미식 관광의 자아 이미지 일치성과 관광 만족 및 프리미엄 지불의사의 구조적 관계 - 미식 관여도의 조절효과 -

Abstract

Gastronomic tourism has recently gained recognition as a high value-added form of tourism that combines local culture with multisensory experiences. There is a growing body of theoretical and practical interest in understanding how gastronomic experiences aligned with consumers’ self-image influence their tourism behaviors. In particular, it is increasingly important to examine how the congruence between tourists’ psychological identity and their travel experiences affects tourist satisfaction and willingness to pay, while empirical studies on the moderating role of gastronomic involvement remain limited This study investigates the effects of self-image congruence (actual and ideal) on tourist satisfaction and willingness to pay a premium in the context of gastronomic tourism, and further examines the moderating effect of gastronomic involvement on these relationships. To this end, a self-administered online survey was conducted with 512 Korean adults who had experienced gastronomic tourism within the past year. To ensure respondent eligibility, a brief definition and visual examples of gastronomic tourism were provided prior to the survey. After excluding invalid responses and outliers, 497 valid cases were used for the final analysis. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis, including moderation analysis based on Hayes’ PROCESS macro Model 8. The results revealed that both actual and ideal self-image congruence significantly influenced tourist satisfaction and willingness to pay. Furthermore, gastronomic involvement significantly moderated the relationship between ideal self-image congruence and willingness to pay. This study proposes an integrated analytical framework based on self-congruity and expectation-disconfirmation theories and provides strategic implications for premium marketing and personalized gastronomic tourism design.