A Flash of Culinary Tourism: Understanding The Influences of Online Food Photography on People's Travel Planning Process on Flickr

Abstract

This article presents the results of an exploratory study in the online image-sharing community Flickr. The purpose of this study was to profile the users who are fond of online food photography as well as to explore the role of online food photography in their traveling planning process. Grounded in “uses and gratification theory,” a mixed method was adopted for this research. Content analysis was employed to understand members' general motivation to participate in different online food photography activities. A series of chi-square and independent-sample t tests was conducted to determine if significant differences existed between active members and not-as-active members. Results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses supported each other. The findings indicated that factors of entertainment, personal identity, and social interaction were the main drivers of participation in online food photography activities. It was further revealed that participants' tourism experiences were recorded as personal photography but shared socially through the use of social media. For active members, food images influenced them in terms of novelty and providing information. Active members also appeared to be more likely to seek out new places to travel for new food experiences, and food photography had a greater influence on where they consider traveling. On the basis of the results, implications for culinary tourism promotion and destination marketing were discussed.