The role of gastronomy image in the effect of brand awareness and perceived service quality on willingness to pay more in restaurants

Tourists who want to get away from the effects of globalization and have local experiences have started to turn to local experiences in eating and drinking practices, which are a part of daily life, while getting to know the local culture in the regions they visit. These changes have made destinations stand out with their food cultures and some destinations have even started to be visited only for their food culture. Since gastronomy tourism, which emerged as a result of these developments, plays a major role in the development and advancement of destinations, it has become necessary to conduct academic studies on this type of tourism. In this way, it will be possible to reveal how to better promote the gastronomic elements of destinations, to identify the failing aspects, to create a prediction about the areas that need to be developed, and to guide other destinations in the right steps. In this study, the role of gastronomy image based on culinary culture in the effect of brand awareness and perceived service quality on willingness to pay more in restaurants was investigated. Gaziantep province, which is known for its advanced food culture and gastronomy tourism, was selected as the application area of the study. An application was conducted between December 2021 and May 2022 on tourists who visited restaurants in Gaziantep province and who visited restaurants ranked in the top 10 on the Trip Advisor travel site. In order to analyze the data obtained from 441 valid surveys, the use of structural equation modeling called partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was preferred. SPSS for determining frequencies in the research; SmartPLS software was used for PLS-SEM analysis. According to the findings of the research, brand awareness has a positive and significant effect on the gastronomy image; it has been observed that perceived service quality has a positive and significant effect on the gastronomy image, and perceived service quality has a positive and significant effect on willingness to pay more. On the other hand, the effect of brand awareness and gastronomy image on willingness to pay more is not significant. Finally, in the study where mediation effects were investigated, it was revealed that gastronomy image did not have a mediating effect on the relationship between brand awareness and willingness to pay more, and similarly, gastronomy image did not have a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived service quality and willingness to pay more.