Gastronomic festivals: attitude, motivation and satisfaction of the tourist

Purpose The purpose of this paper is the segmentation of the tourists who visit a gastronomic festival in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, in accordance with their perceptions with respect to gastronomy. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this objective, the methodology used in this research has been the application of a multivariate technique of grouping items and the realisation of a post hoc single variate ANOVA analysis. Findings The principal conclusions resulting from this research are focussed on the segmentation of the tourists in three different groups and how the travellers’ interest in gastronomy leads to greater satisfaction with the destination. Practical implications The main practical implications are centred on better understanding of the key factors of how gastronomy can reinforce a tourist destination and produce greater satisfaction for the traveller. Originality/value Gastronomy is used as a source of inspiration in tourist destinations. This research reinforces this theme, taking on the study of a gastronomic festival in an important business destination, such as the city of Guayaquil, in a geographic area, Latin America, characterised by a recognised gastronomy but still little studied in the scientific literature.