ALBERT

Description: Online shopping has tremendous growth nowadays. Concerns about whether people perceive food souvenirs as commercial goods or products with local connections arise when shopping online for those souvenirs. Another concern is whether people remain interested in knowing or visiting places where food souvenirs originate even if they can simply purchase food souvenirs online. These issues are important for the sustainable development of local tourism. This study aims to investigate consumers’ motivations for purchasing food souvenirs online and whether differences exist between segmented consumers in relation to their travel-related intentions. Participants of this work are individuals who have purchased food souvenirs online and are aged 18 years old or above. Social media applications, such as Facebook and Line, were utilized as the platforms for the questionnaire survey. Participants’ motivations for purchasing food souvenirs online included five factors: exploring trends, local affiliations, social interactions, frugal sampling, and enforcing relationships. According to their motivations, participants were segmented into four types of consumers, including pleasure reminiscers (47.0%), journey recallers (22.9%), economical tasters (17.4%), and social practicers (12.7%). Pleasure reminiscers have stronger intentions toward searching for information on, traveling to, and recommending the places where food souvenirs originate compared with the other three types of consumers. On the basis of the findings, suggestions for the design and marketing of food souvenirs are provided for the producers of food souvenirs and promoters of local tourism.