Recently, the desire for a healthy lifestyle that emphasizes prevention and management-centered wellness culture and an improved quality of life is increasing across all aspects of life. As such, wellness gastronomy tourism, which offers unique and no...
Recently, the desire for a healthy lifestyle that emphasizes prevention and management-centered wellness culture and an improved quality of life is increasing across all aspects of life. As such, wellness gastronomy tourism, which offers unique and novel experiences tailored to individual tastes and values, is beginning to attract attention. Travel has gone beyond simple relaxation and leisure, and is showing a continuous trend of introducing experiential products that help people find themselves while taking care of their health and healing in nature. With the growing interest in wellness and gastronomy, healthy food experiences at tourist destinations are becoming a direct motivation for tourism.
Therefore, this study aims to apply the PERMA model for promoting psychological well-being, focusing on three factors that measure the perception of authenticity in wellness gastronomy tourism, to investigate the relationship between tourists' psychological well-being, leisure satisfaction, and continuance behavior intention, and to empirically analyze the moderating effect of gastronomy involvement.
This study collected 550 data sets from adults aged 20 and older with experience in wellness gastronomy tourism. A valid sample of 492 was used for empirical analysis. To test the hypotheses, SPSS PASW 28.0 and AMOS 28.0 were used to conduct frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine causal relationships between variables, and multi-group analysis was used to analyze the moderating effect of gastronomy involvement. The results of the study verifying the hypotheses are as follows.
First, the local traditions and natural healing properties of wellness gastronomy tourism were found to have positive effects on psychological well-being factors such as positivity, immersion, relationships, meaning, and achievement. However, while unique experiential experiences had a positive effect on positive emotions, immersion, meaning, and achievement, they did not have a significant positive effect on relationships.
Second, among the authenticity factors of wellness gastronomy tourism, local tradition and original experience were found to have a positive (+) effect on leisure satisfaction, but natural healing did not have a significant positive (+) effect on leisure satisfaction.
Third, positive emotions, immersion, and meaning of psychological well-being were found to have a positive effect on leisure satisfaction, but relationships and achievement, which are sub-factors of psychological well-being, were found to have no significant effect on leisure satisfaction.
Fourth, positive emotions and relationships within psychological well-being were found to have a positive effect on intentions to continue behavior. However, the sub-factors of psychological well-being—immersion, relationships, and achievement—did not have a positive effect on intentions to continue behavior.
Fifth, leisure satisfaction was found to have a significant positive effect on intentions to continue behavior.
Sixth, the unique experiential nature of wellness gastronomy tourism was found to have a positive effect on the intention to continue behavior, but local tradition and natural healing were not found to have a significant effect on the intention to continue behavior.
Lastly, according to the results of a multi-group analysis conducted to verify the moderating effect of gastronomy involvement on the relationship between the perception of authenticity of wellness gastronomy tourism and psychological well-being, leisure satisfaction, and continuation behavior intention, the perception of authenticity of wellness gastronomy tourism according to gastronomy involvement was found to moderate the relationship between psychological well-being, leisure satisfaction, and continuation behavior intention, confirming the existence of moderating differences between groups.
In summary, the results of this study confirmed that the authenticity of wellness gastronomy tourism, such as local tradition, natural healing, and original experience, influences positive emotions, immersion, relationships, meaning, achievement, leisure satisfaction, and continuous behavior intention of psychological well-being through multidimensional paths. In addition, it was revealed that the path of influence on the authenticity factors of wellness gastronomy tourism and psychological well-being, leisure satisfaction, and continuous behavior intention differs according to gastronomy involvement.
These results demonstrate that wellness gastronomy tourism is a complex tourism experience where psychological emotions and behavioral pathways vary depending on the participant's level of gastronomy involvement.
Therefore, this study is significant in that it suggests the need for unique experience design that considers the level of participants in wellness gastronomy tourism and provides emotional immersion and meaning rather than simple sensory stimulation. It also provides basic data for sustainable product planning and operation to those in the wellness gastronomy tourism industry.