Does food besides tourism core products contribute to Sabah destination image? - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 485

a destination. On the connection of foods and
tourism, Long (2004) used the term culinary tour-
ism to express the idea of experiencing food and
beverage at particular country. According to Wolf
(2002) foods at the particular country encouraged
the pursuit of travel in the quest for the enjoyment
of prepared food, drinks and other related food
activities that resulting in a great memorable gour-
met experience. These experiences have the power
to modify eating and drinking habits and tastes as
well as imbue the tourists' experiences of the peo-
ple of the new locations and countries being visited
(Johns & Kivelä, 2001).
Kivelä and Crotts (2006) contended seasoned
tourists attached a great value to the local food
experience of the countries that being visited.
Some travel organizations, in fact regularly offer
gourmet or culinary holidays with Italy and France
as top destinations as well some countries in Asia.
Holiday with cooking feature regularly offers in
destinations like Tuscany, Provence in Europe,
Melbourne and the Sydney Napa Valley in Aus-
tralia and the Sonoma Valley in California. These
places now become premier food tourism destina-
tions (Kivelä & Crotts, 2006).
Kivelä and Chu (Kivelä & Chu, 2001) posited
that tourists not only dine out in search of new
tastes in the choice of food and beverages, but at
the same time are on the lookout for new local
food experiences when visiting a country. Intrepid
Travel Agency reported that tourism and holiday
operators from Australia, the United States, much
of Europe and Asian countries like China, India,
Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan now offer
foods tour packages which combine shopping with
side-trips to sample the local foods that are avail-
able. Scarpato (2002) noted that local food can
add value to the traditional tourism experience;
especially for those who yearn for more and are
constantly searching for new products and experi-
ences. He further contended that local foods have
created demand for short and/or weekend holidays
that comprise this lifestyle pursuit.

et al. (2002) who developed a comprehensive theo-
retical framework, defining image in terms of its
four features: 1) complexity (it is not unequivocal),
underlining an analytical dimension 2) multiplicity
(in elements and processes), providing an action
dimension 3) relativistic (subjective and generally
comparative) translating destination image as a
strategic tool and 4) dynamic (varying with time
and space), allowing for tactical decisions based on
destination image.
Interestingly, Dann (1996) suggests that destina-
tion image is made up of two distinct but hierar-
chically interrelated components: 1) cognitive and
2) evaluative. The cognitive component is viewed
as the sum of beliefs and attitudes of an object,
leading to some internally accepted picture of its
attributes (external forces, pull attributes). On the
other hand, the affective component of image
is related to motives in the sense that it is how a
person feels about the object under consideration
(internal forces, push attributes). Emanating from
a review of the existing literature, Beerli and Mar-
tin (Beerli & Martin, 2004) classified all attributes
influencing image assessments into nine dimen-
sions: 1) natural resources, 2) tourist leisure and
recreation, 3) natural and marine environment, 4)
general infrastructure, 5) culture, history and art,
6) social environment, 7) tourist infrastructure, 8)
political and economic factors and 9) atmosphere
of the place.

3 TOURISM CORE PRODUCTS, FOOD

AND SABAH DESTINATION IMAGE

Sabah is one of the states in Malaysia which aggres-
sively promoting its tourism sector. The diversity of
landscapes comprising of marine, natural resources
and culture attraction is making Sabah as a one of
the important tourism spots in the region (Kha-
led, Sebastian & Elmar, 2013). Not to exaggerate
that having a vast of interesting tourism products
has increased Sabah as a destination among the
local and international tourists. This is supported
by positive growth of tourist receipts both from
domestic and international from 2,300,428 in 2008
to 2,875,761 in 2012 and the figure is expected
to continually flourish (Sabah Tourism Report,
2012).
Som, Marzuki, Yousefi and Abu Khalifeh
(2012) contended a mixture of various resources
and attraction like natural landscapes, uniqueness
of diverse cultures, beautiful beaches, untouched
flora and fauna not only provide Sabah as a relax-
ation, peaceful and recreational place but increase
its tourism destination. Page and Connel (2006)
explicitly noted that in order to attract more tour-
ists, tourism destination should combine tourism

2.3 Destination image
Despite the wide use in the empirical context, des-
tination image does not have a solid conceptual
structure and as such, its definition is still rather
loose. This assertion is found in Gallarza, Gil and
Garc ´ a (2002) who lament that there are almost as
many definitions of image as scholars devoted to
its conceptualization. For instance, tourism images
are defined as an individual's overall perception or
total set of impressions of a place or as the mental
portrayal of a destination.
The concept of destination image can be better
understood by looking at a proposition by Gallarza