EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF LOCAL FOOD CONSUMPTION VALUES AND TOURIST-LOCAL INTERACTIONS ON REVISIT INTENTION IN MALAYSIA'S CULINARY TOURISM – A CONCEPTUAL PAPER (MENEROKA KESAN NILAI PENGGUNAAN MAKANAN TEMPATAN DAN INTERAKSI PELANCONG-TEMPATAN TERHADAP NIAT

Abstract

Culinary tourism has become a key pillar of Malaysia's tourism sector, attracting
international tourists seeking culturally immersive experiences through local food.
Despite its growing significance, there is limited research on how Local Food
Consumption (LFC) values—including authenticity, cultural significance, quality, and
sensory experience—integrated with tourist-local interactions, shape tourists' revisit
intentions. This paper addresses this research gap by proposing a conceptual
framework that incorporates LFC values into the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB),
Quality-Satisfaction-Behavior (QSB) Theory, and Theory of Consumption Value
(TCV), with tourist satisfaction acting as a mediating variable. Although no empirical
data has been collected, the framework is grounded in an extensive literature review
and theoretical synthesis. The proposed research design involves a quantitative
approach, using structured questionnaires to gather data from international tourists.
Findings are expected to offer practical recommendations for tourism stakeholders in
Malaysia, such as promoting authentic food experiences and fostering tourist-local
interactions to improve tourist satisfaction and encourage repeat visits. Future
research should empirically test this framework and explore additional variables, such
as accommodation quality and destination image, that may influence revisit intention.

Keywords: Culinary Tourism, Local Food Consumption Values, Tourist-Local
Interactions, Revisit Intention, Tourist Satisfaction, Authenticity, Cultural Immersion,
Food Quality, Malaysia Tourism, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)