Gastronomy tourism destinations: developing a scale to measure tourists’ perceived attributes

Purpose This study emphasizes the growing significance of destination attributes in shaping the experiences and behaviours of gastronomy and culinary tourists. Understanding both core and complementary attributes of a gastronomy tourism destination is crucial for its sustainable development. However, there is a lack of a reliable measurement for tourists’ perceived attributes of gastronomy tourism destinations (PAGTD). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a scale to measure tourists’ PAGTD. Design/methodology/approach The study systematically followed the scale development and validation process, using three samples (Sample 1, n = 200; Sample 2, n = 204; and Sample 3, n = 204) to establish the psychometric properties of the proposed PAGTD scale. Findings The validated scale comprises five dimensions, namely, food culture, food sensations, food cooking, service environment, and food price & quality, encompassing a total of 22 measurement items. Originality/value This research significantly contributes to the gastronomy tourism literature by elucidating the dimensionality of PAGTD and validating the PAGTD scale.