Master's thesis tourism and Local Food and Beverages

2.3.4 Food neophobic and neophilic tendencies 
In the promotional tourism literature, the presentation of food as a huge attraction to the 
prospective destination is aimed at: the fresh, succulent seafood in seaside resorts, the 
peculiar ethnic cuisines of exotic peoples, the renowned restaurants in luxurious hotels, on 
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Chapter 2. Literature Review 
cruise liners and in world metropolises. No doubt, strangeness and familiarity are general 
categories of interpretation of the world and thus as Cohen & Avieli (2004) believe whole 
countries or individual cities are promoted for their unique culinary attractions. They also 
hold the view that, in the sociology of food, the dimension of familiarity and strangeness 
implicitly underlies Fischler
‟s (198
8) distinction between the "neophobic" and "neophilic" 
tendencies in taste. 
According to Pliner &Hobden (1992) as cited in Kim et al .( 2009), food neophobia is „the 
reluctance to eat and/or avoidance of novel fo
ods‟
which is in turn a personal human 
characteristic that affects every day human food choices. Cohen &Avieli (2004) believe that 
the fear of experiencing new food might pose some problems for a number of tourists and 
finally prevent them from tasting the novel food offered them. The influence of food 
neophobia is so great that, according to Cohen &Avieli( 2004) it has come to be considered 
as one of the obstacles in the way of tourist
‟s 
experience of local cuisines and thus food 
neophobia affects the food tourism experience in a negative way as Mitchell &Hall ( 2003) 
claim. 
Conversely, according to Pliner & Hobden, 1992 the neophilics are generally capable of 
discriminating food items in their food evaluation and hedonic ratings and thus they are more 
likely to search for new food in the hope of experiencing new sensation and pleasure. This 
statement is in line with Cohen &Avieli
‟s
point of view, (2004) that neophobic tourists tend 
to avoid exotic and new foods while their neophilic counterparts are eager to taste different 
and strange foods. These two tendencies, though traceable in different individuals are to some 
extent encouraged by the culture to which the individual belongs, since some cultures have 
more neophilic tendencies than others. According to Chang et al, (2010) even the act of 
eating which is involved in actual bodily contact with the unfamiliar destination environment 
of the tourist, affects the neophobic tendencies of the tourists. On the other hand for the 
neophilic tourists, the trip itself may act as a motivational factor for encouraging them to take 
their chances with novel and strange dishes and beverages.