers’ intentions. As well, Vujicic found
Journal of Vacation Marketing 22(1)
that past travel frequency influences if potential
tourists interpret photographic messages accord-
ing to the producers’ intentions, and this is
important because photos in advertising and pro-
motions are expected to help sell the destination
or package. Nationality is also a factor that influ-
ences people’s interpretation of visual messages
(Cutler and Javalgi, 1992; Taylor et al., 1996;
Vujicic, 2008). Marketing, however, needs to
move beyond demographic segmentation.
Balomenou and Garrod (2010) observed that
most tourism-related research using photographs
involved either volunteers who took their own
pictures or photo elicitation employed within
interviews. They described volunteer-based photo-
graphy as a method to gain insights on touristic
experiences, such as by examining what volunteers
thought was of visual interest in a particular
place. This approach is well established in tour-
ism and has been employed to investigate the
destination image (MacKay and Couldwell,
2004). Resident and tourist perceptions of a
place have been compared using photos taken
by both groups (Garrod, 2009), thus exploring
place perception using a photo-based analysis.
Cederholm (2004) studied backpackers’ own
photographs combined with narratives to explore
the experience. Photo elicitation can also involve
showing the photos to people who are then
prompted to discuss pertinent issues.
Related to experience preferences, Fairweather
and Swaffield (2001) employed a Q-sort1 analysis
of photographs, representing different landscape
experiences in New Zealand to determine the pre-
ferences of residents and visitors. Garrod (2009)
used visitor photography to test the theory Urry
and Larsen (2011) that marketing images and
tourist photographs formed a ‘closed circle of rep-
resentation’ about destinations in which tourist
photos both reflect and inform destination images.
Incorporating photo elicitation into self-
administered or online surveys, as done in the
current research, is unusual. The advent of online
survey technology has made it possible to present
respondents, situated anywhere with access to
the Internet, with the same set of images and
instructions, and structured in such a way that all
responses are uniformly quantified. What is missing,
of course, is the kind of discussion only possible
through direct contact and that was accomplished
through an initial round of focus groups.
According to Day (1990), there are limitations
to photo elicitation because visual representation
involves both affective and cognitive processing,
meaning that respondents might interpret a photo
Andersson et al.
based upon either past experiences or perceived
factual information. Hall (2002: 24) argues
that ‘advertising is directly active in the pre-
experience exposure and post-experience expo-
sure of advertisements’. Vujicic (2008: 136)
elaborated upon Hall’s model by showing there
exists a ‘storehouse of past experiences’ when
focus group participants were asked to interpret
the messages conveyed by photos used in tour-
ism advertising.
Methods
A two-stage qualitative-to-quantitative mixed-
methods study (Creswell, 2013) was designed
to address our research question: To what extent
can photographic images be mobilized as a
research tool to reveal the food tourism patterns
and preferences of food lovers? In the initial,
qualitative stage, focus groups were conducted,
which are becoming a more accepted qualitative
method due to its versatility and ability to elicit
considered responses, especially from a group
of like-minded participants (Krueger, 2009).
These focus groups were conducted in Germany,
England, Italy and with Norwegians, whilst visit-
ing Sweden, in order to test the usefulness and
reliability of the photos for the subsequent online
survey and to obtain constructive feedback
regarding questions to use in the survey. The par-
ticipants in the focus groups were recruited
through food and travel networks professional
associations and through university colleagues.
All focus group sessions followed the same
structure. Each focus group took between 1 h and
2 h and were mostly conducted in conference
rooms at hotels. One or two moderators facili-
tated the focus group sessions, which were audio
recorded and transcribed for subsequent content
analysis.
The researchers selected 21 colour photos that
were judged to represent a wide range of possible
Swedish experiences, including food in different
settings. This selection was purposeful and
expert, in the sense that the researchers, who
were a combination of Swedish nationals and
well-travelled self-identifying foodies, had a
clear, a priori understanding of what Sweden
could offer a foreign tourist, and of what food
lovers would potentially seek, in food-related
experiences whilst travelling abroad. Many of
these photos have been, and are, used in destina-
tion promotions. The photographs ‘Experience a
winter resort’ and ‘Follow a food trail by car’
(see Appendix 1) were specifically purchased
59
from Getty Images1 for this study and others
were owned by tourism marketing agencies.
Clearly, no such selection can cover all possibi-
lities, so it was necessary to achieve a variety that
would appeal to a potentially global sample. In
effect, this selection is a representation of touris-
tic experiences available in Sweden, although
respondents were never informed of the country
or origin. The selection omits cityscapes (which
might have given away the country) but includes
activities that are obviously urban in setting.
Each photo was given a short caption by the
researchers to describe the experience, and
respondents were given written instructions. The
respondents were asked to pick three activities
they preferred when travelling on a trip or short
break to another country. The same respondents
were then asked to pick three more activities they
preferred assuming they had more time and
money.
Captions employed action verbs, namely
‘attend, enjoy, go, take and experience’ and
attempted to make clear the nature of the experi-
ence. The focus groups revealed that the photos
achieved the desired responses in terms of elicit-
ing comments of an experiential nature. In other
words, respondents were to put themselves into
the pictures and imagine they could be doing
what was depicted. Feedback was not sought
on the quality or composition of the photo itself,
and respondents understood this difference.
Some of the comments received from focus
group participants are quoted later in this article
to provide additional insights.
A large quantitative sample was necessary,
given the number of variables and extrapolated
combinations, with emphasis on achieving a
quota of at least 500 responses in each of the four
target countries (United Kingdom, Germany,
Italy and Norway). In addition to promoting the
survey through a variety of blogs, Internet sites
and mailing lists to reach food lovers (with no
incentive being offered), already established
panels of a market research company were
employed to supplement quotas from the four
target countries. At the time of study, the market
research company reached over 70,000 people
and each one of them received an email leading
them to this scanning question, ‘Are you inter-
ested in food experiences like cooking, learning
about food, travel internationally for food experi-
ences and/or are interested in travelling interna-
tionally for food experiences?’ The 70,000
respondents had a relatively good dispersion
between the countries.
60
This self-selection method resulted in high
numbers, but the response rates are unknown and
somewhat irrelevant. In this type of market intel-
ligence research, a random sample would not
likely have obtained sufficient numbers of poten-
tial food tourists. One possible limitation is that
the panellists’ involvement with food is some-
what less than that of the respondents to the open
call for participants, and the ensuing analysis
tends to confirm that conclusion.
Analysis and discussion
Analysis covers data obtained from the online
survey pertaining to the key research question,
with some quotations from the focus groups
added for additional insights. The online survey
was automatically coded into a database with
3137 respondents and 220 variables by a spe-
cially commissioned Web survey programme.
After cleaning the data, mainly by the elimina-
tion of outliers, statistical tests were performed
using pairwise deletion in the occasions of miss-
ing values. Missing values were rare and below
8% for most variables, which together with the
large number of observations made it undesirable
to replace missing data (such as by using mean
values). Tests of normality, homoscedasticity
and linearity were performed where appropriate.
Variables measured on a Likert-type scale from 1
to 7 were treated as an interval scale.
Our sample consists of a good balance by gen-
der (females: 54%). We fully expected that
females would be in the majority, partly owing
to typical response biases (more females respond
to surveys of all kinds) and previous research
which suggests that there are more self-identified
foodies among women (Robinson and Getz,
2013). Most of our respondents were married
(46%) or in a relationship (27%). It was found
that many food tourists travel as couples for
leisure purposes (56%) and are without children
living at home (74% had no children under 15
living at home). A secondary group consists of
families travelling together, and a third were
singles who might travel alone or with friends.
Many foodies work, or have worked, in the
food or tourism/hospitality industries, and this
fact suggests one source of foodie identity and
a practical way to reach them.
As found by researchers previously in North
America and Australia, food tourists are typically
better educated and with higher incomes than the
general population (Getz et al., 2014). We also
know that many foodies in our sample are frequent
Journal of Vacation Marketing 22(1)
travellers. Foodies who have already travelled
internationally for a food-related experience are a
large group, constituting 39% of the total.
By country, the sample includes 646 from
the United Kingdom, 736 from Italy, 716 from
Germany and 619 from Norway. As to the other
respondents, the only large sources were Sweden
(75 respondents), the United States (60) and
Australia (46). These three large sources, and all
others, were categorized as ‘Other’ in subsequent
analyses.
First-choice picture preferences
A simple ranking of preferences is presented
below, by country and totals, indicating the per-
centage of respondents who selected each photo
as one of their three picks. The exact captions are
provided, but this is not the order in which photos
were presented to respondents. Other includes
respondents from a large number of nations
obtained through invitations to food lovers
through international food magazines and blogs.
However, no nationality in Other is represented
by a sufficient number of respondents to consti-
tute a representative national sample.
It is evident from Table 1 and the first column
‘Total’ that photos with food-related motifs are
attractive, and three of the top four are in one way
or another alluding to food experiences. The most
popular picture ‘Enjoy regional cuisine in a
local restaurant’ depicts a young couple eating
seafood at a restaurant and the second most
attractive ‘Enjoy a farmer’s market to look for
and buy fresh food’ depicts a customer savour-
ing delicacies at a food market. Some quotations
from the focus groups shed light on these domi-
nant preferences.
Regarding the photo captioned ‘Enjoying
regional cuisine in a local restaurant, the partici-
pants stated the following comments:
. . . the regional kitchen, visiting local restaurant.
This is what I like to do. (Female, age 28,
Germany)
. . . I like to experience the local food. (Male, age
61, United Kingdom).
. . . I like to try the local food when visiting a new
place. (Female, age 52, Norway)
Some of the respondents in the focus groups
who chose ‘Enjoy a farmer’s market to look for
and buy fresh food’ described their choices as
follow:
Andersson et al. 61

Table 1. Percentage of respondents who selected a picture as one of the three preferred.

Total Germany Italy Norway Other United

Country (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) Kingdom (%) Sig.a

M: Enjoy regional cuisine in a local 32 33 30 23 39 37 ns

restaurant
D: Enjoy a farmer’s market to look for and 29 29 29 24 34 32 ns
buy fresh food
B: Take a trip to the islands and stay in a 25 27 33 15 17 28 0.000
cottage
L: Experience a nice romantic dinner 21 24 17 22 24 20 0.003
C: Go hiking and view the wildlife in nature 19 21 22 19 16 17 ns
I: Attend a food festival 18 20 24 12 21 15 ns
O: Experience historic and archaeological 16 15 19 10 15 19 ns
sites
S: Staying at a spa 14 16 16 13 14 13 ns
G: Enjoy some good food by the harbour 13 15 9 20 11 12 ns
whilst yachting
A: Enjoy a visit to art galleries and 13 10 22 8 13 14 0.014
museums
U: Follow a food trail by car 10 12 11 8 14 8 ns
J: Experience an outdoor music concert 6 8 5 8 3 6 ns
Q: Experience a winter resort 6 6 6 5 5 6 ns
E: Go shopping in the city to buy designer 5 4 7 5 4 4 0.002
fashion
P: Meeting and learning from chefs 5 5 5 4 8 3 0.000
N: Experience an indoor music 4 5 1 6 4 4 ns
performance
T: Fishing 3 2 3 5 3 2 0.001
H: Playing golf 2 2 1 1 3 3 ns
K: Enjoy a traditional dance performance 2 2 3 1 1 1 ns
F: Experience a fashion show 2 3 2 1 1 1 ns
R: Shopping for interior design 1 1 1 1 1 2 ns

Note: ns ¼ not significant.

a
Refers to significance of differences between countries.

. . . I usually like to go to places where you can buy
fresh food but where you also can eat. I like to walk
around and see what people are selling. (Female,
age 60, United Kingdom)
. . . We have a farmer’s market close to where I
live, which I go to regularly. It is really nice to have
local produce. (Male, age 74, United Kingdom)
As indicated in Table 1, there is a divide
between the first 11 photos, and the remaining
10, which were all selected, by less than 10%
of the respondents. Among the first 11 pictures,
there are 2 photos with people eating and 4 more
photos with food as an important motif. Further-
more, ‘food trail’ is part of the caption for photo
U. The less attractive pictures only includes one
picture ‘Meeting and learning from chefs’ related
to food tourism.
Apart from food activities, nature activities
such as ‘Take a trip to the islands and stay in a
cottage’ and ‘Go hiking and view the wildlife
in nature’ are high on the list, whereas shopping
activities all are on the bottom half of the
ranking.
Some of the respondents in the focus groups
described their choices of ‘Take a trip to the
islands and stay in a cottage’ as follows:
. . . staying on an island in a cottage. I have never
done it before and it looks nice, and something that
I would enjoy. (Female, age 43, Germany)
. . . feel it is important to have a relief from the
daily stress. (Female, age 46, Italy)
. . . I have stayed in a cottage like this and would
like to do it again. (Male, age 47, Norway)
Of the respondents in the focus groups who
chose ‘Go hiking and view the wildlife in nature’,
two described their preference as follows:
. . . going hiking, because I love hiking, flora and
fauna . . . (Female, age 24, Germany)
62
Table 2. Distribution of motifs between highly and
less attractive pictures.
Food Culture Nature Shopping Total
Highly 6 3 2 0 11
attractive
Less 2 3 2 3 10
attractive
Total 8 6 4 3 21
Table 3. Distribution of motifs including people
between highly and less attractive photo.a
People No people
in photo in photo Total
Highly attractive 7 4 11
Less attractive 6 4 10
Total 13 8 21
Note: The w2 value is not significant at 10% level. Two cells
have expected values less than 5.
. . . I like the nature and I have done it many times
in the South Tyrol. (Male, age 54, Germany)
. . . I like to have a break from the daily stress and
enjoy the nature. (Female, age 39, Norway).
As an exploratory analysis, the first 11 photos
will be looked upon as ‘Highly attractive’ and
the remaining 10 as ‘Less attractive’ to look for
differences among the photos motifs. Table 2
indicates that the food pictures are much more
frequent among the highly attractive pictures,
whereas photos of shopping activities are all con-
sidered less attractive. The photos were grouped
into four categories for this analysis based on the
following criteria: Eight photos contained food
being presented or consumed including the fish
photo and the food trail photo, six referred to cul-
tural pursuits including the spa photo, four were
outdoors with a nature theme including the golf
photo and three depicted shopping.
The w2 value is significant at 10% level, but
all eight cells have expected values less than 5.
An interesting question is whether or not
people should be part of photos used for tourism
promotion. Table 3 does not indicate that people
in the picture make the photos more or less
attractive.
Nature is a tourist attraction in many coun-
tries, and it is a challenge to relate food experi-
ences to nature experiences since most foodie
activities take place in an urban setting. Table 4
seems to indicate that rural motifs are considered
slightly (insignificantly) more attractive.
Journal of Vacation Marketing 22(1)
Table 4. Distribution of urban and rural motifs
between highly and less attractive photos.
Urban Rural
environment environment Total
Highly attractive 4 7 11
Less attractive 6 4 10
Total 10 11 21
Note: The w2 value is not significant at 10% level.
A look at the four most attractive photos
including three food-related photos shows that
the three food photos consist of one rural experi-
ence, one urban and one neutral, that is, a nicely
laid table (‘Experience a romantic dinner’). Two
of the four are dominated by sea water and bluish
colours, whilst the other two have warm reddish
yellow colours. The choice of colour in photos
influences the attractiveness of photographs
according to Dann (1996). One of the warm-
coloured photos is also alluding to a Christmas-
like feeling through symbols, climate as well as
exotic Saint Lucia pastries.
The less attractive 10 photos seem to be less
attractive for all nationalities. It is however inter-
esting to note that the highly food-experienced seg-
ment ‘Other nationalities’ are significantly more
attracted by ‘Meeting and learning from chefs’.
Preferences of experienced food tourists
In Table 5, the preferences of experienced food
tourists are tabulated (i.e. three choices only).
Respondents were also asked how many times
they had travelled in the previous 12 months for
food-related reasons specifically and fully, and
39% of the respondents had done so. Photos
describing nature experiences as well as cultural
tourism including music performances are signif-
icantly more attractive to less frequent food tra-
vellers. ‘Experience historic and archaeological
sites’ is unattractive for frequent food travellers.
Table 5 reveals that enjoying regional cuisine
remains the top choice for all, but that the most
frequent food tourists were significantly more
inclined towards food festivals and meeting and
learning from chefs. They were significantly less
interested in the island visit, wildlife, archaeolo-
gical sites and musical performances. Following
a food trail is not very popular, perhaps owing to
a propensity to fly for short breaks. Dining in the
harbour whilst yachting is also a minority prefer-
ence across the sample, quite likely because of
the implied cost of yachting.
Andersson et al. 63

Table 5. Percentage of respondents, categorized according to respondents’ travel frequency with food as the
main reason who selected a photo as one of the three top choices.

Food travel: How many times have you travelled

internationally in the last 12 months with food as the main No time 1 to 3 4 or More Total
reason? (%) Times (%) times (%) (%) Significance

M: Enjoy regional cuisine in a local restaurant 32 32 31 32 ns

D: Enjoy a farmer’s market to look for and buy fresh food 26 36 31 29 0.001
B: Take a trip to the islands and stay in a cottage 27 22 20 25 0.05
L: Experience a nice romantic dinner 20 22 25 21 ns
C: Go hiking and view the wildlife in nature 21 17 15 20 0.001
I: Attend a food festival 15 24 26 19 0.001
O: Experience historic- and archaeological sites 19 12 3 16 0.001
S: Staying at a spa 15 15 10 15 ns
A: Enjoy a visit to art galleries and museums 14 13 11 14 ns
G: Enjoy some good food by the harbour whilst yachting 13 14 14 13 ns
U: Follow a food trail by car 10 11 13 10 ns
Q: Experience a winter resort 6 5 4 6 ns
J: Experience an outdoor music concert 8 5 1 6 0.001
P: Meeting and learning from chefs 3 6 10 5 0.001
E: Go shopping in the city to buy designer fashion 5 5 4 5 ns
N: Experience an indoor music performance 5 2 2 4 0.001
T: Fishing 3 2 4 3 ns
K: Enjoy a traditional dance performance 2 1 3 2 ns
H: Playing golf 2 2 4 2 ns
F: Experience a fashion show 1 2 2 2 ns
R: Shopping for interior design 1 1 1 1 ns
Note: ns ¼ not significant.

Table 6. Activities that appeal to frequent food Photos were used, in this study, to elicit quantita-
travellers significantly more or less.
tive data, which differs from most previous
Frequent food travellers Frequent food travelers research (e.g. Harper, 2002), where respondents
enjoy (significantly) more enjoy (significantly) less have talked about photos to yield qualitative
data. With reference to the old saying about ‘a
A farmer’s market to look Take a trip to the islands
picture is worth a thousand words’, a question
for and buy fresh food and stay in a cottage
Attend a food festival Go hiking and view the of more than one thousand words has been asked
wildlife in nature expecting a one word answer. This presents a
Meeting and learning from Experience an outdoor novel yet value-adding technique, whereby the
chefs music concert analysis of the question (i.e. the photo) is as
Experience an indoor interesting as the analysis of the answer. Most
music performance interesting, of course, is to analyse the photos
Experience historic and
and the answers concurrently.
archaeological sites
Photo elicitation therefore provides opportu-
nities to understand complex experiences where
the respondent should be confronted with an
The results from Table 5 seem to give clear experience that hardly can be described in a
indications about what activities, photos and pro- 10-word question but which may have a chance
motional material that appeal to frequent food tra- of being better described by a picture. Tourism
vellers, and the results are summarized in Table 6. experiences are an area where photo elicitation
can contribute to progress in research (Burns
et al., 2010a). Photos are also, in many ways, the
Conclusions language of tourism in terms of both marketing
and private photo albums – today often in digital
Photo elicitation method form – and doing research with the help of pic-
Photo elicitation has met expectations in provid- tures should be a natural path of development,
ing a diverse understanding of complex issues. as Urry and Larsen (2011) concur. Technological
64
progress and Web surveys support the photo eli-
citation methodology and since food is such a
visual commodity it is no surprise there is work
emerging in this respect (see Liu et al., 2013).
Not only is it easier to include photos in a ques-
tionnaire but it also makes the survey look more
appealing and interesting to the respondents,
soliciting higher engagement and thus increasing
response rates and reliability.
Understanding foodies
The results of the photo elicitation approach
used in this study clearly describe how attrac-
tive and appealing food-related photos are to
foodies. What it means to be a foodie is
reflected in their choices of preferred experi-
ences. This research shows how important it
is to foodies to find authentic cultural/food
experiences and to share them with others, that
is, the social dimensions of being a foodie
(Robinson and Getz, 2013). It is also clear
that, in relative terms, the more experienced
food tourists are, the more interested they are
in food-related activities and the less inter-
ested they are in other activities. Foodies want
access to authentic cuisine more than they
want fine dining, which supports findings of
earlier research that suggests authenticity as
a key attribute sought by foodies (Beer, 2008;
Mykletun and Gyimóthy, 2010; Robinson and
Clifford, 2007; Sims, 2009).
There were also a number of significant dif-
ferences between the four nationalities studied
(cf. Table 1). Italian foodies were more attracted
by the picture of ‘a trip to the islands and stay in a
cottage’ and less interested in ‘a nice romantic
dinner’. Norwegian foodies had opposite opi-
nions and were more interested in ‘a nice roman-
tic dinner’ but less interested in staying in a
cottage on an island. Norwegians were also sig-
nificantly more interested than other nationalities
to ‘enjoy good food by the harbour while yacht-
ing’ and ‘to go fishing,’ whereas Italians were
significantly more interested than the other
three nationalities ‘to experience historic sites’
(together with UK residents). So beyond seg-
menting the food lover market by demographics,
which has been the focus of much research to
date (e.g. Lang Research Inc., 2001; Sparks
et al., 2005; TIAA, 2006), this study reveals that
nationalities seek different experiences. For
example, Italians preferred rural contexts, thus
allowing for the promotion of tourism as an agent
in regional development (see Renko et al., 2010),
Journal of Vacation Marketing 22(1)
whilst other nationalities may be more attracted
to fine dining in urban spaces (see Molz, 2007)
Given that many destinations market into coun-
tries homogeneously, this is a useful progression.
These findings lend themselves to the crafting of
some practical implications.
Practical implications
Managerial implications, at the destination level,
seem to be rather clear regarding how to com-
municate with highly involved foodies. Major
national market segments, such as the Norwegian
and the Italian foodies, have different prefer-
ences as described earlier, and marketing activi-
ties should take this into consideration. The core
segment of foodies travelling frequently for food
experiences seem to be extremely focused on
food activities (cf. Table 6). However, the lesser
experienced (but still foodies) represent a larger
market, and it is then evident that combinations
of culture, nature and food experiences will
attract more foodies to visit a destination.
Marketers could extend their image banks with
a variety of food experiences that convey fresh,
local (i.e. food markets), authentic, informal as
well as formal, and there are clear indications
in Tables 2, 3 and 4 that food photos, of course,
are most important, that shopping photos are not
attractive and that rural motifs seem slightly
(albeit insignificantly) more appealing. An inter-
esting finding was also that although more than
60% of the photos were built around people in
the composition, these photos did not seem to
be more attractive than photos without people.
Research needs
It is relevant to test the elicitation method itself to
refine both the photos used, and the ways they
are used. Field experiments are needed to obtain
objective feedback from target markets on how
photos actually convey desired themes and mes-
sages. One way to study foodies and their desired
themes and messages is by using semiotics (see
Peirce, 1934) and study signs that appeal to foo-
dies. Photos and visual processing may, after all,
be more basic to human existence than the pro-
cessing of verbal information, and photos may
therefore evoke deeper elements of conscious-
ness than words (Harper, 2002). An empirical
confirmation of this proposition, which this
research modestly tests, could revolutionize mar-
keting theory and practice in domains far beyond
tourism’s reach.
Andersson et al.
Appendix 1
Excerpt from the online questionnaire
Preferred Travel Experiences. Imagine you are
going on a vacation or short break to another
country. What experiences do you most desire?
Look at each of the following 21 photos and pick
the three experiences that appeal to you most.
Please also indicate what is the maximum
amount of money per person and per day that you
would be willing to pay for that experience (€).
Write the amount in the drop-down box located
below the three pictures you have chosen.
Description of picture content
A: Enjoy a visit to art galleries and museums
B: Take a trip to the islands and stay in a cottage
C: Go hiking and view the wildlife in nature
D: Enjoy a farmer’s market to look for and buy fresh
food
E: Go shopping in the city to buy designer fashion
F: Experience a fashion show
G: Enjoy some good food by the harbour whilst
yachting
H: Playing golf
I: Attend a food festival
J: Experience an outdoor music concert
K: Enjoy a traditional dance performance
L: Experience a nice romantic dinner
M: Enjoy regional cuisine in a local restaurant
N: Experience an indoor music performance
O: Experience historic and archaeological sites
P: Meeting and learning from chefs
Q: Experience a winter resort
R: Shopping for interior design
S: Staying at a spa
T: Fishing
U: Follow a food trail by car
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any
funding agency in the public, commercial or not-
for-profit sectors.
Note
1. A psychological test requiring subjects to sort items re-
lative to one another along a dimension such as ‘agree’/
‘disagree’ for analysis by Q-methodological statistics.
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