生活型態逐漸精緻，電視平面媒體的美食熱潮均使美食觀光成為近年來熱門的現象。美食觀光(food tourism, culinary tourism, or gastronomy tourism)泛指品嚐美食為觀光主要動機之一的旅遊型態。而消費者對食物的品味以及接受程度受到許多因素影響(文化背景、習慣食材烹調方法、觀光地區食材、衛生環境等)，例如在台灣廣受歡迎的豬血糕受到英國旅遊網站「VirtualTourist.com」評選全球十大最怪食物榜首(蘋果日報,2009)，足以見得在某文化的美食可能為另一文化的怪食，因此觀光客抵達陌生國度時對當地食物的接受程度及正負面認知反應仍待研究發掘。本研究主要目的在探討觀光客對台灣美食的意象認知，觀光文獻對美食意象(food image)的量化研究多採用 "destination image"的量表，因此本研究期望能發展出台灣美食量表(Taiwanese Food Image Scale)，並使用此量表了解不同文化背景的觀光客對台灣美食的意象認知，以及台灣每實在觀光客心中的“重要-表現”程度，以做為觀光發展單位推廣美食觀光之參考。本研究首先以隱喻誘引法(Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, ZMET)發掘外國消費者對台灣美食的印象，藉由聯想圖片誘引出消費者對台灣美食的深層意念，並將此意念整合發展出台灣美食意象量表。在確認量表內容結構之後，本研究擬以此量表進行問卷蒐集，以來台的主要觀光客為主(日本、中國、歐美國家)，了解其對台灣美食意象認知，並此認知是否會受到文化之影響而有差異。此研究並進一步探討台灣美食在觀光客認知中的importance-performance，做為日後台灣觀光產業定位、包裝台灣美食及推廣美食觀光之重要參考。 Food tourism has emerging as one of the most significant tourism segments and has gained much research attention in the last decade. The purposes of this study are to find out visitors’perceptions toward Taiwanese food, and how culture influence on this perception. To achieve this goal, this study uses ZMET, a technique that using pictures to elicit thoughts and subconscious meanings of a giving topic, to identify visitors’impressions with Taiwanese food. The information gather from ZMET can be used to develop a Taiwanese Food Image Scale. The availability of this scale can help the future researchers interested in conducting food image study in particular, and food tourism study in general. In addition, the availability of this scale can help the regions to understand their own food images among visitors, and develop proper strategies promoting their foods and delicacies. Food tourism marketers can also benefit from this scale by comparing their own region’s food images with those of the competitive destinations’, and therefore develop marketing strategies accordingly.
