The roles of social media and mutual relationships between travel attitudes and brand equity

Purpose The purpose of this study has to conduct an integrated effective evaluation system to discover consumers' travel attitudes of the culinary experiences or cuisines and establishing an optimal mutual relationship of a brand equity evaluation model. Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of 624 participants, the results support that social media engagement has indirect effects on culinary brand equity development through travel attitudes and information sharing. Findings The study finds that values are expressed as foundational attributes that have indirect effects on brand equity through hedonic function, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand image. In contrast, the social interaction mechanism strengthens subdimensional relationships. These findings extend the customer brand equity literature and the nature of tourists' perspectives in the context of Taiwan's culinary destination brand equity. Practical implications It is a suggestion for tourism and hospitality managers to identify the different characteristics of attitudes towards visits and the customers' desert of participation in food-related activities when it derives to the classifications of food and culinary tourism. Originality/value The current study extended the findings and asserted that social interaction leads to and strengthens the relationships between memorable culinary hedonic experiences and perceived quality and improves tourists' positive awareness and image compared to other tourism experiences.