Plant-based diets and destination image: A holistic approach

A growing number of individuals in contemporary society follow a plant-based diet due to discourse and debates around the environmental impacts, the treatment of animals and health-related issues associated with animal agriculture. At the same time, food is regarded as a gateway to experience authentic elements of local cultures, traditions and heritage. This raises questions about the influence that plant-based diets that strictly exclude all forms of produce derived from animals exerts on the tourist’s destination image development process. Current studies on destination image argue that these images can be framed from the cognitive (knowledge), affective (emotional) and conative (behavioural) perspectives. Hence, this research aims to understand how following a plant-based diet for environmental, ethical and health reasons influences tourists’ destination images from the cognitive, affective and conative dimensions. To this end, a qualitative social constructivist approach was adopted and 20 semi-structured interviews with tourists who follow strict plant-based diets were conducted using a combination of a simple random sample and a snowball sampling approach. Findings indicate that these diets stimulate destination images of social belonging (affective), images off-the-beaten-track (conative), images of cosmopolitanism (cognitive) and images of emotional solidarity (conative) rooted in these tourists’ personal normative beliefs.