The role of positive emotion and responsible tourist behavior in the relationship between tourists' destination social responsibility perceptions and local food consumption intentions

Consumption of local foods can contribute to the destination economically, socio-culturally and environmentally. In this respect, it is necessary to understand the factors affecting local food consumption intentions. There are very few studies in the literature that examine local food consumption intentions from the perspective of destination interests. In this thesis, in order to overcome this deficiency, the relationships between destination social responsibility perception, positive emotion, responsible tourist behavior and local food consumption intentions were examined in order to understand the local food consumption intentions of foreign tourists. In this context, data obtained from 353 foreign tourists visiting the Cappadocia region were used for analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research model developed within the scope of the study. According to the findings, while the environmental, social and economic activities of destination social responsibility positively affect responsible tourist behavior, positive emotion is positively affected by the social and environmental activities of destination social responsibility. In addition, positive emotion was found to positively affect responsible tourist behavior. Responsible tourist behavior was also found to positively affect the intention to consume local food. In addition, according to the mediation model, responsible tourist behavior fully mediated the relationship between each dimension of destination social responsibility activities and the intention to consume local food, while positive emotions partially mediated the relationship between destination social responsibility activities and responsible tourist behavior in terms of two dimensions (environmental and social).