Master's thesis tourism and Local Food and Beverages

What are the prestige-related factors influencing the consumption of local food 
and beverages in the North of Iran as a tourism destination? 
The questions 10 in the questionnaire Indicates and approves a relationship between food 
consumption and prestige-related factors. Prestige doesn't play an effective role in choosing 
local food, because the average is lower than the theoretical means. Previous studies eg. Kim 
et al. 2009 show that there is a strong linkage between prestige and local food consumption. 
Yet the findings of this research have revealed a different attitude between domestic tourists. 
To them having local food doesn't have an effect on their prestige, that is local food is not so 
prestigious from their point of view. 
As finding of question No.6: 
o 
What are the demographic factors influencing the consumption of local food and 
beverages in the North of Iran as a tourism destination? 
Based on the demographic factors such as gender, age, education, marital status of the 
sample, since the domestic tourists were mostly young and the frequency of age among them 
was about 30 years old, and also because most of the population of Iran is youth, food 
tourism has a great potential to grow and be worked on. The young generation is risk taking 
and young people tend to test new foods, therefore, it is proposed that restaurant managers 
pay more attention to innovation, novelty in the menu and creativity in the recipes will attract 
more customers to the local restaurants. The findings of this research show that the highest 
frequency belongs to the tourists with higher education. Consuming local food increases the 
cultural capital and that's why it is important for the tourists with higher education. 
85 

---

Chapter 5. Conclusion and Recommendations