Understanding domestic tourists’ local food purchases: A cultural heritage approach via self-image congruence and planned behavior theories

This study asks why some domestic tourists move from interest in local food to buying it, while others stop short. Local cuisine is treated here as intangible cultural heritage rather than a routine travel purchase, which shifts the question toward identity. Drawing on Self-Image Congruence Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, the analysis examines how the fit between a tourist’s self-image and the cultural meaning of local food shapes the path to purchase. Data were collected from 512 domestic tourists in Türkiye and tested through structural equation modeling in AMOS, with preliminary analyses in SPSS. The results indicate that self-image congruence significantly influences tourists’ attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and purchasing behavior. Additionally, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control positively affect purchase intention, which in turn significantly predicts actual purchasing behavior. The contribution lies in bringing heritage value into a behavioral model usually built around utility or pleasure. Once local food is read as cultural inheritance, the link between self-image and that inheritance becomes a working mechanism rather than a background sentiment. The findings are useful for destination managers and policymakers who treat local cuisine as a cultural asset, and they point toward identity-based communication rather than generic culinary promotion.