Tourist Buying Intentions Towards Local Food: Analysing the Moderating Impact of Food Neophobia

Local food buying is an important phenomenon in tourist activity. This paper aims to analyse tourists' intentions to buy local food by investigating the moderating effect of food neophobia (FN) on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A survey of 266 tourists was used to collect data. The findings reveal that subjective norm (SN), attitude (ATT), and perceived behaviour control (PBC) have a positive and significant influence on tourists' buying intention for local food, where both subjective norm and attitude are moderated by food neophobia on their relationship with buying intentions. The current research is not only the first attempt to comprehensively analyse tourist buying behaviour towards local food in Uttarakhand, India. But also provides valuable information for the food industry, which would enable entrepreneurs or decision-makers to accurately analyse the buying intent (BI) for locally produced food.