Culinary Influence on Bengaluru as a Tourism Destination

Abstract

Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, attracts tourists from far and wide every day of the year. The city is home to people of various cultures and nationalities, and is amongst the fastest growing cities of the world. Bengaluru has a huge potential with regard to tourism and this hence forms the area of study for this study. In relation to the tourism component, the author establishes a connection with the culinary offerings of the city. The city boasts of busting restaurants and streets filled with local vendors offering the authentic dishes of the lands cuisine. This article aims to study the food habits and preferences of inward tourists in order to estimate the impact of culinary aspects of the city on its tourism. The study was carried out by surveying the visitors of Bengaluru, who sought out to identify their food values and perceptions. This was done in relevance to potential scope for tourism opportunities for the city. The article thus holds scope for further research on the potential of culinary tourism in Bengaluru. The study was undertaken by surveying 246 visitors by administering a questionnaire that was aimed at acquiring their opinions on the culinary aspects of the city. The study is built based on their responses which were statistically analysed using reliability, association, variance and regression tests. The research results helped conclude that the aspects of culinary and gastronomy of a tourist destination do play an important role in the tourism experience. This study holds future scope for culinary tourism as a specific market segment for destinations that show the importance of culinary aspects. This study thus fills in the gap between studies that determine the factors that affect tourism experience and studies that explain culinary tourism.